My waeco 45 ltr fridge just died after 5 years of bad roads with a hole in the evaporater which, the fridge mech told me, you can fix on a engel but not on a waeco. Which reasonably priced fridge is the best? I would like a dual zone one as the last was fridge or freezer, not both. Loooking forward to your views. Bill

We have got an 80ltr  Waeco     Freezer, fridge, and dairy compartment    take the panel out from the fridge   it then becomes  all fridge  or all freezer    but i run it all the time as a fridge and freezer

engel for me!! I've had two, got sick of the colour of the first one it went round australia 3 or 4 times plus lived in many mining humpys, I give it to my son it's still working perfectly we bought a newie 3 or 4 years ago and have given this one a flogging and I have had no probs with it, cheap on power and ultra reliable when a puddle jumper drops in my view I always "have a sticky" mostly engels in the back!

We run Trailblaza, out of Qld. There are  no internal componets to get damaged ,
Fridge , freezer or both .2mm marine alloy in & out.
The oldest is 21yrs ,no problems .They have been over the roughest roads in this country .Wont have anything else .

Bill12 If the hole in the evaporator is visible & can be got at there is no reason why it cant be fixed, I have fixed plenty of frige evaporators with holes in them. Usualyput there by owners using sharp objects. Daryl

Not visible. On inside of evep. or so fridge mech says. Bugga. The only good thing is he didn,t charge me. Scanning ebay for reasonably priced fridge.No luck so far but will keep trying. Thanks for your help. Bill

just bought a 55ltr 'IRONMAN' fridge freezer. Fairly expensive , but dual zone- freezer and fridge, and 2 inch(50mm) insulation and digitlal controls with cover.Has anybody used one? It will get a good work out- I am going south next week for 3 to 5 weeks.Will tell you how it  goes. Bill

not familiar with it Bill, let us know how it goes, 2 inches of insulation sounds pretty good1

Trail Blazer for me!! We bought an 80l Trail Blazer in 1990 and it is still going as good as it went when we bought it!! Had it out the back of Ceduna at Googs lake on the January long weekend in 1991......55 in the sun and the thing never wnt more that two degrees over the setting. True story. That is why they have 3 inches of insulation. The army use them........the WHO use them in the deserts. They use normal refrigeration parts so any fridgy can fix it should it go wrong.!!

Yep Disco the secret is 3Inches of insulation, this is where most friges fallover. I found the weak point in my Waeco is the lid there is no insulation in them so I glued a sheet of foam under the lid this made quite a difference, Daryl

I ahve just got the new ironman 55ltr, and it seem alright . Has 55 mm insulation , but uses alot of amps, Will have to upgrade batterys, but on 240 it freezes very quick. The booklet with the fridge says it uses 5 amps, but doesn,t say whether this is continuous or cyclic. Will Buy new batteries soon.Will post more soon. Bill

Bil it would be cyclic not continuous and with 55 mm of insulation you may not run all that often! so could save you in the long term!

I still think I might get some new deep cycle batteries, as it doesn,t seem to work well with the old ones.Two 70 amp hrshr should do it. We shall see. Bill

bill12 wrote:

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I still think I might get some new deep cycle batteries, as it doesn,t seem to work well with the old ones.Two 70 amp hrshr should do it. We shall see. Bill

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Hi Bill,

I would not recommend just operating two 12 volt batteries in parallel. A better arrangement is to wire them through a changeover switch. These are available at marine accessory stores.  As I understand you have a boating background you're probably well familiar with these switches and you may already plan to do this but I mention it anyway just in case and for the benefit of others visiting this thread.

An alternative is to connect two 6 volt batteries in series, that is the negative wire goes to the negative terminal on one battery and the positive of that battery is connected to the negative of the other and the positive wire goes to the positive terminal on the second battery.  Again you may be well familiar with this but the explanation is for the benefit of all.

Note that some battery suppliers will say that it's ok to connect two similar or identical batteries in parallel  but my personal experience is if you want to get the maximum life out of the batteries you'll avoid doing this.

5 amps seems a bit high for a 55 litre fridge, cyclic or continuous.  Maybe the insulation means that the on/off duty cycle is such that the  average current over the cycles is much lower as Dave suggests.  The quick freeze time when on 240 v alludes to this possibility.

