Waeco low voltage cuffoff

depending on the type of dual charger it most likly needed a little bit of power in the second battery to know it was there so it could start charging it

Nothing to do with the isolator.

If you flatten a battery severely, it will be much slower to recharge because its internal resistance increases. Takes a lot of time to recharge it properly.

not saying that isthe problem just saying that like a alternator it may need somthing to get it going

isn't there some override switch on the waeco that runs the fridge continously when the electronics crap out

yours has a fault and cuts out at 11.7v your lucky mine cuts out at 12.5v don`t even think of using the turbo function, waeco told me it was my wiring, tried 4 battiries 7 different sockets (and conected derect to batterie) in 3 different cars and still won`t run for more than 30 seconds. After 4 months in and out of the repairers I got sick of there bad attitude and bad service and brought an engle, runs fine on batteries that would`nt run the waeco. (not trying to start a waeco v engle war)

That doesn't work either. The dealer said I have a fault in the curciut board but I refuse to spend another $300 to replace it.
So if I could find out has disable the baterry protection it should solve my problem.

and so would a SOLAR panel

The problem may be in the fridge and not the battery, unless it's too small of course!

How many days does it take to get down to 11.9v ??

Too bad if you're camping in the Alpine National Park for a week where they are illegal - along with a few other Vic National Parks....

Go solar if you're stuck or run the big generator under the bonnet.

Dave

That would be rite your lucky to be aloud to take pictures in the national parks

I am running a direct connection from the fridge to battery using 16amp wiring.

16 amp wire might sound a lot but might still be inadequate if it's several metres from the battery to the fridge. It might be OK if the battery is next to the fridge. I think some people use 6m cable which I believe is rated at 50 amps to limit the voltage drop over a long cable run. My CF50 is in for repairs with some circuit board problem. Good luck with your issue.
Rob.

Sorry, that should read 6mm cable.

Indeed Phil - my new CF60 came with a power cable that had significant voltage drop in it - replaced it with my own cable concoction - its a bit poor of Waeco in my view.

Hi

didn't mean to repeat Robbg's post

... I guess great minds think alike :-)

There appears to be a problem with the AC version of these fridges. I had the same problem where it would initially cut out in turbo mode after about 1 or 2 minutes, then sometimes in normal mode, especially in hot weather.
The is a polyswitch protector on the switch mode supply circuit board.
It is rated at 5 amps and the fridge can draw more than that in turbo mode. This makes the device get hot and it will increase it's resistance.
Normally when the temperature reaches a certain point, these devices will suddenly "flip" into a high resistance state. They will remain that way until they cool down and then reconnect the circuit.
In the case of the waeco, there is another low voltage cut out which is actually part of the compressor drive electronics. This will sense a low voltage condition just before the polyswitch actually trips, hence the error light.
The 5 amp polyswitch fitted is marginal at best, but when you look at the device and compare it with other similar spec devices, it is much smaller. I suspect this is why it becomes overly sensitive when it has cycled a few times.
To prove if this is your problem, just run the fridge on AC. The internal power supply will actually convert the 240V to about 26 Volts to run the fridge. At that voltage the current draw is about half (2 amps) and the polyswitch will not heat up and cause the problem.

Cheers

Eric,
are you really sure there's an "inverter" in this model waeco ??

"The reason there's a low voltage cut out is to protect the inbuilt inverter, if you bypass the cutout you will convert your invertor into smoke, Eric"

There are 3 bits of electronics in the later waeco.

1. A small switch mode 240/24V power supply
2. A small circuit board to control the top display and set thermostat levels and turbo mode.
3. The control electronics which are part of the Danfoss compressor.

