Thread: Buying a Waeco

Just been looking at fridges with a mate.

TJM has a new range of Evakool fridges out and on introductory sale. Look just like Waecos but are supposedly better due to thicker insulation, flow through condenser cooling and whatever else.

They are only single zone though so either fridge or freezer not both.

He bought the original style 60L fridge. Looks the goods and has nice usable space being low and long. Won't have to unpack it as much as you do the narrower taller fridges.

I have a Waeco CF40, had it for 3 years (bought it for a song new, Anaconda in Springwood had a 'Club members night' and got it for 15% less than retail ). So far I haven't had a single issue with it, has been trown around on trips and even survived the Logan Challenge in August being thrown around so that's my indorsment for a product.

The only real issue to be honest that was easily sorted was the voltage dop can cause it to go into an error mode at times (had this problem about 6 months into owning it, found out the accessory socket in the back had too thinner wiring so it was not getting enough grunt )

I almost bought an engel, it was a 35L but I couldn't see the value in paying another $150 for a fridge that was 5 liters smaller that's all. Only problem is that the CF40 is too small even for one bloke like me (struggle on getting the beer/food balance right ) so it may be time to upgrade in the future.

Trav

Originally Posted by aquarangie

Only problem is that the CF40 is too small even for one bloke like me (struggle on getting the beer/food balance right ) so it may be time to upgrade in the future.

Trav

Thats why I bought a 60L engel, I "upgraded" from my now 22 year old 39L, which the 60L has been sitting in the old boy's Kimberely since we went across the simpson mid year and I'm back to my 22 year old Engel and an Ice box..........the ****ing thing is 4 years younger than I and still works twice as hard without fail

Originally Posted by numpty

Fridges is fridges is fridges. I dont have a Waeco, and am not getting into the "what is best" arguments. Suffice to say, my experience with aquaintances who do have Waeco's is that most of their problems relate to wiring issues. ie the standard power supply that people tend to use, is not up to the job. That is easily fixed by upgrading the wiring and usually results in problems going away.

And as has been said, Engel use the Sawafuji swing motor, which is exclusive to their fridges. Most of the others use Danfoss.

Being the person that one Numpty Esq referred to, My Waeco runs like a clock and it is on most of the time at home as our beer fridge. The only problem as others have stated is in the wiring. Once you upgrade to a heavier wiring setup to the plug you are going to use or run straight off the battery as I have done in the 200Tdi Defender then you will have no problems.

They use very little current. I ran mine at the last Louth Races in the back of the work car on a spare battery I had with the car closed up and it ran for two and a half days with no problem.

Originally Posted by Chenz

The only problem as others have stated is in the wiring. Once you upgrade to a heavier wiring setup to the plug you are going to use or run straight off the battery as I have done in the 200Tdi Defender then you will have no problems.

Mine still has issues and I have used approx 10mm sq wiring from the second battery under the bonnet to the socket in the back.
I think Waeco recommended 6sq mm.

I'm pretty confident my problems don't stem from the wiring. Having checked voltage drops I know the factory cable has more voltage loss than all of my wiring.

I'm not aware of wiring issues with Engels. I'm using quite tiny wire by comparison. The swing motor by it's nature is effectively soft start in that it only goes as hard as the current will allow. I've seen my engel quite happily running on 8v

It sounds like the conventional rotary compressors in the danfoss powered units need far higher start loads.

Even though Waecos have power issues it is interesting to note the Evakool website since they use the same compressors.
EvaKool Fibreglass Ice Boxes & Portable Fridge Freezers - Nexberg Pty Ltd

Talking about their low voltage cutout feature.

Prevents batteries from draining completely. We are able to tailor low voltage cut out to your specific requirements. If for example you have dual batteries in your vehicle, we can reduce the cut out from 10.4v to 9.6v giving you around 15-18 additional hours of fridge use.
NOTE : This is only available to fridge owners who purchased their fridges before 2007 as all fridges manufactured after this time have the 9.6V setting.