Intensive research has been directed atMgB2 since its discovery in 2001, focusing first on the material properties and conductor developmentand recently also on coil demonstrations. The relatively cheap and easy fabrication makesMgB2 a tempting material for superconducting applications. It can also be operatedin the vicinity of 20 K, at which the commercial LTS materials are still inthe normal state. However, commercial breakthrough requires practicalapplications and demonstrations. Therefore, we built a solenoidal react-and-windMgB2 coil consisting of 46 m of commercially availableMgB2 /Ni/Fe/Cu tape manufactured by Columbus Superconductors. We testedthe coil in a cryogen-free environment and measured the effect of repeatedcooldowns and current ramp rate on the coil critical current. Also, temperaturehomogeneity in the winding was studied. Based on the test results we point outfeatures which should be checked when cryogen-free magnet systems are designedor their performance is discussed. For example, the coil critical current andn value can depend notably on the current ramp rate.