low voltage problems with waeco cf 40

nup no idea but someone else was having the same problem a week or two ago. This chap was very frustrated with his Waeco.

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

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

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

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...

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 ).

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.

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

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

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

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.