new waeco v 2nd hand engel

Hi Andrew

I have owned a Waeco FF40 for about 18months. It is the older style with the mechanical thermostat. Our club does some pretty serious trips and I haven't been able to fault the fridge. I bought it because it was the only one that would fit in the back of my Disco. I paid only $699 at the time which was about half the price of an Engel. I understand that you can still pick these up for that price. Try fridgeshop.com. I don't consider mine to be flimsy at all but was told at the time of purchase by a Waeco rep (off the record) that there is less to go wrong with the mechanical thermostat as opposed to the new electronic system Waeco now uses.

Good luck deciding.

i have a waeco 110 ,ive had it for 6 months and im very happy with it,no problems and i admit it cops a hard time.i brought mine because a couple of mates have them[onefor several years 50ltr]and none of them have had any trouble.the only thing i know of is one warped its lid ;but was sitting in front seat of the car in 40degree heat.

simple.... if you want plastic buy waeco............. if you want steel buy engel...
remember the good old days,,, matchbox vs tonka....
what more can i say?_____________________________________________
Countin the days till July 5th. *Cape York Trip*
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too dear i assure you that is not the trade price .
as Diamond states in a later topic guy down the road does them for a fair bit les here in Bendigo.

As an avid fence sitter they are both good fridges but as most Australians a lot prefer a product that has been around longer.
ARB and Subaru put there name on engle fridges!

you selling the chescold??????
cheers1999 NISSAN NAVARA DUALCAB
DIESEL 3.2 & SPRINGY CARLTON TOY

Andrew,

I've been running a 40 litre Waeco since 2000, without any problem at all. They're certainly not flimsy, and I'd take the plastic case over metal any day - it's much lighter and it's able to flex if need be (as opposed to denting in metal). The Waeco compressors are significantly better than Engels as well (being Danfoss).

Go new - you'll also end up with a warranty (again - not that I've had to use mine). Try getting an Engel repaired if something goes wrong!

Cant comment on Engel because I have never owned one. However I have owned a Waeco for just over two years. 3 and a half months of that was spent in the back of my car as I visited Cape york, Darwin Broome, bungle bunlges, gibb river road, tanami road, simpson desert , it was a big trip.

About a third the way through the air con died, so it was also a very hot and dusty trip.

The Waeco was excellent, it was one of the few things on this trip that did not cause problems. The cigarette socket it was pluged into fell to bits so I replace that in Broome with a different type of socket, not sure what it is called but it had a more postive lock that the cig socket.

I would get about three days of fridge run time without running the engine, using a cheap ($120) deep cycle battery. When I got back I took the shell of the fridge to blast the dust out wiht some compressed air, it was full of red dust.

When beer o'clock came around at the end of the day it was always cold. Cant ask for more than that.

Most definitely the new Waeco.
The Waeco are not flimsy. Waeco certainly had a problem with a model with a lid design that was not the best, but Waeco replaced the lids for those models. In one case they replaced the lids twice without question. The model you saw may not have had the lid replaced.

If you price the cost of repair for an Engel compared to a Waeco you will see you cannot afford to repair the Engel and will dump it and buy another brand.

I had a 50lt Waeco for over 12 months. Used it at least once a month camping; a four week trip to NT; ran it for 3 months as a freezer while we where between houses; drinks fridge at parties etc. It did everything I could ask of it.

Thermostat stopped working on our last trip (Fridge kept working... just ran continuously). Called Waeco, they had a local service agent in town (rural Qld), took the fridge in on Tuesday, had a new replacement fridge on Thursday. Things can go wrong with anything but the service I got from Waeco, their service agent and the camp shop that sold it to me was top shelf. I won't bother going anywhere else for my next fridge.

Thanks everyone. I've always liked buying quality, and liked getting things new. I'll certainly have a shop around and beat the price down a bit. Looks like a new waeco could be the go! Once again thank you, Andrew...

Andrew, There is such a thing as plastic cancer!!!!!!!

Maybee the guy selling the Engel has $$$ problems not fridge problems!!

When the weco has its depreciation whats its worth less than the aready deperciated Engel???!!!!!Around Oz 06/2004