chinese generator plus waeco=nothing

Yep, the Waeco draws too much on start up. Leave the fridge hooked up to the battery and at the same time hook the battery up to the genny.

It sounds strange that your generator does not have enough power to run your waeco. Im guessing your generator is rated around 600-800 watts which is overkill for a single fridge. Does your generator have trouble running other equipment? I think your genny might be a dud
Personally I am a little reluctant to run an expensive fridge off a 240v generator that does not have a pure sine wave.

Your Chinese generator is only designed to charge batteries, not to run appliances.
You are lucky you did not wreck your Waeco.
You must have a battery connected to the Chinese generator while running your Waeco.

Thanks for the response. I sort of figgured hooking the gen to the battery and then to the fridge might be the way to go so you guys confirmed.

Your generator should have no trouble running your fridge direct off the 240. The output must be in the range 230 to 250 but most importantly it must be 50hz. A mate of mine bought a fairly expensive generator and it ran at 220v and 48hz so he had to take it back for adjustment. I don't know about the 12 v but it could be like the 12 v on outboard motors in that it is just half wave and no regulator quite adequate for battery charging.
I am thinking of buying one of these generators but from what I have seen and read the factory did away with the quality control checking and passed that job on to the customer so check on the generator and get a frequency meter and watch what happens when you start the fridge as the governor of the engine should increase the throttle opening to maintain 50hz. As well get a resistive load the same as the generator output (toaster, frypan, heater etc) and switch it on and observe the frequency and voltage response, it should dip with such a high load but should then recover to 240 and 50hz if not take it back as it did not pass your quality control test.
The best way to run fridge's is to have a good a battery charger and use 240v to run the charger and have the battery in parallel with the fridge and the charger as transformers are more tolerant of frequency and voltage swings.

From my experience with a Waeco & previously a Trailblazer I think the manufacturers recommended the the frig's must be run off a battery probably for some of the above stated reasons. If all else fails read the instructions!

Hi DenisL,
these chinese genys seem to be ok, but the main thing most folk overlook is the start up wattage small apliance draw,so if your waeco requires,lets say 800/900 watts to start the ball rolling it's not going to do it! you have to know how much power is needed and keep within it"s capabilities,startup compared to running ,running power once started is generally much less so apliance with high start draw conect one at a time let settle and conect the next,bbut remember do not exceed the rated wattage output of the geny and you will run most of your toys.the wattage draw/amount is generaly under the apliance or marked some where.Hope this helps.
All The Best In Health Annd Wealth
Jeffrey (AKA JD)