Waeco or Engel

Both fridges are of high quality and perform well in our hot conditions. Engel offers a 3 year warranty and Waeco offers a 5 year warranty. Both are compressor driven fridges, Engels with their own swing motor and Waeco with the tried and tested Danfoss compressor. Both are very efficient and effective I believe Waeco to be several hundred dollars cheaper. On an average day 30 degrees C with an internal temperature of 4 degrees in the fridge the Waeco will draw 22 Amps so powering your fridge for more two days will require an alternative power source in order to protect your starting battery.
Cheers (good luck)

Wombat,

I belong to a 4wd club and we go on trips often, I have seen many Waecos fail and only one Engel (20 years old) fail.
Everybody looks at the compressors when compared and they are both very good as the previous post.

Surpisingly, what lets the waecos down is the plastic (broken lids and other bits) and the elctronic controls one going accross the Simpson last year, initially it would run forever and freeze everything and then stoped working altogether.
Engel on the other side is metal with a simple dial for temp control.
One of our members once rolled his car and the engel was still cutting in and out upsidedown...
The one which failed after 20 years was a seized compressor and it had been around...
My engel is about 10 years old and still going strong (lives in the car) so if was to add up the milage, it has done about 500000kms.

Good luck with whatever you buy.
Will

Wombat,

If reliability isn't an issue I would choose the Waeco ;-)

I just purchased an Engel and after talking to a local camping shop that sells both he said he has had 10 Waeco's returned faulty since he has been open (which has only been a couple of years) and a guy in Ray's had a similar story. He said the compressors are fine but the electronics fail and are NOT guaranteed for 5 years.....only the compressor.
I just thought there could be nothing worse than being in the middle of nowhere and having your beer get warm!!

Leroy

HAVE A LOOK AT THE EXPLORER AND TRAILBLAZER, BOTH AUSSY MADE AND FAR SUPERIOR INSULATION WHICH GIVES LESS POWER DRAW. BOTH THESE UNITS ARE USED BY THE RED CROSS AND OTHER EMERGENCY AGENCYS, BIT MORE EXPENSIVE. COL

This is a religous argument, 2 people at my work purchased ARB's version of the Engel 40L, 1 of the fridges failed on the 2nd trip ! It was fixed under warranty with no hassle. There are the same stories about Waeco.

I received my Waeco 50L this week, purchased it from the Fridge Shop for $650 (ex demo) with only 1 year warranty.

http://www.fridgeshop.com.au/

I placed my order 4-5 weeks ago & as soon as one was available they called me & delivered it 2 days later.

Other than price (Waeco is a little cheaper), the feedback I found was that if an Engel ever failed out of warranty the parts are VERY expensive as compared to the Waeco.

Good luck !

After having many concerns about solar power efficietly I settled on an Engels only because I believe thier power consumption was less than most (check comparisons with running time per day times current draw). The only better one I found with good construction was over twice the price.

Both are good fridges - Engel probably stronger, but if looked after both will last a long while. The new Waeco's have a manual override incase the electronics fail (so you can still keep the beer cold by manually controlling the compressor run times).

Both also have much less insulation than the Australian made fridges. You'd be amazed at how much difference in power usage there is between different fridges because of insulation.

I bought an Australian made EvaKool (with a danfoss compressor like most) and run it permanently in my vehicle in the far north and couldn't be happier.

I have had an Engel for more than 10 years with absolutely no problems. Fitted a Transit base and an insulated bag. Take it out of bag at least after every trip and clean it. It looks as good and works as well as the day we bought it.

Incidentally, I have just purchased a little electronic "black box" which limits the number of times the compressor starts to 2 times per hour. There is a dial which adjusts the time that the compressor runs each time it kicks in. The greatest power drain occurs at start-up. This device minimises that power drain by limiting the start-up. Have tested at home out in the sun and it seems to work fine. Haven't done a field trip yet, but the person who manufactures these devices tells me that I can expect to run the fridge off the auxiliary battery for over 4 days without starting vehicle to recharge the auxiliary!