Jim

 

-- Edited by jimricho on Saturday 30th of January 2010 08:54:14 PM

I am going to buy a 150 amp hr sealed lead acid battery for the fridge and ditch the 2 old n70zs I have at the moment. That should solve the battery problem. I have one 45 watt panel on the van and a folding 80 watt portable setup,plus a dual battery setup, so that should be suficient. Also will wire fridge directly to battery. Hope fully this will fit my troubles. Bill

overkill if anything I think Bill!

Bill12.. I hope you kept the old waceo because the motor and controler are worth money.. A BD-35 with controler SH. 300$ BD-50 with controler SH 450$ ...New twice that .. The Engel takes some beating.. the best fridge on the market is the nat. Luna from south africa..but $$$....I think 2 AGM 120 amp Batt. take some beating as well...Thats my 2 bobs worth any how...bob

left the old waeco with the fridge mech. Didn,t know they were worth anything.I suppose that I could get it back. It was a cdf 45 coolfreeze. What are the bits worth? Thanks, Bill

Bob&bev, I would be very wary of buying any second hand compressor, especialy if it was on a frige that had a leak in the evaporator, if it had been running it will have sucked moisture into it & if left will cetainly cause damage to the compressor. If a frige has a leak in the evaporator it needs fixing reasonably quickly with a new filterdrier fitted & a long Vacume time to remove moisture. This applys to any fridge.  Cheers Daryl  ( I certainly wouldnt part with $300-$450 for a second hand compressor that may be siezed by the time you get it.)

-- Edited by DeBe on Tuesday 2nd of February 2010 09:02:09 AM

Hi Bill The controler on the side of the compressor is new price $235 (Waecos price for BD35F controler). Daryl

The new fridge is running great , after I put in a 150amp hr n150d battery in andgot rid of the old n70zs. Haven,t done a lot of trvaling yet, but it definately keeps the beer cold and freezes my water bottles .  Got it set on minus 1c,perhaps too cold , but it seems to be working. Am at my sisters place , puting a turbo on the hilux diesel. Should be working tommorrow. Spent more time chasing bits than working. will post how it goes. See ya, Bill

I dont think you will have any dramas with it! what are you setting the blow off pressure to on the hi-lux, are you going manual set or just leaving it standard low!

We just left it as standard.Drove it around the block , and it definately has more go. Will take it to an exhaust place in  Cooroy on monday to weld up some small holes and replace the flexable connection further back. Then a big run down to the south from Pomona where my sister lives. It aslo seems to start easier.Only time will tell. I am looking forward to taking it on the open road. Will post tell how it goes. Bill

dont do what we did when we did our first one, it was a dual battery setup and we didn't give the positive cable from the second battery enough free space, it welded itself to the turbo the easier starting is gained through more compression, always a good thing for diesels, should notice better economy as well from the same thing, more bang for your buck, just watch your sump oil for contamination, especially if your vehicle has high km's, has been known to cause some blow-by

All I have to do is get the exhaust mig welded up and I am off down south. Will post how both systems go while on the track.The fridge system is a solinoid system and the second battery is a big 150 amp hr, which runs the fridge no worrys. The panels nad the alternater should cover my usage, hope fully.I am interested to see how the turbo goes on the open road.will compare fuel consumtion with when it was naturally aspirated. The brother in law has a similar car , and says he gets better power and fuel consumption. Only time will tell. Bill

you will notice a lot of difference at higher revs when overtaking, this is where the maximum boost of around 6 psi comes into its own, you should gain around 30% more horse power at max torque depending on your exhaust box, if you needed more then think of making up your own intercooler, this will gain at least another 5 horses

Am at Gilandra, camped down by the river. The new fridge and the turbo are working well, espesially when I get the folding solar panel setup pluged in. I am no longer the slowest car on the block , and can even accelarate up hills.Getting about 7klms to the liter, with much better power . I think I can get more power with a few refinements to the inlet side of the turbo.Just spent 3 days catching trout at Styx R., near Ebor. Temp was 7.5c at night , a bit of change from Magnetic is.The trout were up the 38cms, and caught on worms as the river was high.Free camping beside the river, with long drop toilet, and beautiful clear drinkable water that runs past your camp. Turn off to go to the Dutton trout hatchery, and go 5k further up the road. Ebor is 11 k up the road.cool at 1300 m . Bloody great spot.Bill

-- Edited by bill12 on Thursday 11th of February 2010 05:22:50 PM