Alpicool TAW45 45L Car Fridge Freezer Portable Compressor
Alpicool TAW45 45L Car Fridge Freezer Portable Compressor Car Refrigerator 12/24V Electric Cooler for Camping, Road Trip, Picnic, Down to -20℃
Two Separate Door Lids
The refrigerator adopts a double-door design, which is more practical.
Cutting Board
The car fridge has a detachable cutting board. You can put it on the lid and use it to cut vegetables, fruits and other foods, which will make it easier to eat in the wild and add to the fun of your trip.
Two Cup Slot Design On The Surface
The car refrigerator uses an ingenious cup and slot design, which is not easy to pour when we place drinks such as cola.
Bottle Opener
This is undoubtedly a must-have tool for parties, this is a thoughtful design of the refrigerator, let it be your party partner.
Weight: | 19.2 kg |
Dimensions: | 71.1 x 46 x 50.6 cm; 19.19 Kilograms |
Brand: | Alpicool |
Colour: | Taw45 |
Batteries Required: | No |
Batteries Included: | No |
Manufacture: | Alpicool |
Dimensions: | 71.1 x 46 x 50.6 cm; 19.19 Kilograms |
Origin: | China |
Cools well and only clicks on for a very short time once at desired temp. Have -20 one side 4 degrees other and works a treat. Bigger in real life than expected but very pleased with it.
Tested this first of all at home, by plugging it into a fully charged Bluetti Power Station. Filled the cold side with beer and wanted to wait until the freezer side was cold enough before filling it with ice-cream.
Waited about 10 minutes or so and at first nothing appeared to be happening, both sides were still reading 17 degrees. Then all of a sudden the freezer side started counting down by one degree every 30 seconds to a minute until it reached -5 over the next 10-15 minutes. In the meantime the side full of warm cans of beer had only dropped a couple of degrees, but once the freezer side had ‘frozen’ to the right temperature, the beer side started cooling more rapidly.
I’m not sure if it was because there was no air to cool and it was struggling to cool the chamber that was already full, but I felt confident to use it when camping, plugging it in empty in the car and filling with already cold stuff it dropped from 18 degrees to 8 degrees before the car was fully loaded and was at 5 degrees by the time we reached the campsite about an hour later.
Not sure on the power usage as I didn’t bother checking the bluetti, but seems like my 220 watt solar panel can still charge the Bluetti while it’s powering this as was always at 100% each night when the sun went down and only seemed to lose around 10-15% overnight depending on how long it took to re-deploy the panel or what the ambient temperature was the night before.
I think I could probably power it for around 5 days & nights even if it was so rainy that we couldn’t deploy the solar panel.
It does have a really quiet fan noise, but barely noticeable during the day with birds singing and kids playing on site, unless you’re listening for it. Didn’t bother us at night either because it was far away from our inner tent bedroom and I don’t think it was as a active or had to work as hard at night once the temperature dropped…. The Bluetti on the other hand has a much louder fan that seemed to kick in every so often for 5-10 minutes which I did notice, but didn’t bother me.
Used this for a road trip to keep some items cool on the way to holland whilst running it in the car i had it plugged in to the 12v of the car. During my crossing to holland 12h i ran the box of a lifepo4 100ah battery and reverted back to the car. After arriving at my end destination switched back to the 100ah battery and it managed to run for about 5 days in total of that battery bot sides set to cool and car was half in shade with outide temp of in the 20’s during the day and fridge was set for 2c on way back it was on double frozen and easily lasted the journey back.
Its not the smallest of units and my clio boot was more then half full with just the box and needed to leave venting space but impressed with it.
Next step a van with leisure battery and solar and this will run untill a week without sun 🙂
Unit feels quality. Swapping lid over is lil akward untill you realize the required angle and then us a doddle.
Phone app is great whilst in the queue getting on and off the ferry could check and or adjust temps and confirm it was running.
Currently using it off grid in the caravan, we bought an internal battery also. Uses very little power, large compartment set to 4 and the smaller one to -10. Great piece of kit, sturdy and does what we need it to do.
