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