Review on ARB 10802602 Portable Fridge Freezer Model ZERO 63QT: Bluetooth Controlled, Ideal for Camping, Car, Boat, Truck, SUV, RV by Michael Wiley

We bought an ARB Fridge Freezer for our motor home. The ARB line had a better reputation and price than Dometic. Came with a broken plastic corner. I'm assuming this happened during assembly with a screw that was overtightened. I have not contacted the seller or the manufacturer but after reading the reviews it seems to be quite common and trying to replace it is problematic. The bluetooth connection for the phone is a big plus. You need to scan the sticker to download and install an app that allows you to adjust and control the temperature inside the device. It worked just minutes out of the box. I checked the temperature with a remote temperature probe and the temperature at the bottom of the fridge and freezer was very close to the temperature shown on the fridge display. I set the temperature to around 25°F and checked how long it would take to freeze a bottle of water in the freezer. It lasted over a night so I adjusted the temp to 15F and added another bottle. It still took a lot longer than I expected. There is no air movement in the compartments, so heat transfer from the bottom of the freezer to the food is less than in a home freezer. As a result, it takes a little longer for the food to freeze. If you put frozen food in the freezer you can expect it to stay frozen, but if you use fresh ground beef or bottled water it will take a long time to reach a solid freezing temperature. The fridge works great keeping salads, drinks and other fresh foods fresh and cold. This block is big! It takes up a lot of space in the van and you have to take that into account. We probably would have gone for the smaller solution if we had the option to fit it into the van prior to purchase. We'll have to settle for that since we've already paid the price. ARB has a metal splint that can help, but it costs over $470! and requires an additional $36 for straps to make it work! If you buy the slide and strap you get this for over $2000 for a very small fridge/freezer! That's about double the cost of a good 25 side by side Lowes! The slider moves on the wrong axis (long axis, not short axis) for our use, so it would be useless for our setup. Whichever way you look at it, keeping food cool in a van is expensive and expensive in terms of money and space. A few words about efficiency. The documentation says it draws about 3 amps with the compressor running, which should be about 36 watts at 12 volts, but my battery monitor reads about 47 watts, or about 4 amps, with the compressor running and running for a while to keep frozen food going. frozen. A 100 Ah battery is exhausted after 24 hours of compressor operation. The hotter the ambient air, the more the compressor has to run and the shorter the battery life. On the plus side, it's dual powered, meaning it can use either 12V DC or 110V AC. So if you have one at home it can use your home electricity, or on the go it can use your 12 volt battery. In a motorhome it can use both, so it will work on the road from 12v and back to 110 if you plug it into shore power. everything without doing anything. So far we're happy with the exception of the size and still feel the price tag, but ARB isn't to blame either.