WAECO V ENGEL 4WD MONTHLY TEST

which issue 4wd monthly?

Duck

So according to 4WD Monthly you should buy a Disco and a Waeco? Wonder what the next gem will be?

How could so many people get things so wrong over the years. ;-)

Have Roothy and Co got pet names for Waecos and Engels yet? They refer to Toyotas as Hungys (what the ?!), so they must have silly names for other things.

This mag gets more frivolous every month.

Would you be refering to the February 2006 edition?? I loved the November 05 edition....it carried a large advert for the October 2005 4wd show in Melb?? If it wasn't for the freebees I'd ditch the mag...poor old "Editor" Pat cannot even string an editoral together which has any value let alone provide any reasonable debate on issues relevant to a vast number of the readership. As for Roothy, he is a product of a past better forgotten!! So as for your fridge comparo.....I doubt it will convince any informed reader to change from their existing preferences. That's my view.....shame I have a year and a half of subscription left!!

Funny that, because in their "exhaustive testing" of fridges in their 4WD Accessories Guide, which was done in a temperature controlled chamber, the Engel/ARB 40L had rated power consumption of 1.6 amps/hr, whereas the Waeco 40L was rated at 2.0 amps/hr.

This is one reason why I now steadfastly refuse to buy so called 4 x 4 magazines, which are purely a vehicle for advertisers, along with a few poorly written & hastily put together articles.

Interesting how we seem to focus on power consumption when assessing fridges.
While I checked out the rated consumption to ensure I'd have enough power, I had a heap of selection points which were more important to me.
Like:
Dual temp, with separate freezer
Built in digital temp read out and user selectable temp for cycling on and off
Enough refrigeration power to freeze stuff as quickly as the home freezer
Footprint, hight and accessibility to fit my vehicle for best space usage
Short @rse SWMBO able to access it without using a step.
Solid (steel) construction with steel hinges.
Well insulated so no insulation bag required and performs well high temp areas.

How much power does it draw? Don't know, and don't care much either as I can easily run the fridge and lights off the Deep Cycle for 2 days without running the vehicle. Probably more, fridge is set to cut out at 10.5 Volts and it has never got there. Lowest I've ever measured is 11.4V, using the digital voltmeter which is also included in the fridge control panel.

So (within reason), who cares how much power it uses, as long as you have enough to keep it going for your use.

Nothing like a little bait to get the Engel owners frothing at the mouth :)))))

Im with you Old Nick,
I sold a 60 litre Engel 15 years ago to buy my Trailblazer & its never missed a beat.They were recently tested by the army who are now using them so that must say something about them.

Oi! does whatever you have keep the beer cold.

Thats the only criteria of importance

I must say right now that I'm a waeco owner, but that's only because I went to the 4WD adventure show in perth a few years back and the specials were pretty darn good, and I didn't have the extra 300 bucks it would have cost me for an engel.

The only thing I can say about the waeco that I like over the engel, and I'm not saying I don't like them, but, I like the interior light, and I like the reversible lid.

I have hired an engel several times and found my only complaint would be the lid comes off too easily. and is awkward to slide back on in a packed up vehicle.

NOW, as for that magazine. HHHMMPPHHH. My subscription is almost up and I won't be renewing it if the biggest priority is continually going to be XXXX and how much of it Roothy can drink. On the front page they always brag about "BLOCKBUSTER 275 PAGES OF RIP ROARING FORBYS"

I counted how many pages of adds once, it added up to 135 full pages.