Fridge dilemma

Just a thought, check http://www.fridgeshop.com where you can get a CF80 for $980. If you have the floor space, this one has a bigger compressor as well.

metal's not the 'be all and end all'. my cf80 survived a tripple roll over (as did we including the dog???????) and works as strong as ever

Hi Stan,
Was wondering where that river crossing is in ur pic. Looks fantastic.

If you look really closely at it Ange you can just make out the crocodile attacking Stan's front wheel.

This is in a Victoria High Country near Mt Skene (Holylands link crossing) after all the snow melted...

Wow! that's a long way south for crocodiles, they must be those arctic varieties we've been hearing about.

Avagoodn
Pezza

that ain't no croc! It's one of those killer rainbow trout lol

Leroy

My first thought in getting the 50 instead of the 60 was access as the 60 is 550mm high. Does the height of the 60 you just bought give you any complaints when accessing the fridge from in the back of you car?

Chris

I'm 1.8m in my socks, and the fridge is on a homebuilt slide - I can see into it when slid out. As for SWMBO, a short bucket will have to elevate her for a squiz inside (although she won't need to see inside to reach in and get me a coldie I guess ! :-) .... hell....hope she doesn't read this. If your fridge wasn't going to slide out, access could be a real pain with the 60L's height for sure. An Engel for example, appears to be way lower - but lots more $ and 20L less - the 60L Engel is many more $.

That's one big battery, maybe you mean 40AH which will get you through the night no problem. They only draw 2 to 3 amps when running.

Archives ,type in waeco or solar or engle or battery and allow yourself a week or three to read the lot.

Sorry about that post. I did the search after I made the post and was up way too late reading what I found. Bad habit of mine, talking before I listen.

I have a Dometic which runs on 12v, 110v, or propane. On 12v it eats up the amps but I switch to propane in camp. I need more capacity but was hesitant to give up the propane option. But at only 2-3 amp draw I'm going for an Engel. I have two 68 AH Odyssey batteries that can handle that.

Thanks.

I have a Waeco CF-50 and put an Amp Meter on to a spare lead I have. The Fridge Surges to 6 Amps on start up and when running pulls 4 Amps most of the time. The lowest I have seen mine run is 3 Amps. When you have the Turbo button on it pulls up to 8 amps. I have also tried this on a friends CF-50 and the figures are the same.

I normally allow an average draw of 1.5 Amp per hour so a 100 Amp hour battery (60 Amp hour usable) should last you approx 40 hours. This is for the fridge set to keep beer cool which for me is normally 3 during the day and 2 during the night.

I have an 80 Watt solar panel on my van and when the fridge is connected to the 100 Amp Hour van battery it seems to run Ok (van lights and all) for about 5 days with reasonable sun. (I am in Victoria!!)

I always have the cutout switch set on low.

Grizzle ,how what when accurate is your amp meter ?????????? fair enough that 2 identical fridges draw the same but I would really question the accuracy of your testing equipment ,,,, the 50 uses the bd 35 comp and your saying that it uses more amps on start up than the bd50 comp in my waeco ,,max draw 4.5amp at startup droping to 3.4 on run {3.5using turbo} and .02 on idle ,,,,, very VERY close to factory specs.

Not seeking to denagrade a post but the facts are that the danfoss compressor, forget what fridge it is in, the Danfoss compressor itself will use more than 6 amps at start-up, UNLESS you call start-up the first few minutes. The danfoss compressor may use 6 amps after it has initially started for a brief moment but to actually kick the compressor over initially (that is what I am referring to as START-UP) it will use more amps than has been posted and you would need something of far better design and quality than an inline ammeter to actually see the result, as it is for a verrrrry short period of time at the higher amperage, then trickles down, well trickles is the wrong word as it goes down verrrrry fast to a more realistic amp draw number around that you have both posted.
However another thing I can add here is two fridge's using the same model compressor can have a different amp usage numbers per hour, which is generally caused by the wrong gassing preasures within the system or electrical cabling defects between the compressor and the battery system.

So as can be seen by the two posts above where the power consumption differs between the two same model fridge compressors there are logical reasons that are not apparent visually but will soon become evident only when correctly tested by a qualified refrigeration mechanic.

BOTH posts therefore can be correct, even with different specifications quoted as being correct by their relevant owners.

I would sugest that maybe one cycles more than the other because the correct gas preasures will remove the heat from the fridge cabinet more effectively.

My BD35 runs about 4.5A normally and about 7A on Turbo. Startup is really irrelevant as you won't measure it with a digital meter, too slow to read, and the current level is only high for less than a second.

If your BD50 is only drawing 0.1A more on turbo then there is something wrong with your compressor or your ammeter. And 3.5A seems a bit low for a bigger compressor, I've heard people say around 6 amps for a CF80 which uses the BD50.

The bottom line in all of this is what happens when you are on the road with your fridge so maybe some other people can post their real experiences with these type of fridges.

Cheers

GRizzle , bottom line ,real life , my 80lt waeco this w/end ,switched on 12.30pm friday ,in the back of the cruiser , sth east QLD , ambient temp 26/27c , 1.30pm temp in fridge = d 3c ,, power running to fridge thru steca controller to keep track of amps used ,, sunday 3pm back home from sunshine coast , fridge never left vehicle or physicaly switched off , opened 30/35 times at 1 to 2 min per time ,amps used in 50.5 hrs = 115.2 divided by time = 2.28amps per hr of use ,,, was used as all fridge but less than 50% full, contents at start all hot ,=2x bottle champagne,4xbottles chard ,18x stubbies becks beer ,4xcans coke ,4x stubbies soda water ,4xcans midstrenth beer , 2x bottles cab/sav in dairy compartment +3 packets of cheese ,,,,,,tell your tech he dont know jack s--t.

2.28 amps drawn per hour sounds feasable, but is not comparable to an amp/hour figure. What was your original quote of 3.4 Amps, was that current drawn per hour or was that amp/hour. I suspect it was not the current drawn when running but the total current drawn for a 60 minute period. As if it only draws 3.4Amp when running and your 2.28amps per hr of use means the fridge was running for about 40 minutes every hour, that doesn't seem right. I think you and Grizzle are talking different things, he's talking amp/hour and you talking amps per hour of use.

Do a google on the BD50, you'll find most places quoting around 6 amps when running. Which depending on the temperature would be around 3 amps drawn per hour, possibly less.

Brett ,,the only thing that matters is if the beer is cold enough , secondary to that is how many amps are used per hr over any given period be it 1hr or 100hrs ,, if you dont know how much you use per hr real time you cannot feasably gauge how long your battery power will last before recharge or damage to battery occurs ..it matters not if a fridge used 6amps or 60amps when on ,,,only the "actual" amount depleted from the battery per hr is of import ,,as stated above ,this w/end ,my 80lt waeco on 12v only used 115.2 amps in a 50.5hr period which equates to 2.28 amps per hr ,,,

Yep spot on, but there is some confusion when talking amps, some people get the amp/hour and amps used per hour confused, as you said the later is more important. The 40L engel is quoted as only needing 2.8 amps when running so people straight away think it uses almost half the power of a Danfoss. But as you've shown and also the Choice article on fridges shows it means nothing, it'd total current drawn that matters, the choice article showed this well, the engel had to run twice as long as a danfoss to cool down to a set temp. Although not that there is anything wrong with an engel, just don't be tricked by the marketing types.