FRIO Extra Large Insulin Cooling Wallet - Keep Medication Cool for 45+ Hours Insulin Bag - Perfect for Travel and Everyday Use

I recently had two cross country trips where I needed to bring my migraine injectables that would not fit in to the various coolers made for insulin. I wasn't quite sure what I would do - other than try to get my meds locally - when I saw this item online. It looks a little hokey but works well. It took about 15 min of submerging in cool water to activate the crystals and cool the wallet. It easily fit three (capped) syringes. The kit comes with an inner envelope for your meds and an outer envelop as an extra wrapper. The outer wallet gets a little damp, but not enough to make things around it wet. I only needed the wallet to keep things cold for a few days, but it easily could have kept them cold for up to two weeks! Instructions say not to seal the cold pack in anything air tight (like a plastic bag), I don't know if this would include storing it in checked luggage (but who would leave their meds in checked luggage!?). I kept it in my carryon and TSA didn't flag it as suspicious (as they have for my mother's insulin cooler). The inner and outer envelops did take quite a while to completely dry out, but I didn't mind.

The cooling bag keeps my insulin at about 60 degrees F which is fine for travel.I have the smaller version for single pens and the bigger bag works exactly the same way.

There were several things that I found that I did not like about the product. I purchased this product based on other parent's recommendation and knew nothing about it prior to purchase. I followed the instructions to a T, as I was using if for my son's insulin. First, I didn't realize that the product had to steps to be done in order for it to be prepared, I seriously thought it went in the freezer. This doesn't appeal to me, to make me want to use it on a more regular basis. Sorry, but there are times I make last minute plans and this product isn't ready quickly. Next, to me, even with the external cover, the bag still felt damp/moist, so I ended up placing it in a plastic bag so it wouldn't make other things wet. Also, I don't know if it is supposed to feel "cold" to the touch, but to me, it felt "cool" at best, not cold. This made me nervous to how well it would withstand the heat, as we were using it for an outdoor school field trip. Finally, I didn't realize how long this product took to dry out, talk about it being highly inconvenient. I looked on the website to verify, a total of 2-4 weeks! Mine was about 3 weeks. Where am I supposed to keep this while it dries?! It sat on my kitchen table the whole time while I consistently rotated it and patted it dry. Now it feels hard as a rock, not sure if that's normal either. For me, this product isn't convenient in the very least. I want something that is readily available, that can quickly and easily be packed and that I don't have to do so much in order to use it.

Did not keep my insulin cold. Followed the directions. My vacation was 6 days after the return window closed so I can’t return it.

Bought for my sister but she already had one, returned but she said it worked great

The directions were easy to follow. I was on a warm bus for 20 hours. When I got to my destination the insulin was still cool. Good value for the the money in my opinion.

Great for insulin protection on a long flight or road trip. No battery or power cord required. Just re-soak the inner pouch in water for a few minutes every other day.

I ordered this product to avoid using frozen water bags to refrigerate medical supplies and other items on travels. This keeps the items cold (sometimes too cold, danger of freezing!) for a while but then the cooling effect disappears quickly with the frozen bags after 6-8 hours.The FRIO bag works differently: the solid gel inside is activated by putting the bag into water, this forms a flexible amorphous gel. The cooling effect is simply achieved by slow evaporation of water inside and outside through the gel bag's cover. This is why I purposely didn't choose to say in the subject headline "cooling bag" but more thermo-insulated bag. The bag doesn't get colder than the water temperature in which you soak it in first. I recommend to cool this water inside a bowl or can with some ice or frozen bag and then soaking the FRIO bag in it. When taking the bag out of the water, it needs to be dried first with a towel from residual water. I found it nearly impossible to fully dry the inside of the FRIO bag - it doesn't even make sense to try since continuous evaporation of water always keeps the inside of the bag moist. I suggest to use inside of the FRIO bag an additional plastic bag with the items to be cooled, otherwise the items will get moist or wet over time.The FRIO bag maintains at least room temperature (or colder in the beginning of the cooling depending what was the original water temperature) for > 48 hours. Normally this is all you need to transport critical medicine for example. The FRIO gel bag fits into a thin cover bag which avoids that the moisture from the gel bag passes through too easily. This way no other surrounding item gets wet from the cooling bag.The wet gel bag can get heavy (depending on how long you soak it in water) and thick. Over time its volume reduces because the water in the gel evaporates which provides the desired cooling effect.Update on August, 2013: Used the bag now in summer nearly daily, and one issue became obvious: the gel is leaking out of some of the seams of the cooling bag. Bad machining. This is caused by the expansion of the gel when cooled with water, the holes of the seam expand, and gel particles leak out. I deducted one star of the rating due to this issue.