Car Fridges

Phil,

Do a site search....Fridges have been done a zillion times and you should get heaps of information.

Cheers,
Willem
Little Dip Cons Park S.A.

Phil, we have an Engel fridge and initially ran it with the existing wiring. Not such a good idea when you are in hot areas. We bought a portable battery pack and then tried running it through this - also not a good idea in hot areas. In cooler months or places we had no problem. The fridge itself worked fine - we have had it for 3 years now.

My husband has recently replaced all the wiring to the fridge with heavier gauge as well as fitting a second battery to our DiD Pajero and all seems well - we'll test it out later this year when we head up to Cape York.

There is another fridge on the market. The Auto fridge. Kirks put them out. Same size as the Engel 39lt. Have not seen any ads for them lately, but they are made to run off a single battery. The idea was to run them while the motor was running and to turn them off at night. The fluid in the wall cavity would freeze and keep the fridge cold. Where I use to work they would hire them out, because the fridge could be run from the main battery. The down side, the cost has blown out compared to what you can other fridges for.

WayneAlways Out'N About

You're trying to compare apples and oranges.

The Chescold is not really a car fridge. It's great for camping in one place for an extended period of time on Gas. it will run on 12volt, but never really gets all that cold.

Engel and Waeco are both good fridges, I have a small Engel that is 1000 years old and still going strong, and a new waeco 110, that is also great, (and a chescold for the longer stays).

Please look carefully at a 2nd battery and good wiring, otherwise you'll be back here complaining that your fridge doesn't work properly or that you have a flat batt.

A dual batt is cheap peace of mind..

Phil,

It all depends on how you camp. If you stay in one spot for many days in cool weather, the chescold may be OK as it runs off gas. It draws way too much power on 12 volts, and has to be removed from the vehicle to run on gas, has to be perfectly level to work, and is very unpopular with 4wders for these reasons.

For everything else, get a compressor type. The new F-series Engel uses a lot less power than previous Engels and is probably a little less or not much different to the Waecos under the same conditions. This means that you can do without a dual battery system, provided you fit the biggest N70 starting battery, and have a low voltage cutout set at about 11.9 volts for the fridge (Waecos have this built in). Practically speaking, your battery voltage probably won't drop below about 12.2 volts because voltage drop accounts for the difference. You'd still need a heavier fused wire directly to the fridge. This system works fine provided you go for a drive every day.

If you want to stay put without going for a drive every day, then you'll need a dual battery system.

Cheers
Phil G

I have 39L Chescold fridge/freezer & had it wired up correctly & it maintains cold very well when traveling so no problem there. It works very well on 240v so if staying in a caravan park with power again no problem. Im not sure about everyone else out there but when I go camping I am never in a hurry to pack up and move on so running the fridge off of lpg for about 4 days on only a 2kg gas bottle is fantastic. No need for expensive dual batteries which still dont give that long realy without charging or solar panels etc, etc and if you are only going to stop over night and then move on again why do people need dual batteries for fridges? People will still knock the old chescolds but they are very basic & very reliable and you cant beat them for long stays. They get below freezing so what more can you want.

Cheers
Subie

I have a 1964 15L engel an a 35L waeco they both work very well i replaced the engel with the waeco about 3 years ago,the engel didnt have enough space and was quiet big,well it is bigger than the waeco with less than half the space.The waeco goes on all my trips witch i cross the nullabor 30-38 times a year and sometimes on roads that bounce the fridge all over the place.So the waeco has done about 1 000 000 kms give or take 50 000 kms it did have a problem the first week i had it but nothing since,the only other thing with the waeco is every time i get a new vehicle i have to rewire the socket with 6mm wire, but my mates got one and his doesn't draw as much power as mine.The engel still goes fine to i lent it to a friend who went up north for 3 months just travelling around using it on 12 & 240v so draw your own conclusions from that.

PS my waeco lid did buckle from sunlight but it didnt worry me and it has since gone back into shape