Excellent top quality product . Tool literally 10 minutes to get to temperature I set for fridge use . Easy to set app up on phone . Highly recommend quality product . Top addition for my tent .
I first placed my order on Saturday 1st July for the 35 litre version and 1 week later it still wasn’t showing a delivery date. I called Amazon to ask when to expect it and was told that they were waiting to do the logistics on a delivery? I tried to explain that it was showing in stock and if I placed an order it could arrive the following day so what was causing the delay? She just said it should arrive soon?
However 3 days later as it was showing awaiting delivery date I chose to cancel and as it was prime day it had actually been reduced below the price I was going to pay.
Also the 45 litre was now the price (more or less) of my original 35 litre so I decided to upgrade to the larger size.
As for the actual product it’s brilliant!!! Easy to manoeuvre and does exactly what I would expect. It is very heavy so I will need to fill and decant when in the car. The size of the larger side will easily hold a 2 litre upright and the freezer gets very low very quickly.
I have given 5 stars for the product however I do feel that Amazon have failed badly on the first order. I am however very grateful for whatever went wrong as I am now in procession of a bigger product for more or less the same price Not sure the supplier would agree though
As soon as I turned on it was not long before it was down to temperature -18 & +5 been using now for just over a week and during this hot weather it keeping my drinks lovely and cool
Is amazing fridge/frizzer , is not talking about the option of the battery, i was more lucky because is exactly what i was looking. You can operate with the app, working very fast, solid build, is perfect companion for holiday travel
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A good quality, nice looking portable fridge freezer with a quality LG Compressor.
The description of the Alpicool TAW45 portable fridge freezer unit was accurate, but the reality of weight and size only hit home when it was delivered.
WEIGHT
When the large package was handed over to me it’s 19kg felt much heavier than I expected.
SIZE
When I opened the packaging the Alpicool looked ENORMOUS! I ordered the 45L rather than the 35L because an Amazon review said that they were glad that they had bought the larger unit.
The Alpicool will fit in the boot of my SEAT Ibiza 1.9 TDi Sport Coupe with back seats in an upright position, but is a fraction too tall for the parcel shelf, which has to be removed when carrying the Alpicool.
if I had bought the TAW35L the footprint of the fridge freezer would have been the same but a slightly lower height, but the size of the fridge and freezer compartments would have limited size and quantity of contents.
Most portable compressor fridge freezers are of similar size.
WITH OR WITHOUT WHEELS AND TELSCOPIC HANDLE?
I had originally intended to buy the same fridge freezer without wheels and telescopic handle because it would have fit better in the boot of my car, and I could use a compact trolly to wheel the Alpicool.
But, the model without wheels and handle would not have been delivered for
6-8 weeks.
Having tried using my compact trolly I discovered that it would not be strong enough nor stable enough to wheel the Alpicool, even when empty! I am therefore glad that I opted to pay extra for this model that includes wheels and telescopic handle.
ALPICOOL CONTROL PANEL
The control panel is clear and easy to operate. There’s no problem setting up compartment temperatures after CAREFULLY reading the User Manual.
TEMPERATURE ACCURACY & COMPARISON
I bought 2 digital fridge thermometers on Amazon to compare temperature readings with those displayed on the Alpicool control panel. The independent thermometers displayed higher temperatures than the Alpicool display. Regardless of the difference in temperatures I am satisfied that the Alpicool fridge and freezer will be effective.
It is highly unlikely that I will ever want to freeze anything to -20C but I did want to test the performance claims made by Alpicool, as some reviewers reported that neither of the fridge freezer compartments achieved -20C nor did they maintain that temperature after the Alpicool was switched off.
FACTORS AFFECTING COOKING EFFICIENCY
1. AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
When evaluating cooling effectiveness and efficiency, it is important to take into consideration the Ambient Room Temperature. In my case the ambient temperature was 25C.
