low voltage problems with waeco cf 40

Submitted: Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:14
ThreadID: 31022 Views:16550 Replies:17 FollowUps:28
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anyone having any dramas with their waeco's have had all electrical system tested. I have a 120 Ah fullriver agm connected via a redarc isolator. Battery shop mob have tested battery under load and it seems to be performing fine however I am on my second fridge after ongoing warranty repairs and still have the same problem with the new one. the low voltage error light is coming on and shutting it down. have had battery tested, lead tested, connections tested, battery mob said 98% of time low voltage problems are with battery setup not fridge however I seem to be the 2 % with a dodgy fridge twice? very frustrating just want my fridge to work! (when testing fridge at workshop low voltage error light was shutting down fridge at 12.6 volts under load with voltage shutoff set at low) any ideas anyone?
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Reply By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:21

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:21
nup no idea but someone else was having the same problem a week or two ago. This chap was very frustrated with his Waeco.
AnswerID: 156357

Reply By: Member - 'Lucy' - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:21

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:21
What is the size of the cable/wire running from the fridge to the battery

and

what is the distance that it has to run.

and

What if any, is the fuse setup between the fridge and the battery
AnswerID: 156358

Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:27

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:27
Should be at least 6mm cable (automotive terminology) in a good brand that is mucho copper and not mucho insulation to pad out the dia.

That equates to approx 4.x mm² of conductor.

This is for a typical installation in an average sized fourbie.

I think from memory the Waeco book specifies a cable size.

Dave
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FollowupID: 410438

Follow Up By: Eza - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:31

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:31
i have 6 B+S (13mm) running from car battery to dual battery, the leads and fuses to the fridge are all standard waeco gear, second set only two weeks old. has all been tested by tech and it all leads the a fridge problem for the second time?
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FollowupID: 410441

Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:36

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:36
Sound's like your investigation have been reasonably thorough. It's Engel time....

Given that you have changed the leads you have probably eliminate that too. I'd still do the max min thing if it were me. It's amazing what you find sometimes.

Dave
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FollowupID: 410444

Follow Up By: Member - Beatit (QLD) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 12:00

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 12:00
Eza,

Don't get put off by these Engel charletans. What I found with both my Weacos is that they are vunerable to low voltage. The key is to check everything and it sound like you have but you haven't mentioned the 12V plug arrangement where you plug the weaco cable into. What I also found is that this is where most problems seem to occur. Solved mine by hardwirring the fridges into a 12v fusebox fed by the second battery. This has solved all my problems, all I did was buy another couple of weaco cables, toss the cigi ends and hardwire that.

3 months travelling the Kimberley and no more problems.

Kind regards
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FollowupID: 410520

Reply By: geocacher (djcache) - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:24

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:24
Get a maximum/minimum recording multimeter (chinese copies of brand name units widely available at reasonable prices or borrow one if you can - handy to have a digital multimeter in your kit anyway).

Tap into the power lead to the fridge AFTER the start of the factory power lead to incorporate testing the junction of your setup and the power lead.

Set it on Max/Min and leave it in situ until your fridge shuts down as described.

Check your max & min recorded voltages and see what you get.

I know you said it's cutting out at 12.6 volts under load but I'm not sure if you mean that it's doing that in your system or on a benchtop test from something like a power supply.

If it's tripping out and the max min meter hasn't recorded a voltage low enough to trip it then there's most likely an issue with the fridge.

Dave
AnswerID: 156360

Follow Up By: Eza - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:37

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:37
tech had a test gadget that puts system under approx 6 amp of load eqivalant to maximum load a cf 80 would draw from hot with the turbo button pressed and it dropped from no load 12.8 ish to about 12.6 under this test load nowhere near where there should be a low voltagre problem
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FollowupID: 410445

