The Lowdown
The BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator keeps food and drinks cold without ice, offering dual-zone cooling, a sturdy stainless steel exterior, and home or vehicle power options. Its removable divider allows separate fridge and freezer temperatures or one large cooling compartment. Testing showed consistent cooling and more than 24 hours of operation on a portable battery, though prechilled contents work best. Intuitive controls and solid construction impress, but its bulky size requires planning, and unsuccessful app pairing highlights a need for clearer instructions.
Overall
Pros
- It looks awesome
- Keeps things cold consistently
- Very sturdy build with a stainless steel exterior and aluminum handles
- Intuitive controls
Cons
- Update the user guide about the most current app and how to connect
Keeping food and drinks cold while traveling out and about can be a challenge, whether it be a long road trip or just shopping around town. The BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator is designed to fit that purpose and more. If you’re tired of having to constantly refill ice in coolers and deal with all of the water and things getting soggy inside, this is right up your alley.
What Is It?
The BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator is a portable 12-volt refrigerator with a stainless steel exterior, smart power controls, and dual-zone refrigeration.
What’s Included?
- BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator
- Removable Zone Divider
- 12/24V DC Power Cord
- 110/220V AC Power Cord
Tech Specs
- Product Dimensions: 18.1″D x 29.1″W x 16″H
- Voltage: 12 Volts
- Capacity: 45 liters
- Freezer Capacity: 3 liters
- Item Weight: 35.7 pounds
- Annual Energy Consumption: 1200 kwh
- Refrigerator Net Capacity: 0.43 cubic feet
- Fresh Food Capacity: 43 liters
Design and Features
This is a very pretty portable refrigerator. The stainless steel exterior and styling are very well done. The aluminum handles on the side are sturdy and built to carry even under a heavy load. The control panel on the side is intuitive and easy to follow with the simple instructions given on the side.
The inside of the BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator can be divided into two separate zones, each with its own temperature setting. You can set one zone to freezer temperatures and the other to refrigerator temperatures. If you remove the divider, it automatically senses the change and operates the entire fridge as a single zone.
Installation
This portable refrigerator is ready to use straight out of the box. Plug it into a wall outlet at home or an outlet in your car, turn it on, and set the temperature (s) if you are running dual zones.
App control is available on this portable refrigerator for both Android and iPhone. Finding the correct app on Android was difficult. I had to do a search, and it appears that it is located under the name “CAR FRIDGE FREEZER” instead of the QZSMART app that was listed in the User Guide. If you search for QZSMART, you may get an error, as it appears that it is no longer supported for newer versions of Android. I still couldn’t get the refrigerator to connect, though. One area for improvement. Not a huge ding, because I don’t see a huge need to track the refrigerator from my phone.
See It In Action
I did several initial temperature tests to see how well this refrigerator held temperature. When I turned it on, the starting temperatures inside matched the garage temperature at the time.
Within 45 minutes, the internal temperature had reached the desired temperature and was ready to go. Granted, this was unloaded, so kind of an easy case.
Putting a pitcher of water inside, you can see the temperature change over time. This pitcher is holding about a half gallon of water and starts at 80 degrees F.
In two hours, it dropped down to 57 degrees.
After about 6 hours, it got down to 39 degrees. I think that it’s probably a good recommendation to start with your goods chilled or cool.
This is a pretty large refrigerator. It didn’t fit in the rear cargo area of my Honda Pilot without putting the rear seat row down, so make sure you pay attention to the dimensions.
A handy little bottle opener is included for those who imbibe.
Running off a portable battery, draw, of course, varied with the compressor cycle, but it ran for over 24 hours and, on low cycle, drew only about 30 watts. Mileage will vary, of course, based on the outside temperature and what you are storing and at what temperature inside.
Example of space inside.
Final Thoughts
The BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator is a very stylish portable refrigerator that just looks great. The stainless steel exterior is very sturdy and is well designed. While you can set this refrigerator to go below freezing, make sure that you set it to zero or below. It will go down to -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Setting it to just below freezing is going to yield inconsistent and slow freezing.
I would also recommend using it to keep things frozen rather than freezing them, because of the power required. It does a great job keeping things cold and holds them cold for quite a while, even after being disconnected from power. If you have the space and want a portable refrigerator to take with you, this is a great option.
The BODEGA 45L Car Refrigerator retails for $499.99; it is available directly from the manufacturer and other retailers, including Amazon.
Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample.
What I Like: It looks awesome; Keeps things cold consistently; Very sturdy build with a stainless steel exterior and aluminum handles; Intuitive controls
What Needs Improvement: Update the user guide about the most current app and how to connect
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