Refrigerators

You have opened it up now Barry.

For what it is worth I have had 2 Waeco's now for over 10 years and not a problem ever. One is a 50 litre that lives in the car and one 35 litre that comes in the camper on long trips.

No doubt others will have different experiences but at the end of the day it gets down to personal choice and budget.

A chest fridge is too opening, whereas my idea of a bar fridge is upright with a front opening door. Please could you clarify which type you want.
My experience with Waeco was terrible, but my Engel has performed faultlessly for over 12 years.

Have a look at the upright fridges at Aussie Direct

They have a 90L one than might do the job for you.

Have been driving a truck lately that has an 80L Waeco upright fridge in it. Must say am quite impressed with it. Looks good with a silver-satin finish, a door locking bar at the top, and adjustable shelves that are quite deep. Freezer is small, probably big enough for a packet of paddle pops.

Thinking of one for our slide on, so as to do away with need for a drop slide unit, with its extra kgs.

Bob

I had an original Waeco CF50. TERRIBLE!! I had every problem that your read about with it. Swore I would never buy another Waeco!!

I then bought a 40 L Engel, good robust fridge. Layout not as good as the Waeco, Very Noisy compared to the Waeco. And struggles when it gets really hot and takes a little while to recover. Draws less current when running than the CF50 but duty cycle is higher so pretty much uses same power overall.

My son then bought a Waeco CFX65. Great fridge, seems that the problems are sorted and very low current draw.

So I bit the bullet and bought a CFX 50. I now run the Waeco as a drinks/salad style fridge as the layout is better than the Engel and the Engel as a Freezer.

In summary both fridges are pretty good and it will come down to personal choice, bearing in mind that the Engel "Swing Motor" is noisy enough to potentially be a pain if you sleep near it.

I have done long remote, and bumpy and hot trips so robustness of either fridge has not been an issue.

The above is my actual experience. I run two optima batteries in parallel and a 95 watt solar panel permanently fixed to my vehicle roof rack. This keeps everything running well.

Hope this helps.

Which ever way you go, be aware that most are top latching. The one we had in the campomatic ended up with a bent door from whatever items which were on the shelves falling off and jamming against the bottom of the door door and trying to open it. You'd get where you wanted to be and the fridge would be hot.
I installed a cabin hook on the bottom as well but it was a painful fridge to live with on the whole.
We have had top opening fridges since and have never looked back. I understand if its in a van you may not have this option so maybe retrofitting a lower catch might save you some heartache. But if it's a van I doubt you'll be traversing the country we towed the campomatic in either.

We have had an Engle 60 Ltr for over 12 years. It has travelled in the back of the 76 series wagon, Kimberly Camper, & back in the wagon. Been in central Qld. In 40 plus degrees & never had a problem with it. As for being noisy, when it was in the Kimberly, we didn't notice it. While expensive to purchase, from the research I did before buying it, it was the most efficient to operate on 12 volt.

Macca.

Another thread where the original poster seems to have gone AWOL.....
Still don't know whether its a chest fridge or a bar fridge he wants?

bar type fridge is the info i need.not free standing.bolted into a box type arrangement with vents top and bottom,have a isotherm at the moment not much use over 24 degrees c thanks for answers so far