Reply By: fredd - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:32

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:32
yes eza, im having exactly the same problem, batery 12.6v at fridge, but cutting out. cant remember wAT SIZE WIRE I HAVE. BIGGER THAN 6MM, SOMETHING WITH A 28 IN IT I THINK. IVE TRIED LINKING 3 BATTERIES TOGETHER TO TRY AND GAT IT TO RUN FOR A WEEKEND BUT IT STILL CUTS OUT.
I THINK ITS BACT TO WAECO, OR GET AN ENGEL. SAW A WAECO 39L TODAY IN SUPERCHEAP FOR $550

FRED
AnswerID: 156363

Follow Up By: Eza - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:46

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:46
this is the second new fridge i've had in 6 months and same problem, can't bag waeco too much as they have been pretty good with trying to fix my problem, and gave me a new fridge, tech that waeco have requested look at my system says its fine and all points to in his words a rare problem with the fridge. surely I can't have scored a lemon twice. I am happy to accept something is wrong with my setup not the fridge but no one can. tech even got another new model off showroom floor this arvo and it worked fine
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FollowupID: 410448

Reply By: Member - Blue (VIC) - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:51

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 22:51
Eza,
a mate of mine was having exactly the same probs and basically did the same testing as you... All things led to the fridge being the problem... Out of frustration he asked to borrow my second battery(Remco 100Ah AGM), it ran for 2 days without a problem... Left scratching his head as this destroyed the theory... I took his battery home(both removeable from the vehicle via Anderson Plug) charging it with my system and plugged my 110L Waeco into it... Ran for about 4 hours then went out on low voltage... His battery had been fully tested by Battery World, they were not the supplier just local and willing, so this didn't make sense... He bought a new Battery, I believe a Full River and his fridge hasn't missed a beat since. After this, he took the old(3 or 4 months old) battert back to the supplier to claim warranty on it being faulty... They thoroughly tested it , as you'd expect, perfect bill of health and no warranty claim... It now sits in his camper to run the versa light.

Some things just can't be explained...
AnswerID: 156367

Follow Up By: Eza - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 23:16

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 23:16
interesting? my battery is a fullriver 120 Ah, battery world have also done the testing same deal not supplier just willing and local, I have run direct off main cranking battery, another waeco coolpower 36Ah i use for lighting as well as 2 month old fullriver and still having same problem. everything is pointing to fridges i just can't believe i could get two bleep boxes in a row
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FollowupID: 410457

Follow Up By: Member - Blue (VIC) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 00:35

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 00:35
Yep 2 in a row would definately constitute bloody bad luck... I guess there is always that chance with anything electronic... 3rd time lucky, perhaps... Good luck.
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FollowupID: 410472

Follow Up By: crewser - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:16

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:16
2 in a row is not bad luck, same thing happened to me (and others) fridge would not run on 12v at all. waeco said it was my battery/wiring (in all 3 cars 5 batterys 7 power sockets and direct connection to battery) you should not have to rewire every car you have just so you can run your fridge. 3rd time lucky I brought an engle.
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FollowupID: 410514

Reply By: Derek from Affordable Batteries & Radiators - Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 23:45

Tuesday, Feb 21, 2006 at 23:45
Hi there Eza,

If you are in Brisbane I would like to take a look at your set up.

Give me a ring if you like and I can walk you though the wiring problems.

I don't think it is the fridge more a voltage drop in the wiring / fuse or plugs.

Regards Derek
AnswerID: 156378

Reply By: Member - Jerry C (WA) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 00:35

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 00:35
Hi Eza,
A lot of words have been written above and a number of owners seem to be having problems. In your introduction you wrote, "With voltage Shutoff set at Low".

My question is " What is Low?" What does Low mean in Volts? It sounds like Low is 12.6 volts, I would think that low should be about 11.6 volts (for a lead acid battery) which is 1.93 volts per cell, but ask the Dealer what he thinks it should be.
See if you can find a workshop with a 10 Amp DC, varible power supply, (eg; 5 to 20 volts) so that you can connect the fridge with minimum length leads, wind the voltage down until the fridge shuts down and tthere is your answer. Is it as per the manufactures specification?, this way you will have an answer in minutes and it should be repeatable and there isn't a battery in site.

