Old Soldier replied:

Peter,

Quickest way for you to find all this out is to whizz into Dick Smith's and buy one of those little double thermos. [about $29]

Slip the external temp sensor lead inside the fridge lid [it wont leak much cold air] and observe from there.

I normally keep salad vegies in the non freeze area, beer, soft drink, milk, meat etc in the other. It is quite cavernous and I have never gone short of a "coldie" at the end of the day.

I usually have a 6 pack in [about all I can handle these days :) :) ], and I restock the drinks before going to bed so the fridge is catching up with the "hot ones" in the cool of the night.

Come next morning ready to go again.

I usually run the turbo for 20 mins or so when starting, then run it between 2,3,4 for the rest of the time [depending on the outside conditions]

I always turn it down a notch over night.

If you want to do some serious freezing, I have found that mind can reduce the fridge temperature to -17ºC in about 30 minutes.

The message there is WATCH IT !!!! :) :) :)

Enjoy your Waeco - may all your beers be "coldies"

DennisN

Member - Peter replied:

to old solder thanks for the tips ;she how cooks and must be obayed; does not come on my off road trips so the lettice will be replaced with more sutble food items ie ; pies and smoked mussels Peter York 4x4

Ian replied:

Peter
I find that set with three lights on usually works perfect just doesnt quite freeze at about 20-30o outside temp and one light overnight works fine and saves your battery depending where you are of course
Ian

ROX replied:

I have a Engle and find my HOME BREW doesn't freez at o.c but the lettuce does and the wife gets upset????? 0:(((

Member - Chris replied:

Peter,

Have the same fridge and have experimented with the same problem. Set it for 3 LEDs a'glowing and the beer is ace. Set it on 4 and some of the cans freeze. BTW, during the day when the air temp was above 42, the frozen bits stayed that way if I set it for 4 as well.

chris

Dave replied:

Peter,
I have a CF 50 and I set mine on three and its perfect for beer.
Set your fridge on three (3 lights) and as said above back it off to one light overnight or even turn it off depending where you are and what temperature it is and what time you get up in the morning.

Also recommend getting the insulated cover which will help to keep things cold when the sun is beating in the back of your 4x4

Enjoy,

Dave.

Jan replied:

I have the same fridge, and couldn't be happier with it. Can't add to the other comments, just endorse them. I also have one of those two way thermometers from Dick Smith, but I place the remote probe at the bottom of the main compartment, because that's where the coldest point is going to be. Running the fridge with three lights on is about right; two lights is generally not cold enough for meat etc., and four tends to freeze things. With three, be sure to keep vegies, salad stuff etc. in the side compartment, which does not get as cold. The thermometer generally shows the temperature at the bottom of the fridge varying between about -1 to +3, as the fridge cycles on and off, and of course, if you place the main thermometer unit somewhere useful then you get the current ambient temperature as well. (In Central Aust. last July, it was amusing to get up in the morning to see that it was colder outside the fridge than in.) And do get the insulated cover. It doesn't make the fridge run any colder, but protects the case, and the outside ambient temperature is not so important so the fridge will cycle a lot less often, thereby saving your battery. Another point to note - we recently had a prolonged power failure at the house, with danger of the freezer contents melting, so they all went into the Waeco, turned up high. It was running inside the house on an old, spare battery which we brought inside, and even when the battery was down to 9 volts, the fridge was still running! Not good for the battery, but great for the frozen food. You can turn the fridge down overnight, but it doesn't make a lot of difference with the cover on and the fridge not being opened - it hardly cycles at all, even on a warm night.

Member - Nigel replied:

Forget the Dick Smith Thermo, Jaycar have one for $40 that measures temp and battery voltage.

My folks have a 50 litre Waeco and run it on 2 (out of 7).

Member - Mal replied:

The Jaycar thermometer has an alarm that tells you when it reaches freezing point so you know when you are about to get into strife with the wife for freezing the lettuce or more importantly freezing the chardonnay.
MalT.