This last board (which is not repairable) has the smarts to drive the compressor as well as sensing a variety of error conditions like low voltage, overcurrent on the compressor motor, stalled compressor and overtemperature of the electronics. It also drives the error LED and the fan.
The fault I have experience and which seems to be fairly common, is on the first board. All power to the compressor electronics passes through that, both on 240AC or DC operation.
The voltage drop on that board causes the compressor electronics to sense an error. Once it is in an error mode, such as low voltage, it re-tries after about one minute to see if it can re-start the compressor (the fan stays on during that period).
Normally the compressor will re-start, but because of the fault mentioned in my previous post, the low voltage cut-out will operate again after a short while. If the turbo button has been pressed, the turbo light will stay on and will not re-set to normal mode as it does when the fridge has reached the desired temperature. This results in the fridge never cooling down to the set temperature, especially if it is set to cool down to around 0C (3 LEDs), because it cycles constantly in error mode.
Cheers

Mainey.
No Im not sure, I thought that they all used the 240 volt danfoss but hl obviosly knows more than me, sounds like removing the poly switch is what is required if you don't care about blowing the cct. Eric

Hi...
Removing it is not a good idea. Replacing it with a 6 amp one fixes the problem.
Cheers

(the compressor in all portable Waecos is a 12/24V unit)

i am in geelong. do you know anybody here?

Try Roger Langham at Battery World. West Fyans St.

He's a good tech. I assume he's still there. I haven't spoken to him for ages.

It's hard to find techs who aren't board jockies these days. But he isn't. Worth a shot.

Dave

will give it a go. thanks dave

No Probs.

Tell him Dave said g'day. I used to visit him as a rep in a former career and we both flew models - he even sponsored our events a few times. Nice bloke.

Dave

sorry, out of luck there.
Dave's suggestion is best bet.
Techie

wow, I don't like the sound of that. What actually happens to the compressor when run on low voltage.

Don't care If I blow the fridge its my last option. I just want to bypass the low voltage cutoff. If I blow it up it may be the excuse I need to buy an Engel which doesn't have the cutoff. Does anybody know how to do it?

On high the cutout is 12.2 volts
On medium 11.7 volts
On low 12.2 volts

Hi,
You can't bypass the low voltage cutout because it is part of the compressor electronics. You can, however, bypass the other electronics and this will make the compressor run continously at a fixed (lowest) speed and there is no thermostat control either. All you have to do is flick the "emergency switch". That's all it does.
If you keep opening it enough to take out and replenish coldies, it is unlikely that it will freeze. However, running it overnight shut is probably not a good idea if you don't want things frozen.
By the way, the fridge would still cut out if the voltage dropped to the low cutoff point, however, because it runs at the slowest speed, it only draws about 2 amps so it will take longer to cut out and it would also tolerate inadequate wiring somewhat better.
Cheers

Love to use the emergency switch but due to a fault it doesn't work either. Somebody said they had bypassed the cutoff on a past post.

Thanks again

which service agent did you take yours to today? I have been on the phone to waeco in qld and they told me to go to another agent and get a load test done but like you i no longer have any faith in them!!!

We are in mackay, we had ours load tested before it had the first power supply replaced and they told us it was our battery and wiring that was the problem. My partner insisted on having him lookat it, and thats how the problem was found.

the thing that chits us is that it started carrying on at 4mths old, replacement power supply did NOTHING to fix the problem,
replacement power supply blew up less than two weeks later,
and now the service agent tells us that Waeco will only want to replace the power supply, a solution that obviously doesn't work.
How does he know this? because we are just the latest in a long line with the same problem.

we are starting to think the onboard ac is not very well made, and as it is a recent innovation it could just be teething problems.

Having ranted about all this I would reccomend anyone experiencing this problem to insist on having it checked properly.

Cackles

good luck. ours is out of warranty by 2 years so i dont think we have much hope. can you keep us posted on how you get on? thnks

My Waeco (CF40) cuts out at 12.0 high 11.0 med and 10.4 low. As I don't want to stuff the 120amp hr AGM battery I use it is always set to cut out at 12.0 volt - high. I get several days dependant on temp of course. My wiring is 4GA (20mm2 actual cable) with the only plug being the one going into the Waeco - no voltage drop.

Regards