USB Heated Lunch Box – Portable Electric Food Warmer for Car & Office, 2 Stainless Steel Bowls

A USB lunch warmer that keeps a packed lunch warm at your desk or in the car

This is a small oval lunch box with a low-power heating plate in its base and two removable stainless steel bowls inside. Plug its USB-C cable into a laptop, a power bank or a car's USB socket, press the one button, and over an hour or two it brings the food in the bowls to warm. It is for people who want a packed lunch that is pleasant to eat without queuing for the office microwave, or who eat in the cab between stops. It is a warmer, not a cooker.

What it does, and what it does not do

• It warms food; it does not make it hot. The heater is 12 watts, about the power of a phone charger, and the maker rates it to a maximum of about 113 F (45 C) inside the bowls. That is warm to eat, not steaming. It will not reheat cold leftovers the way a microwave does, and it will not cook anything.
• Give it time. The maker's figure is one to two hours to reach that temperature from food at room temperature. Food straight from a fridge takes longer. Plug it in when you sit down at your desk and it is ready by lunch.
• Any USB socket runs it. The box has a USB-C socket and ships with a USB-A to USB-C cable. A laptop port, a wall USB adapter, a power bank or the USB socket in a car or truck all work, as long as the socket can supply 2 amps at 5 volts. A weak socket (an older laptop port, for example) will warm it more slowly.
• There is no battery inside. It only heats while it is plugged in. Unplug it and the insulated body holds some warmth for a while, but it does not keep heating.
• Two bowls, not one tray. Each round 304 stainless steel bowl is about 4.5 in across and 2.1 in deep, and each has its own clear snap-on lid with a small vent plug. Together they hold about 0.8 L (27 oz), which is a normal single lunch: rice or pasta in one, the main in the other.

Size

For scale: it is about the length of a dinner knife and about as tall as a coffee mug is wide. It fits a backpack or a tote, and it sits on a car armrest.

The specification, as the maker states it

Good to know

• Pack cooked food. Fill the bowls with food that is already cooked, snap the bowl lids on, seat the bowls in the box and latch the outer lid. The heater warms the bowls from underneath.
• Carry it upright. The outer lid has a small steam vent. Tipped on its side or upside down, liquid can find its way out through it, so keep it flat in the bag and do not treat it as spill-proof.
• Wash the bowls and lids, wipe the box. The stainless bowls and their lids go in the sink. The box itself contains the heating plate and the electronics and must not be immersed or run under a tap; wipe it with a damp cloth.
• Do not add water to the base. Unlike steam-type lunch boxes, this one heats dry. Water in the base can short the heater.
• Not a toy, and not a microwave replacement. This is for keeping a packed lunch warm. If you need food piping hot from cold, you need a mains or 12 V unit of much higher wattage.

In the box

• One USB heated lunch box (pink or green as chosen)
• Two 304 stainless steel bowls with two clear sealing lids
• One USB-A to USB-C cable
• A fork, spoon and chopsticks set in a zip pouch, as listed by our supplier