Portable Fridges

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Originally posted by knuts2au
Have worked on both Engel and Waeco and some SouthAfrican ones imported by a Perth Dealer. Must say i like the Waeco features, Turbo cool, low battery cut-out,plastic case, but the compressor complained if it was on an angle.I just wonder it they will last as good as the old Engels that are still going. The South African ones (can't remember the name) were just dodgy.

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Peter, are you referring to the National Luna made in South-Africa? I've actually heard good things about them and they outsell Waeco by a country mile in the Republic.

I have an Autofridge and an Engel Both are around 15 years old. In my opinion the Auto fridge is well woth the extra cost.

I have cut the damaged part of the thread off and now just need to clean the thread up a little. Hopefully after that I am set to go.

Which make is the best??

Probably not the best question, sort of along the lines of which is best Toyota or Nissan and we all know the answer - Neither.

I have a Waeco and it does the job for me, although it had to go back for repairs a couple of years ago (kept freezing everything).

Time will be what tells, Engel have been arounbd for a long time and have a well deserved good reputation, unfortunately that is no guarentee they will always be that good.

Waeco are the (relative) newcomers only time will tell.

Prior to the Waeco I used an Electrolux 3 way that was 20+ years old (and returned me $250 when I sold it). The last Simpson trip proved it was not up to the task in 40+ temps and it really struggled to keep things cool (no hope with cold), but as a fridge if you were stopping in one spot for a few days and could run it on gas then provided it wasn't real hot it performed fine. Keeping them level is pretty easy with a spot bubbble and a few stepped wedges.


Bushie

<span style="color:blue">can anyone explain to me why it is so critical to have the lpg fridges so level.....?

i dont know how they work and why it is so crucial....</span>

When on gas the flame from the gas burner heats the gas and causes it to rise in a spiral "chimney" on top of the gas burner. If it is uneven some parts of the chimney get hot and others cool and the gas does not rise and expand and vapourise correctly.
So it does not then condense and pump the heat into the air via the fins at the back.
IMHO It is not so important on 12 or 240 volts as they have heaters inside the chimney, but the mechanism is the same.

By the way , I found that a computer fan fitted inside the back cover trained on the fins made the 12 volt performance much better on my old "Groen" (Electrolux). It would make a little ice even.
The main reason they have poor performance on 12 volts is that the heater is only 100W on 12 volts to keep the amps manageable vs 1000W on 240V.
Regards Philip A

<span style="color:blue">thanks buddy....now it makes some sort of sense to me.....
ands its quite a simple principal come to think of it......

</span>

also the angle of the reactor (the big cylinder thing on the back) and associated piping is faily critical to operation.

Get a conventional frig compressor on too great an angle, and it will starve the bearings of oil (in some designs) as the bearings are only splash fed and the oil capacity not that great. It's only when you get into larger commercial systems that compressors have an oil pump and the bearings are pressure fed.

Good timing :!:

Current Issue (December 2005) of Australian 4WD Monthly has a "giant fridge comparo".

This looks at various brands of fridges, and does not state "this one is best" (because everyone has different needs) though it does look like a useful read for someone in the market. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Have a look at the new 4X4Monthly, has a test of 13 fridges in it, small ones and large (80l). From what I've seen there I reckon the Evakool is the go, although Engel and Waeco are also ok. Engel has a huge reputation and rightly so, but it was built on the older models with the danfoss compressor - not the new swing motor :? .

Louis