One for Waeco owners
Submitted: Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 16:20
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Member - Matt M (ACT)
G'day All,
Last 4 months on the road with the family and we have been loving every minute and particularly enjoying the West. What great stuff there is to see and do in WA.
I have not been on the
forum for a while, but good to see some of the old discussions still churning around. I was going to tack this note on the end of another recent thread, but iit had become so bogged down on the usual Waeco vs Engel crap that I stopped reading half way through.
However, a note for owners od Waeco AC models (
mine is a CF50). Our fridge started to cut out on low voltage once we got up into to warmer climes at up 12.7 volts. The problem got progressively worse to the point where I had to run it for a week or so by flicking on the emergency button to keep it cool. When we got back to civilisation, I rang Waeco and they intimated that it is a fairly common problem with the AC models and gave me the name of a repair agent in
Exmouth. The fridge has a 5 amp poly fuse soldered on the circuit board that gives out, causing the fridge to shut down on low voltage
well above the 10.4 volts it should. Anyhow, I took it to the repairer and he replaced the fuse with a 6 amp one and problem gone.
All done under warranty, Waeco helpful and the repairer lent me his fridge while
mine was fixed, so can't complain about the service. My advice would be to have this mod done while your fridge is under warranty (3/5 years) and before you head into hotter areas, even if yours is running OK at the moment.
Other than that, the fridge is running like a champion.
Cheers,
Matt.
Reply By: Member No 1- Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 17:11
Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 17:11
sounds like they use a thermal fuse... same as engel who have one in the plug of 12v cord
AnswerID:
206725
Follow Up By: Member - Pesty (SA) - Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 at 21:33
Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 at 21:33
Have just discovered one of these little suckers yesterday, Do you know the point of this fuse Richard?
Have had engel fridge not working in fire truck, which is 24 volt, and the remedy is to take it out? Took it out and replaced with normal 3ag fuse and presto all fixed.
So why have it in there in the first place?
Cheers Pesty
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member No 1- Friday, Dec 01, 2006 at 07:38
Friday, Dec 01, 2006 at 07:38
it has me stumped...even the service agent Rees told me to put in a standard fuse...but make sure I take out the alfoil first..hehehe
actually if one checks the lead when the fridge is running you can feel that it is warm....wonder if its, the cable plug arrangement, a bit light on, and the fuse is there to stop all melting
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Reply By: Member - greg S (QLD) - Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 17:59
Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 17:59
Thanks for the heads up Matt. I will keep an eye on our's over the coming months.
Cheers Greg
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: hl - Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 18:15
Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 18:15
Hi,
If you happen to have an inverter on board (100Watts or better) you can work around this problem by running your fridge on 240V through the inverter. It won't cut out then, as the 240V supply inside the fridge runs it at 24V and the current is much lower, so the polyswitch will not trip. It still needs fixxing of course, but at least you can use it until you get home.
Cheers
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - greg S (QLD) - Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 21:33
Friday, Nov 24, 2006 at 21:33
Thanks hl,
I have been toying with the idea of installing an inverter in the Jerrycan to charge the video camera batteries, laptop and such, so this just makes it more feasible.
Cheers Greg
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Reply By: Gronk - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 00:17
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 00:17
Would be good if the fridge cut out at 12V where its at a level that won't stuff your battery !!
10.4 or even 11.4 is way too low. The battery is dead at that voltage !!
But its good for battery sellers !!
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Jiarna (NT) - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 01:06
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 01:06
What??? You need to buy better batteries to run your fridge!!
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Follow Up By: Gronk - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 08:15
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 08:15
What ?? Don't know what you mean. Do you mean I should buy better batts ??
A deep cycle batt should never be taken past the 20% charge left state !
Which is 11.9 - 12 V... Its ok if you want less life out of your battery, but especially with the price of AGM's its best if you can look after them.
11.5v is flat, but 10.5v is stone motherless flat and risking permanent damage!
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Follow Up By: crewser - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 10:53
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 10:53
wakos have 3 settings for the low voltage cut off 10.4 is the lowest.
