Thread: New Fridge needed - ARB or Engel???

It might sound trivial, but the 2 things I love about my Dad's ARB are the light inside the lid, and most of all the removable bung - wish all fridge manufacturers had this. It makes cleaning them out so much easier.

i would go for the engel with the new motor

Hi Yorkshire Jon,

For what it's worth I had to replace my Engel 40lt two years ago - the compressor failed and it was going to cost me about $800 in repairs. I was on a trip at the time and the dealer/service agent I went to didn't have the Engel I wanted in stock. As I was desperate and couldn't be without a fridge I had no alternative but to purchase a 60lt Waeco - and I've never been happier.

The Waeco has a landscape fridge but it you can hinge it from either side you prefer. This means I can put it on the left or right side at the rear of the vehicle and still have the temperature read-out and controls at the rear so that I can see them through the rear door (of a Discovery).

I was a died-in-the-wool Engel fan, now I'm a died-in-the-wool Waeco fan!

Regards,

Ron

interesting topic, i have two engels a 32L and 40L and hoping never have to purchase another

what price is the ARB?

i reckon both you have mentioned along with waeco are all quality units these days........tough call

i have never owned a danfos fridge therefore never been able to measure current draw but i reckon it maybe better than engel's swing motor.

i cannot recall seeing my engels draw less than 2amp when running, keep in mind its normally cycles about 50% of the time

i would suspect the figures below does not take into account the lid being opened, ambient temp items being placed in etc etc. and they dont mention cycle on cycle off times

i might wack the amp meter onto my engels to refresh my memory on current draw

One interesting thing that I recently learned is that the Engel swing motor has a "soft" start so doesn't spike the voltage down on startup, whereas the Waeco and others with Danfoss do have a load spike on start up.

I reckon this is the source of a lot of the Waeco problems when the wiring is insufficient, and should allow an Engel to operate with a lower battery level than the Waeco etc.
I have a low battery cutout on my Engel at 11.5 and all things being equal it should go longer than a Waeco with the same cutout, because of the initial start up draw on the Waeco.
I enjoyed this first hand yesterday when we had a power outage and I connected my home fridge to my 1KVA peak 800W Yamaha. I had a couple of stalls when adding the load , but it ran easily once going and the fridge motor is only rated at 1.5 amps or 360watts.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by Ranga

It might sound trivial, but the 2 things I love about my Dad's ARB are the light inside the lid, and most of all the removable bung - wish all fridge manufacturers had this. It makes cleaning them out so much easier.

The newer Engels have a light as well.

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i have never owned a danfos fridge therefore never been able to measure current draw but i reckon it maybe better than engel's swing motor.

I have a Evacool 60 Litre.I have tested the draw and on cycling mode it is 2.9 amps dropping back to 2.5 amps.That was on 5 on the thermostat. I tested it for 24 hours and the draw remained the same keeping the freezer section at -18c and the fridge section under 5c which is recommended as optimal for fridges.

Bit of the "cat among the pigeons"...

I have a 60 liter National Luna. Bit up price wise on the comparable Engels, ARB's and Waeco's, but they are still the choice of the United Nations and in particular UNHCR for transporting medical supplies and the like around deepest darkest Africa.

Used them on a few humanitarian runs around Central Africa and in my opinion they are a bit of a pricey investment, but you get what you pay for...