Engel Repair or Replace

Yes - if you believe people here Engel are gods gift to fridges and never break down. I have a cheap 55l ebay job that cost $550 delivered that has so far given 4 years sterling service - much cheaper that a Engel repair so if mine plays up just through away and but a new one.

Be wary of EvaKool - there are good ones and bad ones. I also have a 25litre EvaKool for weekends and it is not good - insulation is too thin, so does not cool well and uses a lot of power - certainly more than the bigger cheaper which has very thick insulation.

If you are looking at the white or yellow Eva Cool fridges with the compressor that hangs on the end are are different - these are very good.

Garry

Hi
You Have been unually UNLUCKY
That is not typical of Engels
It would seem you may have lost the gas
Bad vibration[broken tubing ]or damageded evaportator[inside the fridge] which would entail a new cooling unit

Unfortunately the general attitude these days is just fit an entire NEW gassed unit & motor, just retaining the case & electrics.
Perhaps you could find a fridge mechanic who would simply regas it IF the leak can be repaired


PeterQ

Daz,
Before you despatch your fridge to the rubbish bin do this.....
With the motor RUNNING, turn it upside down and let it run like that for 30 minutes, right it again and observe results. Worked for one of mine but of course yours may be a different problem, worth a try.
Cheers, Nev.

I've used Engel in trucks for many years . Must have had 20 or 30 of them. Never had repair bills that expensive. Give Rees engineering at Pennington a call 84472161. I've always found them very reasonable for repairs

Richard

Daz,
I bought an Engel in 1972 and it lost its gas due to a bad crimp at about year 2.5. Had it regassed and it is still running fine. I would get another quote, can't understand why the cooling system needs replacement. Sounds more like a gas leak and should be fixable.

cheers

I used SA Caravan Refrigeration Services (08) 85272106 or 0418 844472. He used to be mobile but some time ago started an exhaust business in Prospect which he works from now, excellent service and a very reasonable price.

My Engel manual states that you shouldn’t let your fridge stand idle, and if it's not in your vehicle, use it as a normal fridge at home. I do that – it’s run full time for the last 6 years and hasn’t missed a beat.

Thank you all for taking the time to reply
Daz

I bought an Engel in 1977 and it still performs beautifully to this day. I do make sure I use on regular occasions, though, so it doesn't suffer from lack of use.
It has a fully insulated cover and a spring base for protection as well.
I don't think the later model Engels (the electronic models) are as reliable as the old non-electronic models.
As always, descriptions of "improvements in design" often just means "we found a cheaper method of constructing it, so we can counter the cheap Chinese models".

Ray's Caravan and Camping website has an exceptionally comprehensive, 2 page investigation of portable fridges - although his webpage ranges between 8 and 5 yrs old.
He delves into the two main differences between the Engel and the other brands - the Sawafuji swing motor or the Danfoss compressor style.

Ray examines every feature of every brand and took particular interest in the material the fridge body was made from, because it was important to him.

The bottom line is that the swing motor is not quite as efficient as the compressor-style - but I don't recall ever having had a major problem with the Engel's efficiency with the insulated cover assisting it.

Interestingly, Ray was convinced the Waeco was the ducks gonads and bought one - and the electronics on it crapped themselves in 28 mths. Waeco did repair it under warranty.

By far the most interesting comment, Ray re-posted from another forum - from an Army mechanic/electrician who repaired a lot of Engels. He stated that on the newer Engels with the electronic circuit board (which was installed specifically to reduce power draw), the circuit board was always the part that failed.

The older Engels with no electronics draw more power, but are more reliable - thus their great reputation.
Unfortunately, there's not a single fridge today that is designed to last more than 10 yrs - they all have electronic circuit boards in their designs, and this is nearly always the section that fails - and it's guaranteed, in this day and age of "no user serviceable parts inside" - that even if you can get parts for the unit, the parts cost coupled with installation cost, will nearly always equal the purchase price of a new fridge.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/rfh/portablefridges.html