Downunder Fridge..Powered by Solar

These fridges are great! i would be checking your solar setup wiring etc! are you running the fridge direct to battery or through the regulator?

All I know is, is that I am going to print this thread off, and hand it to Tracy, and say..."See, this lady loves her husband a lot, now, what are you going to get me?"

And, to add salt to the wound, after Tracy has bought me something, I have to be allowed to go out and buy OTHER toys!

Do you have a sister?

Wolfie

cmon wolfie
we are all waiting
can you keep up
rotflmao

steve

might be a silly question... but is the battery charged??

Have you tried running the fridge of a known reliable 12volt source (like your car)??

this would at least reduce the amount of speculation...

If you have a multimeter with probes try to give us a voltage at the plug when the fridge is trying to run.

There is no reason it will work in your car and not on the AGM if it is at least 50% charged as you would expect a new battery to be at least 80% charged on the shelf.

Regards Derek.

since you have done a lot of homework already and established the fridge seems to work fine on both 240v and the vehicle 12v then the fridge appears to be fine .
The "lemon " appears to be in your other equipment - mainly the battery.
Voltage is often not a good indication with batteries but it would be interesting to try and pull 5 amps or more from it with some other device.
Have you got a tyre (or mattress) air compressor or spare headlamp that you could use to draw current over a decent period. I guess you would have also tried freshening up the battery terminal with emery paper?
Just some thoughts - electrics can be a pain at times. Good luck

hang on dont downunder fridge's use an external 240v to 12v supply that plugs in to the fridge so effectivly your'e using and inverter to do what a battery would or have they changed them recently? because if I'm correct then it has to be wiring still.
Dont quote me on this its just I bought one for someone for a present recently and that was how it operated??

do you realise 80w panel will not power enough a 70l Downunder fridge
you will need 80w x 2 solar panel
we have 110w x 2 solar panel
there are many crook solar dealer that tell false info

You're voltage's dont sound acurate I think you're multimeter maybe a little out Do you know anyone that owns a fluke multimeter to see wether thats an accurate voltage it just seems high but I suppose you do have the solar panel running on it.

Any news to report HLC??? Interested to see what eventuated, so keeping this thread alive.

Barry

Hi All,

The 70L Downunder fridge I found that did work on 12V in the store ended up failing 2 days into our Easter camp. It started doing exactly that same as the others, so we had to use 240V through an inverter for a while, which wasn't very efficient.

I phoned Downunder and Mark, their sales rep, promptly phoned back with an explanation and a solution. He said they had a bad batch of panel fans and agreed to ship a replacement fan to Repco Coopers Plains. I picked this up and had it installed and it has worked perfect ever since.

The 80W Solar Panel and 80Ah AGM was just enough power to keep cold food cold during sunny days. We used it in it's freezer/fridge mode. However, to cool food down, or to survive a couple of cloudy days, you would definitly need 2 x 80W minimum. I do not know if a second 80Ah would be needed, but I plan to do an extended and controlled test at home as soon as I can buy another 80w Panel. On a couple of occassions, I won't mention any names, milk was put in the freezer compartment (next to my Bundy) and froze, which put extra un-necessary drain on the solar system. So, my advice is to manage your fridge/freezer carefully so as not to waste power, i.e. if possible only put frozen food in the freezer and chilled food in the fridge.

In summary, and despite the initial fan problem, I highly recommend the Downunder 70L and I'm very impressed with their prompt and proficient level of service.

Driv'n Ivan