APL55-Silver Dual Zone 12 Volt Fridge | ICECO

Very efficient but not crazy about baskets or dimensions of inside, water bottles and soda cans should fit better. Also thought I was going to get a free battery upgrade.

We have a booth at a car show every year where it's always miserably hot a few days... we were eating ice cream bars. I was looking at one of the high end coolers and for a few dollars more never have to worry about ice again. I also use it as over flow/outdoor fridge when we are in the camper... even traveling, can take it from the truck and inside and have our own fridge when staying at a friend's house. Zero complaints

We have only used the fridge a couple of times since we got it but so far it has worked great for us. Maintained temp well even sitting inside our vehicle for the week while we camped. Great looking and a solid construction. Came with a few spare parts as well for some possible wear items on the unit - extra latches and corner pieces for the exterior.

Product deserves a 5-star rating but their customer support is lacking. Had an issue with shipping and they weren't very helpful. In the end we did finally receive it a week later than FedEx said we would get it - which ended up being a FedEx issue but as the shipper I had hoped that Iceco could have done a little more with the courier to get me answers.

Very nicely built. Stayed at 31 and 41 degrees for about 4 days in summer heat
On a 1000 watt jackery battery without using any recharge from truck. Very
Happy, orderd a smaller one for other truck thanks 5 start well built.

I've been looking for a dual zone fridge/freezer for some time to use in my truck for everything from back-country off-road adventures to the weekly grocery trip and everything in between. I bought the APL55 and I must say that I'm truly impressed. Let me tell you why.

I live in Northwest Florida and it seems that every day for the last month we've been under a heat advisory forecasting heat indices in excess of 110°F (43°C). I had initially bought a couple of those budget units on Amazon for a few hundred dollars each and neither could cope with the heat. Both of them had error codes indicating compressor overheat. You see, the cooler lives in the bed of my truck under an aluminum tonneau cover in direct sunlight and the temperatures in there routinely exceed 135°F (57°C) during the summer months, sometimes reaching as high as 145°F (62°C).

When I bought the first Fridge/Freezer, I also bought 3 Bluetooth thermometers. One was placed in the bed of the truck, the other 2 were placed in each compartment of the unit. Before failing, the temperature in the bed was in 120’s and the budget (cheap) coolers were around 50°F (10°C), although it was set to -4°F (-20°C). That’s a complete deal breaker, so back to Amazon they went (thank goodness for free returns).

I decided to up my game (and my budget) and get a better-quality unit. Dometic and ARB had some interesting offerings and some equally interesting prices. No way was I going to pay what they were asking for their units. I then consulted the Great and Powerful YouTube search and discovered ICECO. The APL55 seemed to be the most popular fridge that had genuine reviews (no paid promotions), but I couldn’t find any that were similar to my high-heat/truck bed situation. I downloaded the owner’s manual for the APL55 from the ICECO website and, lo and behold, ICECO claims, in the manual, that the unit will perform in temperatures up to 131°F (55°C). That, right there, was the singular reason why I ordered one directly from their website.

It arrived a few days later, I let it sit for a day before turning it on per the instructions. I first ran it in my house at a cool, comfortable 72°F (22°C) and it performed as designed – no surprise there. The next day however, began the real testing. Out to the truck it went. The same 3-thermometer setup as described above was used, it was plugged in to my power station on the 110V side, both sides set to freeze at -4°F (-20°C), power use set to “MAX”, and… it did okay. The temperature in the bed got up to 135°F (57°C) for a short period each day. It never attained -4°F, but it did get down to 10°F (-12°C) without any errors, and that’s okay for what I need it to do – keep food cold. Keep in mind this thing sits about 2 inches (50mm) from a scorching hot sheet of aluminum with a temperature comparable to the surface of the Sun.

I’ve managed to lower the temps inside the bed by applying 3 layers of radiant barrier (5/16” each) to the underside of the tonneau cover. Temps never exceed 130°F (54°C). The freezer happily reaches its minimum designed temperatures and we can enjoy an ice cream sandwich in the middle of nowhere when it’s 90°F (32°C) outside. I will probably buy the battery and insulated cover at some point in the near future to give the compressor a little relief.

So, yes, I am very impressed with the functionality of the APL55 and would recommend it to anyone that needs a proper functioning fridge/freezer that can endure excessive heat. Now I just need a small grey one for the inside of the truck to hold a few drinks and sandwiches.