Good Luck, Jerry.
AnswerID: 156383

Reply By: brett - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 00:36

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 00:36
As it's been said before get a digital multimeter and do some measurments, if the meter is reading a constant 12V and the fridge is saying low volts cutout then it's a fridge problem. Just make sure you measure at the point as close to the fridge as possible
AnswerID: 156384

Reply By: Member JD- Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 01:25

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 01:25
Hi Eza,
Mines doing the same thing! but I am hot on the heals of the problem??I run dual batt setup one cranking and one deep cyle..your cranking batt needs to be fully charged before it will allow charge to go your fridge batt( deep Cyle) to fully charge..what I do is hook up my batt charger to my fridge batt the night before I use it and also I pre refrigerate everything that gos in..if I have nothing to go in I use ice bricks to assist fridge to reach desired temp without putting to much strain on my freshly charged fridge batt....but remember your red arc will not allow charge thru to your fridge batt if your cranking batt is not fully charged,so it needs to be checked pryor to use..now that your batts are squared away..go to your wiring remember its a long run back to the fridge so use the heaviest multi strand cable you can find that will fit thru your holes to the fridge..if needed make them bigger to acomodate..and just as important is the earth strap use the same dia cable for it aswell this is often overlooked..where you earth it out make sure its shiney or run it back to the batt..now Ive come to this conclusion as mine is doing the same thing but when I hook it up to my power supply 8 amp 12 volt my fridge runs perfect..the differance between a fully charged deep cyle and a flat deep cyle is not much..your redarc will show a red LED light when charge is going to your fridge batt untill you see the red light light on its just not getting charge..if its not getting charge your fridge is sucking all the power out of your batt..the power it needs to boot up the fridge so ofcorse once the batt falls below a certian level it throws an error light..and has no chance of recovery..I no now how frustrating this sort of thing is butt double check everything..buy yourself a hydrometer and a cheap multimeter. Hope This Helps.
JD
AnswerID: 156389

Follow Up By: Eza - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 19:43

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 19:43
yep as stated previously the tech has put a gadget on that loads the battery up more than my fridge ever can (he said it _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx the eqivalent of about 6 amps)? and under that loads the meter is still showing it at 12.6 volts go figure
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FollowupID: 410618

Follow Up By: Eza - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 20:02

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 20:02
i didn't pay $900 for a fridge to be used as a half arsed esky, if I want to use ice bricks and pre cool stuff i would have bought a foamy from sollys and put the remaining $895 towards ice!!!
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FollowupID: 410623

Follow Up By: Member JD- Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 22:49

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 22:49
Hey Eza,
Folks can only try an help,if you dont want forum advice or experience..dont post..if you ask you will find that pre cooling your fridge is a done thing..not a waste of time..as I stated ! the diferance between a full deep cyle batt and a flat deep cyle is not much, you go figger!!but maybe when you sort your problem out you will find that if you cant run with your problem maybe $895 spent on ice might be a good idea for you!!
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FollowupID: 410656

Follow Up By: Eza - Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 15:18

Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 15:18
not having a go at you jd appreciate your thoughts! I was just saying i'm not prepared to spend $900 on a fridge and then have to help it out with ice, thats just me i expect a better product than that for my $900. Waeco have been in contact and I am more than happy with the attention they are giving me.
cheers
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FollowupID: 410759

Follow Up By: Member JD- Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 15:33

Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 15:33
Allright then no dramas,I do understand the frustration,Hope it all works out well.
JD
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FollowupID: 410761

Reply By: russ36 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 06:47

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 06:47
i had an engel tripping because of low voltage, no matter how much i improved the wiring, it still tripped. so i bought a down under fridge and the problem vanished. waeco wouldnt have replaced the fridge if they thought your wiring was the problem...and if i could buy a 39 litre waeco for $550 then i just wouldnt buy one... take it back and get a third... and if it still stuffs up get a refund,otherwise your fourth may only work for a little while before it dies on a trip away....but surely your third or fourth will be ok....there are too many happy waeco owners out there for this to be anything more than a bad run of luck.....i think from memory my fridge cuts out at about 10.6
AnswerID: 156405

Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 08:03

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 08:03
Engels don't have a low voltage cutout feature. The compressor are not damaged by low voltage as the danfoss is.
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FollowupID: 410494

Follow Up By: Gerry - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 14:46

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 14:46
My auxilliary battery carked it last Sunday. Noticed the Engel at 10 degrees. Battery voltage was down to 8.6 as the fridge had been on all night. The Engel was still humming away trying to work. Hence, I agree - no cutout. Fortunately the Engel is unaffected by this unlike the Danfoss. However, it does tend to "finish" the battery off when this sort of thing happens.
Gerry
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FollowupID: 410553

Follow Up By: russ36 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 19:29

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 19:29
so mad dog, any ideas on why my engel red button keeps tripping other than incorrect polarity?
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FollowupID: 410608

Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 19:43

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 19:43
You a have a red button on your Engel Russ, dunno, maybe mine has one also but I've never had the need to find or press it, what is it a circuit breaker ? in which case a short will trip it.
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FollowupID: 410616

Reply By: hl - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 07:56

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 07:56
The low cutout is actually 10.4 according to the manual.
I have posted before about a similar problem. There is a component called a Polyswitch inside the internal AC supply. It would appear that this component becomes overly sensitive and activates the low voltage cutout. The one in my fridge was a 5Amp component and considering the fridge can draw close to 6 amps in turbo mode, I think it is underrated. I upgraded to a 6amp Poly switch and the problem is gone.
You can test if the Polyswitch is the likely culprit by running the fridge off a 10 amp or so fixed 12-14V supply. Press the turbo switch and if your fridge cuts out within a couple of minutes with the low voltage error, I am pretty sure that is the problem.
Now, it is quite a fiddly job to replace and I would not recommend anyone not experienced in repairing switch mode power supplies to do it.

Cheers

AnswerID: 156415

Follow Up By: Sand Man (SA) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:19

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:19
hl,

If 10.4 volts is the cutout voltage, it's too low mate.
A battery at 10.5 volts = fully discharged.
A battery at 11.75 volts = 30% remaining and should be as low as you allow the battery to be discharged.
Bill


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FollowupID: 410515

Follow Up By: hl - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:30

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:30
Yes, it is quite low. Don't forget that this is with a 3-4 amp load and after a cable run which will have some drop. So, at the battery end it will most likely be still above 11 Volts.
Anyway, that's what the book says.
Cheers
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FollowupID: 410516

Follow Up By: Mainey (WA) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 14:30

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 14:30
hl, 10.5 volts is not "quite low" it's a "dead" battery

11.8v to 12v is a realistic low battery cutout figure that will not damage the battery and will allow the battery to be quickly and effectively recharged.

If you are running a fridge via cable that you are actually aware will give you any voltage drop as you say, then that's a problem you are obviously prepared to accept.
If some-one installed a system in my vehicle that gave me ANY voltage drop, I would be taking it back and telling him to fix the problem he has created.

Every auto sparky can tell you what size cable will give you 'zero' voltage drop at any specified cable run length, and sure it may have cost you an extra $4 or $5, but you will have zero voltage drop and better battery performance.

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FollowupID: 410549

Follow Up By: Wizard1 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:12

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:12
hl,
besides the suggestion to take the fridge back to Waeco. Yours is the first well thought and logical diagnosis and cure yet...

I've had CF50 for 4 years. Worked out the Hi/Lo switch problem, etc...The fridge has sat in the back of our 4WD running off the same dual battery system (and battery) for 4 years and never missed a beat apart from times where there was a loose connection..The 240V transformer gave up the ghost after 4 years of hard travelling and heat(not Mobitronic) pumping out only 6.5 V. The bloody thing is bullet proof.

Its not the battery or the wiring it is the fridge.....

