New engle fridge

Woodiebro

My understanding is the general way a thermostat works is the coldest position on the dial (or digital readout) is no thermostat intervention. Meaning it will continue to work full time and not cut out. When you then turn the dial up a little, it will cut in and out proportionally. The way you should work it is to get it to a temperature that you want, turn the dial backward until the thermostat cuts out and it theoretically should maintain that temperature. That would explain why you have obtained such a low temperature - I assume you have it set on the lowest temperature setting. In practice it is difficult to maintain a constant temp with the Engels. If the outside temp goes up, you generally need to adjust the Engel temp down a little to compensate.

21 degrees would generally be too low for most applications - there is no way you need to maintain a temp of -21 degrees. It means when we are talking 12 volt you are unnecessarily useing up vital battery life.

My Engel is a few years older than yours, but the principal will be the same. It takes a little trial and error to get the temp right.

Where possible, chill the food prior to putting it in the fridge. I have chill-1-2-3-4-5-freeze settings on my Engel (39L) I generally don't go past no 1 otherwise the lettuce/tomatoes freeze. It is generally cold enough for the amber ales and keeps meat/fish/milk etc a good temp for a long life. I don't have a thermometer though, just go by the temp of the beer and the feel of the meat/fruit and veg. Never had food poisoning from it!

When I freeze (usually only with bait on the way or fish on the way back), usually no. 4 or 5 is sufficient. This includes 40 degree days in the middle of summer with inside temps reaching 60 degrees (have thermometer in car) Compressor still cycles, but food freezes.

You haven't said if you have had the fridge on 12 or 240v. This may make a difference to your fridge's performance, so too the quality of wiring in the car. There are hundreds of posts on this so do a search and find out if you need.

You have bought an excellent fridge. Don't let anyone tell you you paid too much and should have got a Waeco - your lid won't warp, you can stand or sit on it, the case won't rub through if in contact with something else in the car while travelling on corrugations, and it is not uncommon to hear of 30yo Engels that have never had a service in their life.

Hope this helped.

D-Jack

P.s. the tropics will be not problem for your new fridge.

Thanks D-Jack
You have pretty much answered all the questions and it appears that it is working as you described. It is running on 240v. It has settings 1-5, 5 being freeze and is at -21 on this setting. I'll keep playing now until I see how I will ned to keep it at the right temp
Thanks
Terry

Gidday Woodiebro, Technical Tip: if you set your engel at a whisker past 3 and put your full strength stubbies in it then they will come out with a nice cool mist falling off the side of the bottle.. nectar of the gods..
P.S don't put mums lemonade or milk in it at that temp or they'll be chewy..
Cheers.. Dodgy

Keep your whistle wet and your powder dry.. ;-)