My father jokes that diabetes runs in the family because neither he nor his dad (and his dad) ever ran. After 35 years, he has obviously learned to live with it, keeping his sugar level in check with daily insulin shots and medicines. But the decades haven’t been kind to his health as diabetes affected one organ after another, making him take more and more medicines. One of the problems he (and many people I know) faces is keeping some of his medicines cool. There are power cuts from time to time, besides travelling is part of life and that’s where problems begin. These are exactly the people Godrej InsuliCool+ is trying to address.

The compartment inside Godrej InsuliCool+

The benefits of Godrej InsuliCool+ can easily be understood by a diabetic. It’s a machine that keeps insulin vials within a certain temperature range. At around 1.6kg, the box isn’t exactly light but the benefits far outweigh the weight! On opening the lid, you will find a rack for keeping extra insulin vials or even the ‘insulin pen’ when it’s not required.

The portable machine — it comes with a handy strap — keeps medicines between 2° and 8° Celsius. This is important for diabetics.

Tech chops

To get the machine started, you simply have to plug it in; there are no switches. On the front, there is a small screen to show the current temperature of the machine. It took 20-odd minutes to go from 29 to six degrees but once it reaches optimal temperature, you won’t have to worry.

The rack inside is well-designed and here you can store loose vials. If the vials don’t fit, you can remove the rack and store maybe a small box of insulin vials or even an insulin pen inside. My father has a few tablets that need to be kept at around six-eight degrees and the machine helps. But storage space is limited.

Let’s look at some of the benefits. The machine comes with a 20,000 mAh battery pack that offers power backup for four hours or enough to take a car trip during a weekend gateway. Enough wires and cables come in the box to help charge up anywhere, like using the car charging socket to charge the cooler.

You can read the temperature the machine is at on a small display

At the same time, there are a couple of drawbacks. Make sure you keep the battery pack charged because if there is a power cut at home, the machine would be able to keep things cool for a very short period of time. Second, the device requires you to use the charging cables that come in the box.

Care also needs to be taken to ensure optimum cooling when used with a power adapter — the maximum operating ambient temperature should be 43° degree Celsius and 70 degree relative humidity or 32° Celsius and 70 per cent relative humidity when used with external power bank/ car adapter.

Should you buy it?

If you live in an area where power cuts can last a couple of hours, this is obviously a handy solution. For those going on weekend trips often, can also look at Godrej InsuliCool+. For the diabetic, consider the price of Rs 8,499 an investment. In the city we may not experience power cuts all the time but in remote parts of the country, many old issues prevail.