I would ask Eza if he has had the fridge circuitry tested as Hl has suggested. It appears he has done exhaustive tests of batteries, etc but made no mention of the fridge.
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FollowupID: 410559

Follow Up By: hl - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:16

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:16
Well... it would be hard to get close to "zero" voltage drop with a cable run from the front to the back of the vehicle unless you were prepared to use "4 Gauge" wire or something.......
I am sure the engineers at Waeco are well aware of the various voltage levels that would be reasonable to use for a cut-out. The end point voltage of a flat battery would be around 11.8 volts but that is with NO LOAD. The 4 amps or so the Waeco _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx would easily pull that down to say 10.5 volts and then cut out.
Provided the battery is not left in that condition for more than a day, it should recover without problems.
Cheers
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FollowupID: 410560

Follow Up By: hl - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:27

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:27
Wizard1...
The problem is that the WAECO troubleshooting guide says "If your fridge does not cut out when running it on AC, then the problem is almost certainly your wiring". And often this may well be the case, but in this instance it is definitely NOT. I hate to think how many people have re-wired their cars for no good reason.
This particular fault I have researched on my fridge will actually NEVER show if the fridge is run on the internal power AC power supply, simply because that supply runs it on 24Volts. This means it it only _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx about 2 amps and the underated polyswitch is happy with that.

Cheers
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FollowupID: 410562

Reply By: Shane (QLD) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 07:57

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 07:57
Eza,

I have a older type Waeco 45 with the slide controls, but with the high & low cutout. I use it at times in a Terracan which has various power outlets including one in the rear. These are rated at 120 watts which should run the fridge. Unfortuneately the fridge will not run unless the motor is going, so it was obvious that there was voltage drop when the vehicle was not going. I ended up running 6mm wiring all the way to another plug & the fridge now runs on both high or low setting. I have noticed a strange thing in the the initial 15 minutes of running the fridge the voltage can drop from 12.6v to 11.8v, but recovers back to 12.3v after a while. ( motor not running, with a multi meter at socket). I also use the fridge in the Cruiser which has dual batteries in Parralel with just a isolation switch with no dramas either & also run a thermo cooler at the same time off the two sockets at the back (6mm wire also, same circuit ).
AnswerID: 156416

Reply By: Howard T - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 09:56

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 09:56
Hi Eza

I had a similar problem with my Waeco. After much swearing etc as the current to the end of the cable that plugs into the fridge was reading OK I ended up giving the male connectors on the fridge itself a good cleanup and she worked perfectly. Obviously they had picked up a bit of grime and dust and was enough to upset the 12v current.
Dont know if this is your problem or not but I know its a pain in the bum.

Howard.
AnswerID: 156435

Follow Up By: nickoff - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 11:15

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 11:15
Like wise, I have a Waeco FF40, been in use for years on power pack. Went to use on batteries, no go. Pulled plug from socket of fridge, and was full of verdgris (spelling?) ...green copper corrosion. Replaced lead and socket, simple solder job. Fixed. Was a major voltage drop inside the plug/socket due corrosion. Check it out.

Nick
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FollowupID: 410517

Reply By: Member - Collyn R (WA) - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:26

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 15:26
It is simply essential to establish whether that 12.6 volts at which the fridge cuts out is at the fridge - or at (as I suspect) the battery.

Any discussion is meaningless unless this is known for certain.

The problem sounds very much like voltage drop - much it's a waste of everyone's time until a reliable voltage measurement (with the fridge cycled on) is made right at that fridge.

Re voltage cut outs - it is true that a battery (and or the fridge) is best disconnected when the battery is at 11.4-1.8 volts.

But most are set to cut-out a bit lower than this. This is because the onsurge current when many loads initially are turned on momentarily drops battery voltage.

Were the cutouts to be set to drop out at the safe lowest battery voltage - they would in practice cut out before necessary. If in doubt, check the battery voltage a moment or two after the cutout operates. My own preference would be for 11.8 volts.

These cutouts are usually described as 'battery protectors". They do perform that function but they also protect fridge motors against overheating.

This occurs at low voltage because cooling fan output is roughly proportional to the fifth power of the applied voltage.

