110lt waeco

bugger the power draw, how the hell do you fit it in ??? wouldn't leave much space in the back would it??

Does it come with a steering wheel, bullbar and 35" tyres?

Most fridges (including Waeco) are fitted with low voltage cut outs. This is done not to protect the battery system, but to protect the compressor in the fridge. On my Waeco, I can set it to stop at a high or low voltage. I forget exactly what they are, but I believe the low voltage is 12.3v. That means the fridge will happily run until the battery hits this voltage, at which time it will cut out. Conveniently, there will also be enough charge in the battery to start the car. The question about how long this is can be worked out mathematically, but will depend on many variables such as outside temp, desired inside temp, condition of the battery. My suggestion would be to suck it and see - if there is not enough charge get a waeco thumper. I reckon if you keep the fridge full (they operate more efficiently with more mass inside them), you would get at least 24 hours in summer. My 45l lasted comfortably for 2 days last summer without a recharge.

Cheers
Andrew

Blue,
Mate of mine runs a 100 lt trailblaza off a battery and 2x80w hinged solar panels. Still requires a battery top up every time we run the generator. Probably because he doesn't care where he puts the fridge (shade, semi shade or sun). Gets opened fairly regularly to get at the amber fluid. Frozen stuff stays frozen under a ply board. Hope this helps in some way.
Cheers,
Bros.

i run a waeco 90 l and have left it on for 3 days and more with no battery issues . I run 2 batteries connected in Parralel , no fuss no gismos . = no dramas .

whoever told you it would render your battery useless after 3 hours need to he hit in the head with a sledge hammer .

Blue,

My understanding is that the 110 is mechanichally identical the the 80 with a taller cabinet. At Robe I was discussing the 80 with Peter (Peter and Lez). He runs his in his Cruiser off the start battery (only one) happily as long as he is travelling every day.

The 110 is rated to use an average of 3.6 amps at an ambient temp of 32 C with the fridge section holding 5 C. Clearly it would use nothing like this in lower day time temps and cool nights.

The bloke at Battery World ran an 80 for 24 hours in his showroom and the usage was less than 20 amps in 24 hours with an empty fridge.

As for driving time to replensih the battery, that depends on the type of aux batt you use. It's apparently true that a wet cell deep cycle will only accept about 5 amps per hour so a lot of driving would be needed. I have an AGM which soaks up charge as fast as you can throw it at it. From my experience as little as one hour per day will keep it topped up.

A solar panel may will help a normal DC but they're not cheap. Alternatively an AGM can be used if you're prepared to either run or idle the car for an hour per day, but AGM batts are not cheap $250-$400 for a 100 amp job.

Hope this helps.

Jim.

Blue

Are you talking about the Waeco 110 litre chest-type fridge? If so its power draw (of a bit under 4 amps) is not THAT much greater than the smaller units.

Let me know more and I can probably help - I asssume also you are talking about running it from a second battery charged by the vehicle's alternator.
Collyn Rivers

Blue,
Yes, solar panels costalotamoola. $600 plus each in OZ or get the two landed here from the good old US of A roughly for the price of one. Been on this site before somewhere. Have a search if SWMBO can be swayed with chockies and sweet talk.
Cheers,
Bros.

Blue

I'm all but certain that 110 litre fridge draws (as Jimbo says) about 3.6 amps.

Here's roughly what you can expect.

Consumption will vary considerably with ambient temperature and usage but by and large you would expect it to use a minimum of 25 and a (non-freak) maximum of 45 amp/hours every 24 hours: I'd be inclined to work on an average of 40.

This can barely be supplied, for one day, by a conventional 100 amp/hour lead acid battery. This is different from what you generally read and are told but this is battery reality.

The reason is that a standard alternator/regulator can only charge a conventional battery to 70% of its nominal capacity. So a 100 amp/hour battery is, at best, good for only 70 amp/hours. If you discharge it routinely below 60% discharged (the makers recommend only 50%) you will wreck it within about a year. Thus that battery is really only good for about 30 amp/hours - or 40 at a pinch.

The solution is that suggested by Jimbo. An AGM battery charges and discharges very much faster and more deeply - and can be discharged to at least 80% (discharged). A 100 amp/hour AGM wiull cost the earth but it will charge from a standard alternator close to 100%. You thus have 80 amp/hours available - and that's enough to run that fridge for your desired two days.

There's really no other cheap solution. Yoiu could look at the Christie 50 cc Honda 55 amp genset and a conventional battery - but that will cost you more than the AGM.

It is vital VITAL to use heavy cable when connecting to the battery. Minimum is 6.0 m autocable (that is 4.6 sq mm). 8 AWG (also known as 8 B&S) and actually just over 8 sq mm is not overkill.

There's a heap more about the above in my books - but you may end up knowing more than you had in mind!

Trust this helps
Collyn Rivers

Hi Blue
Also try the following site, Val gave me great service and alkot cheaper than Battery World
http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/
Regards Ray

hi blue,
i had no problem running the 110lt waeco for 4 weeks going up to cape york and back to adelaide back in august.the fridge was running off the 2nd battery.only problem we had is trying too keep it full of beers. cheers.

The larger Waeco's (FF70/80/90/110) all run the same compressor - a Danfross DB50, and as you can see from all the replies, it does not matter wat method people have used for either power supply or battery installation or the type of plugs used, they have all had the fridge run fine for days on end.

I think you were ill informed by some halfwit who does NOT know what he is talking about.

Save your money.

You actually dont "NEED" the extra one. It will only do what your starting one will do as the fridge will stop drawing current at about 12.3 volts regardless of wether there is 1 or 2 batteries. If you have a single battery and it draws down to the cut off there will always be enough at 12.3 to start the vehicle again. Save Your money if things are tight. My Waeco goes 3 days without a start before the cutoff and that is in above 30 degrees. Just park in th eshade and leave a bit of space around it to let the air circulate. get a insulated cover (cheap from the fridge shop online) if you have 100 bucks spare.

Remember 2 batteries = twice the cost to replace every 2 or 3 years. You will be spending more in order to spend more with no gain in fridge running time.

Jimbo

The 30, 50, 140 amp etc 'ratings' you find on cable are fire ratings only. They indicate only the current a cable can carry before the insulation melts. Because various insulation melts at varying temperatures depe4nding on cable purpose, a cable of a specific size may be (and is) rated at anything from (say) 20 amps to 70 amps.

This rating tells you nothing whatever about voltage drop - which is really what you are interested in. Sorry this of little help to you - but if you can measure the COPPER conductor's diameter - and let me know the distance between fridge and battery I can calculate the cross-sectional area and hence the voltage drop. Or you can do it yourself:

The formula is: Length of conductor (in metres) X current (in amps) X 0.017.
Divide the answer by the cross sectional area of the cable (in sq mm) and the answer is the exact voltage drop.

For example with fridge drawing (say) five amps, five metres from battery: Conductor length = 10 (metres) X 5 (amps) X 0.017 = 0.85.

Four square mm cable will thus result in 0.85 divided by 4 = equals a comfortable 0.21 volts drop. BUT NOTE that 4 sq mm cable is NOT 4 mm auto cable (the stuff your are almost certain to be sold). The auto cable equivalent is 6.0 mm (and that's actually about 4.6 sq mm). Don't tell me that's a stupid system - I know but I only write about this stuff!
Collyn Rivers

Collyn

Bart here again. Thanks for your input, I will give Val a call.
90% of the time I will not be in the one spot for longer than a few days But I would like the option to stay longer if I wish.

Once again thanks for the info.

Bart