Engel or Waeco??

[Kappy]

Well pick the old girl yesterday in 38C heat couldve pick a better day anyway gonna be hotter today.

Anyway the new rig has a a 240 litre Vitrifrigo 24 Volt Marine fridge, that seems to work Ok.

Anyway thinking of a large Engel or Waeco,

Saw a 51l Engel at the Woolorama on Saturday, $2400, shit a brick I can get a 110 litre Waeco for around $1400.

I have a baby waeco and has worked a treat now for abot 6 years and it was 2nd hand.

So I thought id throw it out their for opinions.

Cheers
Kappy

[mikeg]

Kappy, if you already have a Waeco and have been happy with that then go for a Waeco. Forget price, they are both good fridges but personally I prefer the Engel as I think it is more robust.

[Newcastle George]

Better off to go for a domestic inverter fridge, and way cheaper.

George

[Dot]

We got a bushman last year for out trip to WA, it has performed better than expected. The sales people even adjusted the power out let position for us (no charge) their service is A1. The bushman goes from a ?32lt to a ?52lt (a lt either way) with the use of height raising collars. Yes expensive to some but pay peanuts you get monkeys applies.

[bagmaker]

+1 what George says, Samsung inverter fridge and a dedicated 350-400w inverter feeding it.
You will still be a few hundred in front of your best pricing and have a much better fridge to boot!

[T1 Terry]

I'm guessing you mean as a portable esky type fridge rather than a full size fridge. If you do mean the full size fridge, just finished fitting a Samsung 255ltr unit for Gordon & Wendy (Bugman47) and he is mega happy, no more off milk and the beer is genuinely cold, not just cooled.
As far as the esky type fridge/freezers, I have both an Engel and a Waeco here running at the moment as a test load on a battery pack. The only time the Engel is off is when it's getting it's breathe back to make more rumbling noise. The run watts are less but the run time far longer. The Waeco start up is around 90w and it will hold that 90w in turbo mode until it drops to the selected temp, then it cycles between nothing and 50w. The Engel is a constant 41w.
The Engel has a metal case and sweats in the insulation bag, the Waeco has a plastic case and doesn't appear to sweat at all. The Waeco is 11yrs old, has bounced around in the kombi, the Mazda, at home as a beer fridge, the Engel has bounced around in a cruiser and in a trailer for probably around the same length of time.
The Waeco does have an issue if the input voltage drops to 11v or so and flashes a red light, still works but not quite at its optimum cooling speed. Once down to temp the red light doesn't flash any more, but load it up with warm beer and the light starts flashing again. It might actually be a problem with this unit, but it hasn't stopped so I haven't fixed it I did accidentally turn the emergency switch one once, froze everything, apparently that bypasses all the controls, a good back up plan but I look each time I plug it in now

[Kappy]

Thanks Guys,

I'll run with the Full size fridge for now as its not that old, the guys had normal fridge (brand not Know ) and it shit itself hence the 24V marine fridge.

Seems ok, he had it running when I got there the fridge & freezer didn't seem all that cold, I put a bottle of coke in the freezer to keep it cold as not sure about the fridge, anyway when I got home 4 hours later and the coke was frozen solid even though there was no ice forming in the freezer.

Just thinking of a large portable to supplement, leaning towards a 110 WaecoI too have had both had a 37 litre engel years ago that made a racket as it bounced around, my current waeco is a baby 18 litre but works a treeat.

Still lookin.

Cheers
Kappy

[native pepper]

For portable chest Fridge/freezer, I've got a 55 waeco F/F, 35 waeco cooler, a really cheap chinese 110lt F/F and cheap chinese 50lt cooler. The waeco 55 has been nothing but trouble, if the current drops, it stops and won't run on the thinner wiring you find on earlier vehicles, Had to install larger wiring just for it, yet the cheap chinese ones run on just about anything and have lasted over 10 years. The waeco cooler is lots warmer than the chinese one with way less capacity and was double the price on special.

In the house we have a Hitachi 510lt inverter fridge which has reduced our energy usage considerably, as well as the associated noise and in next month or so will be installing an LG 407lt inverter fridge in the bus. Tired of having a few smaller fridges which tend to run way to much and don't have the capacity. Have to re-configure the bus to fit it in and will also change the entire inside to suit what we need now, as we have no kids and the band has reduced to 3 permanent members and will stay that way. Yet to find an inverter portable a/c, which would reduce our power even more, we have a portable a/c for the bus, house and boat, rather than have one for each and an inverter one, would make a big difference to the time we can use it.

[Busman]

We have a good sized bar fridge in the kitchen, another in the bins so drinks are handy and cold, next to the ice machine, and a eutectic fridge freezer that runs at minus 26 in another bin. So, it all comes down to what YOU require.
I suggest you start using the new toy, that is the only way you will get what you want, and no be advertising something here, at a loss, that you have bought in haste.

[Keith Morris]

"tanks" here Kappy. please phone me on 0428 163 970
Keith