12v gone on Engel 39L

I believe Willem posted a similar problem recently, but his fridge was much older.

Bloody Engels are proving unreliable all of a sudden.
Think I'll sell mine while its still good and get a Waeco. (Hush your mouth Bill)

Hi Chris,

Do you not have a blade fuse (e.g. 20A) which on my 40l model is located just above the 12V and 240V sockets? I'm not sure about the 39l model but I'm willing to bet there's a fuse tucked away somewhere that you can replace.

I had exactly the same prob a few days ago...turned out that when I tried to start another vehicle with a flat batt. off my aux. batt. (which the Engel runs off) my battery was flat too!! Stupidly I left the fridge on when I didn't drive the Patrol for a couple of weeks beforehand. Basically, when I tried to jump-start the other vehicle, there was insufficient capacity in my battery to absorb the spikes from the chattering solenoid, hence the blown fuse!

Anyway, hope you find the prob...fuse or not!! ;-)

Cheers
RedGibber

In my 29L the fuse is in the the end of the 12Volt plug - just screw tip off to examine
Cheers
Greg

Chris,
All engels work on 20V AC (the motor that is), if the power supply was the problem most likelly it would not work on either voltage.
I suspect that you have a bad 12V supply or a fuse problem.

Older models had a big transformer there but newer ones have an electronic unit.

Will

I have heard of a few cases where the plug is in a position to get knocked -vibrated and it has stuffed the lead where it plugs in or sometimes the socket in the fridge

Chris, have a couple of Engles here and one wouldn't work on 12v - first off we blamed the auto electrician for not putting in heavy enough wiring and point in the boot of the LC100 (got new wiring - which needed doing - it must be heavy duty), then it happened again with the 39l Engel - this time it turned out to be the ciggie lighter plug - I have two plug in points in the car (one in the boot and the ciggie one because usually have two fridges going when I go supermarket shopping 700 klms away). Anyhow, the ciggie plug undoes and inside is a diode and you can't tell from looking at it whether or not it's working. They were about $11 to buy I think and I now keep several on hand - the Engel man on the end of the phone I talk to frequently (for other people) was very helpful. It would seem that in lots of cases it is the simplest of answers with the Engel. Worth checking out.

Hi, I had an old 39l engel which did the same thing. I was half way into a big trip and as a result I was driving around with the gene sitting in the spare tyre on the back of the ute, running, to power the fridge! There's a control box inside which had blown a component. The new box cost me about $120 to replace and all was fine from then. It apparently blew after it was drowned in rain. But, as everybody has said so far, check all your supply out first, as it's your most likely problem. Cheers.....

Could be the 12v cable and plug/internal fuse, or the connection on the fridge as mentioned above.

Yup - it was the cable. Even though it metered out 12~ish volts at the fridge (without the fridge attached - i.e. at the end of the un-loaded cable) it must have had a high-resistance section (crushed maybe?) at some point. I guess that even a small drop will not see the compressor start.....

Thanks for the input everyone!