It took a while for wako to find the problem as I had 1 of the first ac cf50 with same problem of cutting out at 12.7v. In the end wako wouldnt help at all.
as I said "had a cf50"
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Follow Up By: Sand Man (SA) - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 11:09
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 11:09
Gronk is nearly spot on and has a good point re the 20% level.
(Sorry to be pedantic Gronk, just correcting your stated 20% voltage level which is actually more like 11.58 volts. (11.9 volts equals about 40% charge)
State of Charge 12 Volt battery Volts per Cell
100% 12.7 2.12
90% 12.5 2.08
80% 12.42 2.07
70% 12.32 2.05
60% 12.20 2.03
50% 12.06 2.01
40% 11.9 1.98
30% 11.75 1.96
20% 11.58 1.93
10% 11.31 1.89
0 10.5 1.75
So a low voltage cut-out should be around the 11.6 volt mark to protect the battery.
I should know. I have stuffed two batteries in this way, before I bought a cut-out unit.
One "negative" of the mighty Engel (which I love by the way), is that it will run on very low voltages, so if the battery is "drained", e.g. 10.5 volts = flat, the fridge will continue to run until the battery dies.
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Follow Up By: johnny - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 11:44
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 11:44
hi all
i thought waeco had fixed this problem with voltage switch
i know a few people who think this switch it the power consumption
(low ,medium, high)
but in the book it states that they are the cut off points or shut down points
now i dont have the book in front of me but i think it goes like this
low is 10.5
medium is 11.5
high is 12 volts
so if you set it for high it should shut down when it reaches 12 volts
feel free to correct me but thats how i read it
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Follow Up By: Gronk - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 13:14
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 13:14
Sorry about the "incorrect" figures, as I was quoting them for AGM batts which are a bit different to "wet" deep cycle batts.
But, you seem to get slightly different figures every time you read up on an article on batteries ?
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Follow Up By: Member - Jeff M (WA) - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 15:06
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 15:06
Well if we are being pedantic! :-)
11.6v is actually a little higher than 20%, because you have to remember that the waeco is putting the battery under load, which will change those voltages again. That list would be correct for a battery at "rest" but no under load. Hence you can probably (fishing in the dark here without working it out) get to about 11v safley, depending on ambiant temperature and voltage drop etc. 10.5 is probably not a bad cut-out as I'd rather slightly damage my battery than find I have warm beer! :-O
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog - Vic - Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 15:20
Saturday, Nov 25, 2006 at 15:20
Yep, What Jeff said.
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Reply By: fruers - Monday, Nov 27, 2006 at 17:12
Monday, Nov 27, 2006 at 17:12
I've also had this same problem and had the poly fuse repaired. The repairer had just finished doing the poly fuse on an CF-50 AC when i brought
mine in.
Mine was flaky even using it in my garage in mild temps. Waeco should be recalling these fridges if they know it's a problem.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: johnny - Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 at 19:32
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 at 19:32
when it cut out was it running on 12 volt or 240 mains
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: fruers - Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 at 21:02
Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 at 21:02
From 12v DC
mine was consistently cutting out with "Turbo" mode on, and occasionally while running in normal mode. I had a circuit breaker that was faulty which is how i discovered that the problem was always reproducible with turbo mode on (would never have run turbo mode from their car). Otherwise i probably would have been confused for months and ransacked my whole electrical system for the source of the intermittent problem. So i guess switch turbo mode on and put it in a hot place to see if your fridge is affected :).
The repairer also noted that while AC is touted as a feature, it's more of a burden for people running a fridge in their car, as the in-built transformer severely restricts air flow through the fridge.
From 240v it ran in all modes without a problem.
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Follow Up By: johnny - Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 at 21:19
Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 at 21:19
hi again im the one who had the waeco die in only 2 days
they have just got back to me and said it was the fuse as
well but they said to me it was from running to low in power ???
didnt make much sense to me as it only ran on 240 mains .i did plug it back into 12 volt which brought it back to life but when i pluged in back into main it died
i demanded a new one as they wanted to fix it up
took a while for them to agree but did
just bleep off i have to wait so long
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Member - TonyG (Qld) - Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 at 20:16
Wednesday, Nov 29, 2006 at 20:16
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the info, I have got
mine booked in for next week
TonyG
AnswerID:
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