Alpicool CR50 freezer ok, fridge not cooling
- Thread starter doningtonphil
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Running on 240 in Spain, dont know if full reset, the small section of fridge failed on freezer setting completely iced up then shut down showing - - - and wouldnt register that side on the phone app.
Movano2022
New Member
Hello!
Made an account here just to share my experience with the fridge so far. I'm converting a van so I got the fridge from a local dealer here in Finland about a week ago. It was a store display product so i got it on a discount. Yesterday I hooked up the fridge and my Ecoflow Delta 3 Max Plus to my 12v fusebox to run some tests before they get installed in the van. Basically wanted to see how long the Ecoflow would run the fridge. Might be a long post so bare with me.
So... Had a similar experience to the rest of you here. I put the fridge to 6 and set the freezer to -12 and let it sit. I was mystified why the compressor wasnt even running even when the temp on the fridge was like 15-20 or someting, but I waited. The freezer achieved the temp fast but in about two hours the fridge only got to about 12 or 13 and i went to bed. My partner woke up in the morning and saw fridge temp still only at 10 so she set it at 3 and it eventually cooled to that but the freezer went really cold. I've been decoding the logic of the fridge today and i've found out a couple of things.
The compressor/thermostat will only follow the last temperature you set, not both. Meaning that if the fridge side is the last temp you set, it will treat that as gospel, and if the freezer side needs to go to -29 or something to achieve it, it will. Then it waits until the fridge side goes up 2 degrees and turns on the compressor again. If all you care about is the fridge staying within your parameters, this will do it.
However, this way also seems to use more power that I'd like. Last night the power consumption was jumping between 11 and 12 watts per hour the whole night, which is great IF it also stayed around 6c in the fridge but alas, it didnt. Today I did a test taking the freezer part off completely, setting the freezer to -12 and the setting the fridge to 6 so it would follow that. It would then get to the 6 degrees, and during that time the "freezer" side would get to about -12 or -13. Then the "freezer"t would gradually go up to around 2C or 3C while the fridge temp went up 2 degrees and then the cycle would repeat. This, on average was about 14 watts per hour so not too bad, and since the freezer is not a must for me, i can live with that.
I am now testing, if asking the system to follow a specific freezer temp (-16) - while having the freezer section attached - will give me a satisfactory fridge temp and less power consumption. . So far it seems that running at -16 stabilizes the fridge to about 7-8 degrees at an ambient temp of around 22-23. I have not tested the inside temperature with a thermostat, so the actual temp might be different. I have no idea where the temp sensors even are since without the freezer attached it still says -12 or more when its cooling down but it most certainly was not -12 in the fridge at that point.
Saw a lot of people here being baffled by the fridge so wanted to share my findings.
The fridge does not communicate this to you in any way and the logic is not what you'd expect as a user. I also dont know if this is how its supposed to act or if it's some weird bug. However, i fairly sure there are settings that will give me an ideal balance of power consumption and temps, it's just a pain to find it.
Made an account here just to share my experience with the fridge so far. I'm converting a van so I got the fridge from a local dealer here in Finland about a week ago. It was a store display product so i got it on a discount. Yesterday I hooked up the fridge and my Ecoflow Delta 3 Max Plus to my 12v fusebox to run some tests before they get installed in the van. Basically wanted to see how long the Ecoflow would run the fridge. Might be a long post so bare with me.
So... Had a similar experience to the rest of you here. I put the fridge to 6 and set the freezer to -12 and let it sit. I was mystified why the compressor wasnt even running even when the temp on the fridge was like 15-20 or someting, but I waited. The freezer achieved the temp fast but in about two hours the fridge only got to about 12 or 13 and i went to bed. My partner woke up in the morning and saw fridge temp still only at 10 so she set it at 3 and it eventually cooled to that but the freezer went really cold. I've been decoding the logic of the fridge today and i've found out a couple of things.
The compressor/thermostat will only follow the last temperature you set, not both. Meaning that if the fridge side is the last temp you set, it will treat that as gospel, and if the freezer side needs to go to -29 or something to achieve it, it will. Then it waits until the fridge side goes up 2 degrees and turns on the compressor again. If all you care about is the fridge staying within your parameters, this will do it.
