Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Jose Strong photo
1 Level
1349 Review
32 Karma

Review on πŸš— AstroAI 12V Car Refrigerator Portable Freezer 16 Quart Fridge for Car, RV, Van, Vehicle - 15L Portable Freezer (-4℉~68℉) for Camping, Travel - 12/24V DC and 100/240V AC - Perfect Gift Choice for Great Portability and Versatility by Jose Strong

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Very quiet, cools quickly, good insulation and accurate thermostat

I love it. I've only tested it so far to see how my car battery lasts. It doesn't use a lot of power, but I'd probably still want to get a solar panel as I only use one battery in my 4Runner (80Ah AGM). She arrived quickly, but Revain left her at the end. The box has a black stripe that says Fragile, Keep Upright, but nothing on the sides of the box where you'd look for it. No big deal, I just let it stand upright for 6 hours before turning it on as instructed. It was set to Fahrenheit which is nice. According to the reviews, Alpicool C15 comes with a preset Celsius value and you need to enter the hidden settings to change it. So that's a plus compared to Alpicool. It looks like it's from Alpicool, but everything says AstroAI, including the box, and it was a few bucks cheaper. It's also a darker gray, which I like better. The temperature gauge seems pretty accurate, more than I expected. I installed a fridge thermostat and it seemed to be only 1-2 degrees off. This is a common complaint in Alpicool reviews, so I expected to have to tweak it in the hidden settings. So it was another pleasant surprise. The voltage displayed is low when the compressor is running, but close to idle. It could be a voltage drop due to the stock wiring to my SUV's rear fork. But the low battery cutoff seems to work properly with that voltage drop (10.1V is a mid-range cutoff). Don't worry if the display reads 11.x volts. Just compare this to the actual battery voltage with a multimeter so you know how different it is. Again, this could be my wiring, and I'll do some more testing with connections closer to the battery. The fridge appears to be sold and of good quality, especially for the price. The compressor is very quiet. I didn't hear any strange noises or knocks from the compressor. This is a fairly common problem that you hear when reading refrigerator reviews in general. So I hope I got a good one. It should have decent insulation as the sides didn't feel cold after 8 hours in 32 degrees. I haven't tried freezing yet. I started with tap water in a half gallon pitcher and metal container, and the plastic half gallon milk pitcher took a while to cool. But the fridge temp was pretty stable at 32 in less than half an hour. In Eco mode I saw them go up to 36 on the display and then go down again. I checked with an IR gun that all sides showed the same, and the air temp in the middle of the box was also 32 according to my fridge thermostat which I left inside. So it only takes time to freeze things when they are initially warm . I bet if I had had cold drinks to begin with and just added a few cans of warm soda they would have cooled faster. And 15 liters is a good volume for short trips. It's light and easy to carry, and I can fill it with drinks and let it cool so I don't need a huge, heavy fridge. I used to have a Dometic CF40 and it was too bulky for me. I will update this review if I run into any issues or have major updates. Looks like a good product at a great price.

Pros
  • Elegant design
Cons
  • Long delivery time