Or, more basically, the buggers dont blow worth diddly-squat when the battery runs low.
Collyn Rivers


AnswerID: 156489

Follow Up By: Eza - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 20:00

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 20:00
tech has a clip on gadget to test lead that clips around cable at fridge, another gadgett that similates fridge drawing 6 amps sounding like a broken record but, battery tested under load fine, lead fine tried three different ones, just crap #$%&^#* fridges (cable from main batt to aux 13mm (6B+S) tried another fridge off showroom floor worked fine!, the other fridge was 5 months old the newest one is a week old so no problem with dirty connections
that fridge is at the very least recieving 12.6 volts and is shutting down because of low voltage, just spins me out that it can be happpening two times in a row. Waeco wouldn't had just handed me over a new fridge if they wern't happy my setup was ok. I've had the old 99% of the time it a problem with wiring speech several times know from different techs and in the end all have gone bugger me looks like its a problem with the fridge go figure
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FollowupID: 410622

Reply By: bravo - Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 20:36

Wednesday, Feb 22, 2006 at 20:36
Been having similar dramas with my cf50 along with another one i have sold so to follow up dropped into my local waeco dealer/service centre and he has at least 5 others with the same problems error light blinking slowly indicating low voltage what he has determined is problem with connection after it enters the fridge and h has verified this and was contacting waeco to point out the problem as it is not impressing his customers at all i hope this is the solution and will keep you informed "maybe even a recall perhaps"

bravo
AnswerID: 156548

Follow Up By: hl - Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 07:53

Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 07:53
Hi,

Interesting to hear. The problem I described by the way is only applicable to the models with the built-in AC supply.
Cheers
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FollowupID: 410679

Reply By: Member - Collyn R (WA) - Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 11:49

Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 11:49
Eza
Can understand just how frustrating this must be getting for you!

The reaction you are getting is because it is simply a FACT that the vast majority of electric fridge problems are traceable to low voltage. This is usually a cable problem but may also be caused by things such as poorly crimped cable connections, particularly by bad connections within glass fuse assemblies etc. In many years and countless fridges I have only seen one that was actually crook. years r

In my experience the figure would be closer to 99.7%.

I would dismiss any generality that 'Waeco are crap fridges'. It is possible that there is a production problem with a small batch - and you have two units with the same problem. This does sometimes happen in production engineering, but is normally caught and fixed very quickly.

I do understand that you seem to have checked stuff thoroughly already. Nevertheless I strongly suggest one last check.

Have a company such as Battery World test the fridge - out of the vehicle - with the Waeco leads connected DIRECTLYy to one of Battery World's own batteries. That is, no part of your rig's bits and pieces are used. Have Battery World record respective voltages and ideally also current draw. Run this test for several hours.

If the problem still exists you have absolute evidence that the problem is the fridge.
This is what you need. You then have an absolute case under the Trade Practices Act for the fridge to be fixed, replaced, or your money returned (the choice of which is yours). The party responsible for this is whover sold you the fridge - not Waeco (the vendor then sorts out the responsibility with Waeco).

If the fridge really is faulty you are actually in a very strong position. It is a serious offence for a vendor to attempt to mislead a buyer's Statutory and other Rights in a situation like this. Most store managers are aware of this, but rarely their staff.
There are also other and very strong implied Rights over and above a maker's warranty.

If the fridge works in this situation - get back to me and I'm sure we can fix the problem.
Trust this may assist
Collyn Rivers
AnswerID: 156647

Reply By: Eza - Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 15:00

Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 15:00
waeco contacted me today and have been very willing to get to the bottom of the problem looks like a problem with the poly switch as mentioned above, I have to admit i am happy with the speed and concern waeco are doing all they can to sort things.
AnswerID: 156676

Follow Up By: Member - Peter S (NSW) - Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 17:15

Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 at 17:15
I took delivery of a new 4WD camper trailer at Christmas with 2 Waeco fridges and after 2 days have had exactly the same problem. I ran the car for a couple of hours connected through the Anderson Plug and this had no effect in charging the aux battery. Eventually I disconnected the trailer turned the car around and charged the aux battery using high quality jumper leads and this did the job.

Very annoying and inconvenient but it got us out of trouble.

Cheers,
Peter
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FollowupID: 410785

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