Thanks Frank - Don't have the pics as I already am using the fridge - what you don't know won't hurt you . Besides I can through three to four of these to one Engel and there are people who do repair the cheapies but may not be cost effective. Has held up being bounced around in the back of the 101 so far and it did take a few big thumps in the potholes around Bendethra.

Fridge has now been going for 26 hours so that works out better than 1/2 an amp hour usage - temp is set at 4 but is currently reading -1 so is on its compressor running part of the cycle (still cycles between 5 and -1 and back in about 2 hour cycles) - temp in the house is 29 and the jump start is still showing 80% charge.

Garry

__________________
REMLR 243

2007 Range Rover Sport TDV6
1998 Freelander XEDI
1977 FC 101
1957 Series 1 88" (Baby)
1957 Series 1 88" Station Wagon
1971 Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 Roadster

Sounds like a good buy Garry and your right you can buy four of these for the price of one of the same size brand name fridges, so who cares if it only lasts a year or two.

cheers,
Terry

The ebay fridge in the very first post of this thread looks the same as a Primas brand now selling in some large commerical chains......the stainless construction, handles , lid, hinges are the same and the Primas retails well over one K.....it is very well made and uses the Maki compressor.
I may end up with one of these soon as apart of work/barter thing I am doing.
The cheapie Mobicool fridge from Kmart still going strong and it went for another ride to stockton in the back of my defender and I forgot it was there and it was badly thrown around losing most of it contents etc and ending up on its side..........stilll going........a few dents now.
The cheapie fridges are worth the money .

The 24Ah jump starter lasted 30.5 hours before "it is time to recharge me" red light came on. The gauge on the jump starter showed that voltage was still 12.2v and was about 50% discharged so I estimate that 12AH was used. I could have gone on a few hours more until the 11.1v fridge cutoff but I did not want to damage the cheap sealed lead acid battery in the jump starter.

I assume that about 12.2v is what you would normally want to go down to with a dual battery system to ensure max life out of the battery.

The numbers above indicate the fridge was drawing on average a little less than .4Ah which I understand is really good. I appreciate if it was hotter, the fridge opened and closed more often and used as a freezer would increase battery load but then if the fridge was loaded up with frozen/cooled food in the first place the thermal mass would also assist with lower fridge current usage.

So one of the reasons given in the past not to buy an ebay special was high battery usage - I think MYTH BUSTED.

The chassis is strong enough for my #$%kg frame to use it as a seat and you cannot hear the compressor running.

The only remaining issue is the one Frank has raised - will the compressor etc last after being bounced around - dunno - as I have not used it enough as yet but it did survive its first trip.

If you are happy to pay around $1800 for an engel - then that is great - people do have different requirements - but for me the cheap way is the way to go.

Oh the same fridge as I have is sold by Repco for about $300-$400 more, so just think of the money Repco is making on each sale.

Cheers

Garry

__________________
REMLR 243

2007 Range Rover Sport TDV6
1998 Freelander XEDI
1977 FC 101
1957 Series 1 88" (Baby)
1957 Series 1 88" Station Wagon
1971 Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 Roadster

Mobicool 40 litre workings

My pics are up to there normal fuzzy standard.
My primus 60 lt fridge barter deal is going a head and I will report on that fridge soon
The specs of it is a Jap maki compressor and stainless steel outer construction, with 50mm insulation, drain plug, heavy duty lifting handles etc.
Ron

Hey guys,

been a while since you got these.
I'm looking at fridges at the momentn.

Any feedback, good, bad or indifferent?

Still happy with these and are they still doing the job?

Cheers

__________________
2002 TD5 Disco SE7, CHIPPED!!!!, muddies, cdl, GME TX4000, IPF 900s, dual battery, custom rear bar, 12.5lb winch, snorkel, rosary beads...
75 Series 3 88' SWB
REMLR # 214

My cheap 55l ebay fridge is still running very well - last major trip was away for 2 weeks and it worked a treat, keeps things very cold (fridge section could be a little colder), is low on power consumption, relatively quite and reasonably robust. Just haven't found a insulation bag that will fit - does a protective cover though.

As my last trip was outback with plenty of red dust and canvas top, I took the covers off and had a look at the insides - all safe and secure after being bounced around a bit, minimal dust inside and not too hard to clean the dust inside.

I am happy with it.

Garry

__________________
REMLR 243

2007 Range Rover Sport TDV6
1998 Freelander XEDI
1977 FC 101
1957 Series 1 88" (Baby)
1957 Series 1 88" Station Wagon
1971 Jaguar V12 E-Type Series 3 Roadster

I have a friend who has an 80lt stainless hat he managed to get delivered to his door in perth for $600. dirt cheep. We thought he may have trouble with it being so cheap. Not running properly, drawing to much current. Hey its great.
I personally own a 50lt waeco, 80lt waeco and a 80lt colecool.
The ebay jobby is as good as the waeco no worries. we tested it on the last two fishing trips on different power sources. Gen set and solar as well as the vehicle as we travelled. Never missed a beat.
I used to own an older style engel and lets face it they havent changed a hell of a lot in the last 20 years it was ok but hated running off a gen set. Something to do with the fluctuating current, it would trip out all the time and stop working with out notice.
good news the ebay fridge works well on all power sources. Am tempted to buy one as a back up myself

not sure if this will be a rain on your parade or helpful tip type of post.

first up good drills on doing the test with the fridge on a jump starter they usually have a SLAB type battery in them that tend to give a nice repeatable performance. (as well as having no parasitic loads on them to interfere)

theres one slight thing that you haven't counted for in your method, when you draw power from batteries the battery life is more or less an inverse exponential of current draw. as an example if you have a battery that can drive a 10amp load for for 5 hours you'd expect that a 5 amp load would run for 10 hours, in reality it would be more like 12. Conversly youd expect that a 20 amp load would run for 2.5 hours in reality it would probably run for 2. Based on this the rated life of the battery is generally worked out at the "happy medium" point of the curve.

just to make things even better if your running an intermittent load the battery life extends as well.

__________________
Dave

"In a Landrover the other vehicle is your crumple zone."

Fozzy, 2.25D SIII Ex DCA Ute
The midlife crisis car
Some D1

For spelling call Rogets, for mechanicing call me.