Fan not working on Engel SR70F

Chris
Isn't that "circulates cooler air over the condenser?" which is what fitting of fans usually does and is his problem! Yes you can add internal cool flow fans from the evaporator too but it is already a fridge to do that. Just a bit confused with the meaning there.

Nick.
Seeing the fan power is effectively AC, you can use DC fans, I use two in series for quietness and they run on half voltage and move a lot of air past the condenser. My 40 L Engel WILL now freeze to -18, in 30 C ambient, something it never did before in it's life before the fans. The DC fan/s is used via a rectifier diode pack to make the AC from the Engel inverter to DC for DC fans.

Cheers. The existing fan is definitely 24V DC according to its label. The fan works perfectly when I put voltage directly to it. I did check again for AC or DC output, only getting 1V AC, 0V DC.

If I can’t find out why there is no output on the fan terminals I think I will just grab a 12V fan and connect it to the compressor wiring. Hopefully the extra 0.1A load doesn’t upset it!

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Hi Nick,

Was the compressor motor actually running when you looked for output on the fan terminals?
On some Engels this DC output is derived from the motor AC current and will not be created unless there is motor current actually flowing.

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Nick, in an Engel, there can be problems with connecting a fan to a 12vdc point that becomes 'live' when the fridge runs. If so there are alternatives.

1) Use your existing 24vdc fan connected to the motor ac input via a bridge rectifier, Jaycar ZR1304. You would need to check the ac voltage to the motor and maybe employ a voltage-dropping resistor if necessary.

2) use a 12vdc fan controlled by a thermostatic switch: Jaycar ST3831, 50c, normally open, $5.75, positioned near the compressor/condenser.

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Hi RMD, Engel do some unorthodox things in their circuitry and some, if not all, of their units produce a square half-wave dc then pass it to the 'motor' via a capacitor to create full-wave ac. The fan is connected across the capacitor which provides a nominal 24vdc. There is no conventional rectification to supply the fan. I am never comfortable with such circuits even if they do work.
If his 'compressor motor' is running and his fan runs on test then the capacitor I referred to must be intact so maybe his model uses a rectifier instead and it is faulty. Who knows? It is very hard to get technical info on Engels.

There can be a problem sometimes with placing 12v brushless computer fans in series. Not always maybe, but sometimes. Each fan relies upon its current to flow through the other fan and as they operate by 'chopping' the dc the current path is not contiguous which causes upsets. They can get very confused! Note that this may not apply to all 'computer' fans but I have encountered it twice. Wondered what was happening when each fan would rapidly get a burst of power then coast in turn.
Nick may do better to use his existing 24vdc fan connected to the Engel 'motor' via a bridge rectifier but as I said above, he may need to trim the fan voltage.


My own Waeco has been retrofitted with two fans but not in series.

Great stuff, hopefully helps me out! Thanks!!!

Nick
The fan seems to be positioned so it blows air over the compressor and perhaps some swirl gets to the condenser. Lovely to cool the compressor, but I imagined Engel would have provided a definite positive directed airflow in to fan and out to internals system, not a perhaps airflow. Although different, my40 L Engel had no fans OE, and I fitted two 12c dc 100mm fans wired in parallel on one side and a larger 100mm 12Dc fan extracting fan wired in series with those two on the other side of the cabinet, effectively extracting all air from the two smaller fans. The large one passes around the same current as the two in parallel so a match of current flow. All works on rectified AC about, 120ma in total, which runs the compressor. Because they all run below normal full voltage they are not much different to the solenoid compressor noise. In fact it breaks it up a bit. ie, white noise. A switch on the supply to the rectifier enables the fans to be switched off if required. Not as important in cold weather to need a fan though.

This fridge is designed to be in an enclosure without vents. The front of the fridge has an “inlet” vent at the bottom and an “outlet” vent at the top, the fan then just Cirvulstes it as required. Looks like the position of the fan is more to do with keeping the fridge compact. It definitely made a difference as the compressor has been running much longer lately.

I have the same fridge but slightly older version, it has no front vents or fan. I assume it was designed to go into a vented cupboard or similar.

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"Cirvulstes"?
I had an uncle that caught that. Very painful I believe. lol

Yes, very painful in the groin area!!!!

My fat fingers were supposed to write circulates...