Engel fridge socket

Hi Bill,

Sorry mate but I gotta disagree :(

I have the Engel plug, the Merrit plug and the normal cig style for my different items all installed in the back of my 200.

The Engel plug is by far and away the best, it cannot come lose as it is screwed. And if by chance you need to use the Engels in another vehicle, you can put the adaptor back on and use it in a cig socket.

The merrit plug is good, but it is still only a clip that retains the plug, over time the retainer clips loosen and it can work itself out. Its much better than a cig plug, but not up to the Engels plug IMHO as it relies on spring tension and not a screwed connection for positive locking.

The cig plug is basically only reliable while staionary, get any corrugations and it can work its way out. Most tme it stays in, but I would never want to rely on it.

Cheers

Captain

Bill
It wont come out of a engel socket either because it is screwed onto the socket why would you cut something of that is better than the merit socket anyway.

i AGREE cut it off and use something decent. i wasted $40 or so on the female end of the engal socket and mounting it

damn thing never worked properly and it wasnt unusual to go on a 4 hout drive pull up and find the fridge hadnt been working until i gave it a jiggle. i mucked about with it for ages first determining it was something to do with the contacts within the plug not the fitting. i tried all sorts of mods bending this and that trying to make a better contact but nothing worked.

I cut the plug off and hardwired it in. problem solved

USE THE ENGEL PLUG.

The Engel plug was designed to be used and supply the best performance and not to be cut off and substituted with a inferior product.

see my post it didnt work-you dont get any more inferior than that

An Engel socket is only suitable for an Engel plug (Duh!) and therefore you need to install one just for the fridge.

My fridge with the Merit plug on the end of the cable plugs into my Flyer, Thumper or one one of the Merit/Hella sockets on the camper.
In all my years of travel I have never had problems with this type of connection and thus have standardised all my devices with the Merit/Hella plug/socket.
Whether I connect the fridge, fluros, or anything else I have, it will plug into one of the ports on the Thumper, or Flyer battery packs, either with or without the red collar. The thumper has multiple Hella and cigarette sockets, so I can plug in the fridge, fluros, solar panel, regardless of what port is available. A very sound and flexible solution.

Each to his own hey!

If I happen across an Engel socket I can unscrew the in-line connection on the cable, but this would be unlikely as no one I know has an Engel socket installed. Actually, come to think of it I do use this connection. When the cable is plugged into the Flyer battery pack and the tub is loaded up with camping gear, etc., it is convenient to unscrew the connection to pass one end through the roof canopy supports, then screw up again.
This keeps my fridge lead suspended and allows foul free operation of the fridge slide:-)

The engel plug is what i have and it works like a gem

Sorry cant edit on this forum.
should have used the word plug in a couple of places above.

cheers

Hi Bantam,

The T plug is good, but again its only spring tension that retains it in. I had these in my Camprite and while they never came out, I have had one half-way out after a corrugated gravel road.

Also, the convention for +ve and - ve seems to change depending on who wires it up. When using polarity sensitive equipment I would suggest one checks polarity before plugging in for the first time on a T plug. Its OK on your own vehicle but can be a trap when swapping around.

Lots of people have lots of different experiences but overall the Engel plug is hard to beat (for an Engel fridge!) IMHO. Merit is arguably the best generic plug and is what I use for different items if they need to be connected when driving.

Cheers

Captain

The thing I have agains the engel plug is that it is brand specific...and I'm one for standardisation.
Appart from the fact that you cant just go an get an engel plug anywhere.

There are heaps of different plugs, some of them locking that could be used in this application.

Hell even the old faithfull XLR microphone plug would do a great job.

But Ive gone with merits, because of the standardisation and because I don't have an engel at the moment.

OF course, you can do as many do and hard wire the lead in, and have another lead for other purposes.

cheers

So agree about standardisation. In the rear of my 200 I have 2 x Engel, 1 x cig and 1 x merit plugs just so I can power things up. But at least this way I have most of my bases covered. I even used to have a "T to cig" adapter but no longer have any T plugs. If only industry could get their act together....

Cheers

Captain

The industry does not want standardisation, they all want you to buy genuine accessories and inflated prices.

If they wanted standardisation there would be the same plug on the body of every fridge.

And there would be a standardised workable DC socket fitted to vehicles.

You would be able to buy a fridge cable anywhere, and it would fit all fridges and all vehicles.

But it isn't so.

We are stuck with cigarette lighter sockets that were never designed to do what we ask of them.

The merit socket is tryng to fix things up, but the whole automotive DC market is cheap and nasty and the merit socket is about as good as it gets.....even then almost no one fits them OEM, and there are heaps of cheap below spec ones out there.

In the professional audio industry, it took us 20 yaers to get a common microphone plug and another 30 years to sort out the standard to wire the things and 40 years for a workable speaker plug to come along, and that is in an industry with standards and a daily need for compatability.


Hell its only in the last 10 years the the IEC appliance plug has replaced all sorts of weirdo jug plugs and rubbish on 240 volt gear

What hope do we have in the free for all world of DC electrics.

I have 2 ciggy and 2 merit sockets in the back allong with a 50 amp anderson that will deliver 50 amps.

And this is the beef I have with using andersons , if it is a 50 amp rated socket it should be capable of delivering 50 amps..so that anything with a mateing plug should be able to be plugged in and work safely and properly.

So far the decent merits seem to be working...I had trouble with the cheap ones.



cheers

hey rambler you are alive .twinny

Gotta agree with you Geoff'.

I use the anderson plugs and never have a problem.

If I need to I can move one of the fridges to the annex area and plug it into the anderson plug on the tow bar when we are camped for a few days.