Freezing Water
Submitted: Monday, Mar 10, 2003 at 20:40
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firey
Have recently purchased a 21lt engel f/f and have found that it takes over 12hours to freeze the water on setting 5 (freeze) running on 240 volts inside a house with a temperature of approx 23deg. Can anyone tell me if other engels freeze quicker and if possible can someone do a
test for me using a 18lt Waceo or similar size using 1lt of tap water in a milk bottle with ruffly the same conditions as above. I am only interested in running a freezer for my long trips and an ice esky for all other perishables. I used 240 volt so there was no drop in battery to hamper the
test. Interested to know which compresser is working the best in which f/f..
Regards,Firey.
Reply By: Chris - Monday, Mar 10, 2003 at 22:03
Monday, Mar 10, 2003 at 22:03
Hi firey,
I've got a 40L Engel and it does the same. When I first got it I tried the same thing with water and meats. With the fridge fully packed with meat, water etc it eventually did freeze but took nearly 24 hrs. You're better off placing everything in a your normal freezer and then placing it in the Engel once completely frozen. Usually I only need a setting of about 3 to keep it frozen in cool weather, higher in summer. The Engels rely upon a half to full load of frozen/chilled food to operate better when running off a battery. Think of your
home freezer - if you fully laden it with fresh meats, water it'll take a long time to freeze whereas normal use consists of adding a bit at a time to whatever's already frozen in there ie. weekly shopping.
Well that's how I find it works anyway, obviously someone has a magic engel out there.
Regards
Chris
AnswerID:
14802
Reply By: Member - Nigel - Monday, Mar 10, 2003 at 23:55
Monday, Mar 10, 2003 at 23:55
What is the maximum setting on the engel?
AnswerID:
14806
Follow Up By: Chris - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 21:30
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 21:30
Five on
mine, pretty sure it's the same across the range.
FollowupID:
8994
Reply By: Member - Willem- Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 09:46
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 09:46
Firey, Yep, freeze everything in your freezer at
home before the trip and keep your Engel on Freeze whilst driving. Should last a while. We have a 32litre Engel and run it on the highest Cold setting. It keeps everything pretty cool. Over the years we have always turned the fridge off at night, in the days before dual battery setups. Can't get out of the habit now. With perishables....wrap each individual item in two layers of newspaper. Fruit and vegies keep for weeks this way. Cheers, Willem
AnswerID:
14819
Reply By: ray91 - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 13:26
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 13:26
Why freeze ? Meat lasts 3 weeks + in fridge if cryovaced
AnswerID:
14845
Follow Up By: Scott - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 22:44
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 22:44
I am a chef on tour buses and we use cryovac meat all the time. We never use it past 12 days but the instructions on the packing state it can be stored up to 30 days at correct tempreture. Cryovac meat stored for 7 days or more is always better meat than frozen.
FollowupID:
8999
Reply By: ROX - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 19:35
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 19:35
Caught Samon in
Esperance last year and it took couple of days to freeze 1/2, 40 lt Engel full on batery & gen set.
AnswerID:
14862
Reply By: firey - Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 22:43
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003 at 22:43
Thankyou all for the detailed respones to my question, there is some handy hints in there that I will use on my trip to Cameron's Corner in August this year. Yes the maximum setting is 5 and I do plan to cryovac the meat before leaving. I also tested the setting that the engel will maintain the freeze at when turned down and that is 2 1/2 on the dial..If anyone can do the
test with a Waceo I would like to hear the results.
Regard's, Firey
AnswerID:
14891
Reply By: Ozy traveling Aussie - Friday, Mar 21, 2003 at 13:54
Friday, Mar 21, 2003 at 13:54
Firey,
your best move would be to replace your Engel with an Aussie made REEFER fridge/freezer, they freeze water in less than 2 hours on 12 volt. When the fridge is set to 1 degree the freezer is MINUS 14 degree's.
I have had one for 5 years, traveling all round the west Aussie coast and staying on some beaches for many months at a time without problems of dead batteries, spoilt food or warm beer.
I think the Waceo and Engel both use the small Danfoss 35 compressor, (I am sure I will be grilled if I am wrong) if that is true then the results should be similar and only the insulation should make a differance, after the water has firstly been frozen, it has to be kept frozen and in warmer conditions than you have tested your fridge in.
Enjoy your trip.
AnswerID:
15774
Follow Up By: firey - Sunday, Mar 23, 2003 at 21:14
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003 at 21:14
Ozy,
Tell me where to find this f/f so I can do some tests with one,as I am very interested in it from the freezing time point of view. An interesting fact about Waceo is if you run the f/f on 24 volt it works better than 12 volt. I stuck with the 21 lt Engel as that came up best in my freezing
test. If only you would have replyed earlier.
Regards
Firey..
FollowupID:
9725
Reply By: OzyTravelingAussie - Sunday, Mar 23, 2003 at 21:48
Sunday, Mar 23, 2003 at 21:48
firey, try........ www.refrigerationresearch
or Google Search... type Reefer or refrigerationresearch
I don't work for them or sell them....
I just have the BENIFIT of having one to RELY on to freeze whatever I put in the freezer section....
Sure, they may not sell as many as Engel or other advertised name brands, they don't spend megga bucks on advertising, I bought
mine after seeing one in a caravan park in
Melbourne in 1995, the quality finish of the stainless steel interior and the digital temperature and battery condition guages won me over. Hope the info is of some good to you.......
AnswerID:
15941