2. FRIDGE FREEZER CONTENTS
Also, take into account that an empty fridge freezer will cool faster than a full fridge freezer, and they will take considerably longer to reach target temperature if the compartments are full, and will not remain cold for long if the compartments are empty. Simply because of the law of thermodynamics.
NO BATTERY SUPPLIED
The Alpicool TAW45 is not supplied with a battery. The battery is available to purchase but it’s expensive. It allows the Alpicool to function when left disconnected from mains or car power supply.
ALPICOOL & SOLAR PANELS
The Alpicool has a solar panel socket BUT this requires the Alpicool battery, otherwise, when darkness fall the Alpicool will be switch off until it is manually switched on again.
SOLAR ALTERNATIVE – REQUIRES AN ELECTRICIAN TO EITHER INSTALL OVERSEE OR CHECK AN INSTALLATION.
I have already proven that my old electric coolbox could be powered by the car battery with engine switched off, PROVIDED THAT I correctly set up and connected my 120w solar panels to the car battery. However, as with most cars the coolbox would only be powered from the cig lighter socket when the engine ignition was switched ‘On’. (This is not suitable with older cars that have a Coil, which will burn out if the ignition is left turned ‘On’. New cars do not have a Coil. Check with your manufacturer /car dealership.
In ECO mode the Alpicool requires similar watts as my coolbox, so, it will be possible to power the Alpicool without detriment to the car battery because the power supplied by my portable solar panels will replace power drawn by the Alpicool AND will maintain the battery fully charged.
The Alpicool intelligently prevents the car battery from being drained and an inline MPPT Solar Controler prevents the car battery from being overcharged. The addition of an online fuse adds further protection.
EVEN THOUGH THERE IS A SOLAR SOCKET ON THE ALPICOOL
SOLAR PANELS MUST NEVER BE CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO THE ALPICOOL OR CAR BATTERY WITHOUT AN APPROPRIATE SOLAR CONTROLLER.
The 800w solar panel that I bought fits on the car dashboard or windscreen and can be connected to the car battery via the car internal OBD Diagnostic Port by a dedicated solar connection cable.
This cable will connection will allow the car battery to be charged by the solar panels without having to have the key in the ignition and turned on. It also avoids having to run a separate cable from inside the car to the car battery + an additional cig. lighter socket.
I shall also install an inline 10amp fuse between the Solar Controller and the OBD socket as additional protection against overload or an electrical short.
BLUETOOTH APP
I downloaded the Alpicool App from Google Play Store. All the settings on the Alpicool display panel can be accessed on the App without being physically present at the fridge-freezer. The advantage of the App is that you can keep an eye on the temperature of the fridge and freezer compartments and the charge state of the car battery.
Day 2 Update: did the test setting fridge for larger compartment to 0 and freezer for smaller to -20. Fridge was down to temp in 15 minutes while freezer took 35 minutes. While probe was touching the wall the temp was matching what was shown on the display. With the probe away from walls it all depends how far from it but could be up to 12 degrees difference. Ambient temperature of the room for this test was 22.
Day 1: First, instructions are not well written. I couldn’t figure out how to adjust temp for smaller compartment, that is right side of the display. It doesn’t really say but you have to press Setting button while left temperature is still flashing to make right one to flash and being able to adjust
To the fridge, it seems to deliver on quality when it comes to price, wheels are large and sturdy, same for handle with two locks on each side. Both compartments got basket and own led light, larger got drain and cutting board in the lid. Both lids have hinges on both sides so you can choose from what side they open.
App is easy enough to operate and pairing was instant. Ill get calibrated temp gauge to see how far out is the display but freezer set to -20 was showing -12 inside
It draws 43W when running and 51W was peak on startup of the compressor.
After spending a lot of time looking at different fridge / freezers for my land rover . It is perfect I put a 12v supply in especially for the machine and was very pleased on the way it keeper the temp for 5hours and used very little battery ..so great and well happy
Bought this for my land rover works great . Value for money as I have been looking for over a year. The good thing about the 45ltr is that you can stand up 2ltr bottles in it.
If you are looking for a fridge freezer you won’t go wrong.