Thread: Fridge Issues

Apart from not an engel, what type of fridge is it?

Its a Waeco, seems strange it is working fine now at home on mains power,

Regards

Stevo

Originally Posted by stevo68

Hey All,

Without going into my whole "Mr Bean" trip to Fraser, one of the things that went wrong ( amongst so many other things ) was my fridge went on the blink plus issues with the portable battery. First time I used it on Fraser pretty much 12mths ago......perfect, ran fine from the 12volt plug in the car and ran almost 48hrs off the portable battery. Next time round, issues with working off the battery, would be fine and then wake up in morning and the error light is flashing whilst it is still plugged into battery with temp rising.

This time round, after making sure battery was fully charged, first night ok, then same woke up error flashing. PLugged into car with car running, still flashing error and no sound. Kept fiddling, turning off and on, would hear I assume the compressor or what ever makes a fridge cold ( not technical this one) making a noise then click off and nothing, meanwhile temperature rising and 3 young children wanting fricking cold milo's .

Anyhoo, thankfully Justin aka Dranged and Kathryn ( better half ) lent me one of their fridges and all was well again for the camping trip. Now Justin has dropped it off to my place this arvo, so thought would plug it into mains and see if it works............GRRRRRRRRRRR it does perfectly, everything running smoothly, temp has dropped from initial 18 to almost 5 in about 1/2 hr. So what could be the problem on both the battery and the fridge before I take it back to see what problem is, thanks

Regards

Stevo

If the compressor starts to run - then trips, clicks off, that "normally" indicates a compressor problem. Most have an overload or thermal cut out that will 'click' either when the compressors too hot or is overloading due to an internal fault in the compressor.

With most modern fridges (engel, waco or the like) have additional voltage protection if the volts are too high or too low. So if the batteries are flat the error would come on.

You should not keep switching a fridge on and off, this can cause thermal tripping as the compressor is trying to start against a high head pressure.

If you leave your fridge for half an hour or so, then re-try it with a decent battery or off the car with engine running. If it doesn't start after that then there could be a problem with the controller or the compressor in the fridge.

What voltage did the batteries drop to. ?

Another thing - are you trying to run the fridge at the minimum temp whilst on batteries ? I wouldn't recommend that either - get a simple temp probe or a normal thermometer and if you have it running at about half - then check the temp.

If the compressor starts to run - then trips, clicks off, that "normally" indicates a compressor problem. Most have an overload or thermal cut out that will 'click' either when the compressors too hot or is overloading due to an internal fault in the compressor.

With most modern fridges (engel, waco or the like) have additional voltage protection if the volts are too high or too low. So if the batteries are flat the error would come on.

You should not keep switching a fridge on and off, this can cause thermal tripping as the compressor is trying to start against a high head pressure.

If you leave your fridge for half an hour or so, then re-try it with a decent battery or off the car with engine running. If it doesn't start after that then there could be a problem with the controller or the compressor in the fridge. Tried it off the car with engine running, no difference

What voltage did the batteries drop to. ? Battery was still showing 12volts +

Another thing - are you trying to run the fridge at the minimum temp whilst on batteries ? I wouldn't recommend that either - get a simple temp probe or a normal thermometer and if you have it running at about half - then check the temp. Nope run the fridge at bout 0 to -1, it has an temperature guage on it so you can set the temp

THanks for some of that info I have responded to some in bold. I cant understand why it is now working perfectly at home, very frustrating considering the hassle it caused whilst away,

Regards

Stevo

The only other thing I can think of if the battery is fine is the condition of the terminals and connectors you can lose a fair amount of power if they are not clean and making good contact

Stevo, from what little I know about these devices, they should be in fairly constant use, run it on mains for a few days, then run it on 12v power for a while and see what happens - if it's been doing nothing for a long time, it may have aseal issue, causing it to work hard on 12v power, just a thought, I'm not an expert, but have had lotsa fun with fridges over the years......silly bloody things, must be a better way.....to keep a coldie cold, or the 'fricking bloody milo'

just sounds like something in the 12v area is loading up and cant get enought current to keep it happy......


GQ

The only other thing I can think of if the battery is fine is the condition of the terminals and connectors you can lose a fair amount of power if they are not clean and making good contact

The battery seems to run other things without a problem, it ran the fridge that I was given no issues. It also had the problem when plugged into the back of the D3 where it has a 12volt plug.

Stevo, from what little I know about these devices, they should be in fairly constant use, run it on mains for a few days, then run it on 12v power for a while and see what happens - if it's been doing nothing for a long time, it may have aseal issue, causing it to work hard on 12v power, just a thought, I'm not an expert, but have had lotsa fun with fridges over the years......silly bloody things, must be a better way.....to keep a coldie cold, or the 'fricking bloody milo'

Great minds think alike, that was what I was going to do, I completely flattened the battery so going to charge it up over the next couple of days whilst driving around and then plug it in and see what happens, otherwise off to Waeco for them to figure out. Yes if it wasnt for the generosity of being given a spare fridge, the idea of warm beer and no bloody milo for the 4 yr old, would have been enough to jump in the car, leave the tent and everything behind and bugger orf home

Regards

Stevo

best thing to do .............

take it back to the shop where you bought

then throw it through their window
and then ask for a Engel