However, this way also seems to use more power that I'd like. Last night the power consumption was jumping between 11 and 12 watts per hour the whole night, which is great IF it also stayed around 6c in the fridge but alas, it didnt. Today I did a test taking the freezer part off completely, setting the freezer to -12 and the setting the fridge to 6 so it would follow that. It would then get to the 6 degrees, and during that time the "freezer" side would get to about -12 or -13. Then the "freezer"t would gradually go up to around 2C or 3C while the fridge temp went up 2 degrees and then the cycle would repeat. This, on average was about 14 watts per hour so not too bad, and since the freezer is not a must for me, i can live with that.
I am now testing, if asking the system to follow a specific freezer temp (-16) - while having the freezer section attached - will give me a satisfactory fridge temp and less power consumption. . So far it seems that running at -16 stabilizes the fridge to about 7-8 degrees at an ambient temp of around 22-23. I have not tested the inside temperature with a thermostat, so the actual temp might be different. I have no idea where the temp sensors even are since without the freezer attached it still says -12 or more when its cooling down but it most certainly was not -12 in the fridge at that point.
Saw a lot of people here being baffled by the fridge so wanted to share my findings.
The fridge does not communicate this to you in any way and the logic is not what you'd expect as a user. I also dont know if this is how its supposed to act or if it's some weird bug. However, i fairly sure there are settings that will give me an ideal balance of power consumption and temps, it's just a pain to find it.
Last edited:
Hello @Movano2022 - welcome to the forum.
It must be something in the water in Finland, as you guys are incredibly analytical and thorough in your approach
- back when I was working, I could have done with a couple of Finns on my team. 
Quigley Express
New Member
I had a similar issue with my Alpicool clone that I just bought off ebay in the US. So I was doing some digging. According to posts, when you remove the freezer section the internal computer knows because there is a magnetic switch that is triggered and it is supposed to inactivate the freezer control. I confirmed there are magnetic tabs built into the freezer door. So that may explain some of the behavior people see. Jackson leisure also point out as someone here said, that in some way the freezer and fridge settings give priority to whatever the last section you changed. My initial issue was the freezer was going very low and highly variable but the fridge wasn't getting cold enough. Perhaps I could have just adjusted the fridge section last and got better results. Instead I removed the freezer divider parts (first I just took off the door and that helped) and now I see the freezer indicated temp of around 25f with up and down swings but the fridge stays exactly where I want it, around 38-40f confirmed with interior thermometer.
The only issue now is I seem to be consuming more power than I would like. Still testing but seems to be using about 21 watts per hour, first test was 800 watts over 38 hours. I'd like to see the freezer temp display the same as the fridge, around 40f rather than 25f and I wonder if I can lower the power useage. But if I can't adjust anything else, this is acceptable as is. I want the space for the fridge anyway since I don't tend to keep anything frozen.
Some other useful info is accessing the advanced settings. I found a manual that shows what they do, E1-E8, and how to access them. It includes changing what the display shows relative to the actual temperature so you can tell the computer inside that it is actually warmer or colder than what is displayed. You can also set how far from the set temperature it goes up before the compressor kicks back in. Mine was set to 4c which is too much so I set it to 2c. The advanced menu is also where you change the displayed temp from farenheit to celcius. That setting is E5. I believe you can increase the maximum freezer setting as high as 20c in one of these settings too. Mine came defaulted to -4c as the warmest it would go. But I am wondering now if that is even necessary to change since I have the freezer compartment removed.
Cheers from the US
The only issue now is I seem to be consuming more power than I would like. Still testing but seems to be using about 21 watts per hour, first test was 800 watts over 38 hours. I'd like to see the freezer temp display the same as the fridge, around 40f rather than 25f and I wonder if I can lower the power useage. But if I can't adjust anything else, this is acceptable as is. I want the space for the fridge anyway since I don't tend to keep anything frozen.
Some other useful info is accessing the advanced settings. I found a manual that shows what they do, E1-E8, and how to access them. It includes changing what the display shows relative to the actual temperature so you can tell the computer inside that it is actually warmer or colder than what is displayed. You can also set how far from the set temperature it goes up before the compressor kicks back in. Mine was set to 4c which is too much so I set it to 2c. The advanced menu is also where you change the displayed temp from farenheit to celcius. That setting is E5. I believe you can increase the maximum freezer setting as high as 20c in one of these settings too. Mine came defaulted to -4c as the warmest it would go. But I am wondering now if that is even necessary to change since I have the freezer compartment removed.
Cheers from the US
