I want to change to a 12 volt fridge. i'm looking at the 65 litre waeco or the 80 litre engel. They're the smallest with enclosed freezer. They would both work with my solar, battery set up.
From comments on forums they both seem to have their own problems. The waeco lets the freezer temperature rise in cold ambient temps. The engel seems to be noisy.
Any comments good or bad appreciated ????
Cheers Pete
-- Edited by wasn_me on Wednesday 7th of January 2015 12:14:46 PM
We have recently removed an Engel 55L 12V fridge and replaced it with a larger Evakool. It did not have an enclosed freezer and as it had been in the vehicle for some time the technology is probably outdated, but noise was not a problem (nor is it with the new one), even though the compressor was only about 350mm from my head while I was sleeping.
Hopefully someone will have info on the current models.
Good luck.
__________________
BJC
"A year from now you'll wish you had started today."
I have an 80l engel in my camper van - notice a mild vibration when cycling , not aware of it during the day and doesn't worry us at night, very efficient fridge using about 25-30 amps per day, freezer not cold enough to keep ice cream frozen but OK for everything else
Thanks for the replies. befree, the freezer seems to be the problem that comes up with the waeco. It's only a problem in cold weather. As the thermostat senses & trys to maintain the fridge temp +4, the freezer temp can drop considerably before the compressor cuts in.
I am considering the engel purely on the reliability they seem to have.
After speaking to a fridge techo, I have placed a piece of insulation ( cut out from a HD foil lined foam cored windscreen protector, only about 5mm thick, on top of the drip tray up against the bottom of the freezer compartment - this allows the fridge to run at about +3-4, and the freezer at about -12., temp setting at 3.5. It certainly has helped keep the freezer temp stable but to make it any colder things in the fridge freeze. The techno said that using 1" styrofoam would be even better.
I glued similar insulation to the sides, top and back of the unit which probably helps also.
This is waecos answer to the problem. A summer / winter switch ?????? $90 after paying for a fridge that lets the freezer temp rise in cold conditions.
The freezer temp can rise below 16 degrees C ambient. I would regularly camp down to 0 through winter.
