What model Engel is it ? Is it the older green/yellow type or a later brown/grey model ? AFAIK the older green/yellow and early brown/grey models don't have a fan. The later 'turbo' brown/grey models and the models with the inbuilt temp gauge do have a fan.
I copied this from an old post by Isuzurover ............
Engel current draw - a way to identify how old your fridge is!
I was talking to the knowledgeable bloke here: Engeland - Engel Fridge Freezer Hire & Sales, Perth Australia and he gave me some interesting stats I thought I would pass on in case they are of interest:
Decade of Manufacture / Current draw when ON
70's / 6 A
80's / 4.5 A
90's / 3.7 A
2000-on / 2.5 A
So with that I could identify that my 29L engel was made in the 80's.
Your fridge should have a red tag on the side with the current draw on 12V - if not, you can measure it!
So if yours is an Engel of '80s era it will have a current draw of 4.5 amps or a power usage of 54 watts.
In general, for your battery to last a while it's best not to take it below say 12 volts or 50% state of charge in 'normal' operation as the lower you take the battery discharge voltage the shorter the battery life will be. Occasional discharge to say 11.7 volts or 33% state of charge is OK and sometimes beneficial to the battery (if recharged properly) to avoid sulphation especially a battery that is continually floated. Taking the battery down to 11.4 volts or 15% state of charge is definitely not good for its longevity.
Putting this into practice with your Engel drawing a maximum of 4.5 amps and with a 100% duty cycle, (ie. continually on) the theoretical 160 ah battery 'life' would be 36 hrs. In the real world using 50% SOC as a measure you'd have 18 hrs of use @ 100% duty cycle. The energy consumption will vary greatly depending on what temp. the fridge is set on, what is (isn't) in it and the ambient temp. Using a 50% duty cycle as a more realistic measure (unless turned on flat out as a freezer) this gives a real world figure of approx. 36 hours of use for a 160 ah battery to 50% SOC (12 volts) or 48 hours to 33% SOC (11.8 volts).
Deano
66 SIIA SWB .......73 SIII LWB diesel wgn
86 RR 'classic'......99 Range Rover P38a
94 Defender 110..95 Defender 130 Ute
96 D1 300TDi.......99 D2 TD5 (current)
04 D2a Td5..........02 Disco 2 V8
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