fridges

There has been 100's of discussions on fridges here! Its one of those subjects like Nissan/Toyota Manual/Auto Petrol/Diesel.... There is no REAL answer.

Evakools get good raps from lots of people, I think Ive only heard one bad report on them but we have all heard bad reports about Waeco 50's, and Engels....

Go with the Deep Cycle and a good battery management system. I Have Piranha in my GQ, and love it.

As second batteries
Deep Cycles are for accessories,
Cranking batteries are better for winching.

Good Luck!

Bob

Bought a dual temp 60l 3 weeks ago and have been experimenting.

It draws 4.5 amps on economy and 5.3 amps on boost (when actually running)

If I run the freezer on economy so that it runs no warmer than -10, (approx 40% of the dial) and the ambient temperature is 26 deg (thats all it is in Bris at the moment in the rain) I can achieve a duty cycle of only 36%. ie. for each 25 minutes, the compressor runs for 9 minutes and is off for 16.

This gives me an average of 1.62 amps per hour. I have a 105 AH Trojan Deep Cycle battery. If I run it to 80% discharge, I expect the fridge/freezer will run for 52 hours.

Given that it is more typically 30 degrees here, I am working on a 2A draw so I expect no more than 42 hours.

Still experimenting with higher freezer temps (say -5) to see what difference that will make as well as more and less in the freezer compartment.

I did notice that if I swithched the unit off when the freezer air temperature was at -16, it took 3 hours to reach 0 deg with an ambient temp of 26. However, that was with a lightly loaded freezer, but one that had been frozen for 2 days prior. I expect that this would take longer with a fully loaded freezer.

So far I'm happy. The acid test will be Easter.

Anything else ?

I've got a 68 litre evakool and get around 50 hours out of my 95 Ah deep cycle without going below 11 volts (under load). I live in FNQ and never run the fridge above 2 (out of 7) and usually only on 1.5. Only put it on 2 if I've added some drinks that weren't prechilled.

theres a big chescold at ebay at the moment looking at around $450 i think not sure how big but they say replacement is about $1000

I had an Evakool, and it was OK the first few times I used it, but then it went downhill rapidly. I took it back under warranty, and was told that the compressor had failed, apparently because it could not tolerate being shaken around on rough roads etc. They replaced the compressor, but then the same thing happened again. When I took it back a second time, still under warranty, they said in effect "in all honesty, this is a piece of bleep , and please don't bring it back here again." So it got mothballed, and a Waeco 50 was purchased instead. Despite a previous comment, the Waeco performs faultlessly and handles everything, and I couldn't be happier with it.

Jan

How long ago was your problem with Evakool and do you know if it had a Danfoss compressor in your particular model ?

Thanks