Thread: Why isn't my fridge working?

Probbaly just choked and overheating.
I have an Evakool not a Waeco, but can you remove a cover to get at it's vital organs and clean it of fluff & etc?

yep a multimeter will be your best friend, sorry don't know much about waeco's........crump was having troubles with his no so long ago, similar problems from memory

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-ch...-warranty.html

didn't think waeco's broke downsorry had to get in first

The only real way to tell if it is your supply/wiring, or the fridge itself, is to get a multimeter ( one of those cheap $20 ones from Bunnings is more than good enough ). Measure the volts right at the power plug at the fridge end, with the fridge connected and running ( ie compressor on/whirring -put it in "Turbo" mode). You might need to take the cover of the plug or strip back a bit of insulation to be able to get your probes on to the terminals . Meaure using both probes ( pos and neg ) on the terminal.

It's no use measuring the volts without the fridge connected, it needs to be under load. It should stay up above 12V at the fridge end. If the volts are low there, try measuring at the battery itself, still with fridge on load. If they are normal there, your wiring between fridge and battery is too thin or has a bad connection/earth somewhere. If they are low at the battery, either the battery is stuffed or not charging properly.

I had the red error light flashing and it was because of too thin wires to the fridge and a stuffed cell in the second battery. The methods above found the problem.

I suspect you've got something wrong with your wiring. Rather than run just a hot wire and relying on car earth ( which it sounds like you're doing ) , its better to run both pos. and neg. wires from the battery ( at least 6mm I'd say ). Get rid of any cigarette lighter type sockets and replace them with better ones. ( even though Waeco use them on their leads they're notorious for failing!! )

If all that seems Ok try running the fridge off a 240V/12V power supply ( if you have one ) and see if the error light stops and it cools normally. If it doesn't your fridge is bung I'm afraid.
My Waeco on setting 2 or 3 will maintain 4 degrees and anything higher will get down below zero.

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Hi guys.

Just got back from the new year's camping trip, and had to suffer with not-so-cold beer from the Waeco (even had to put some in a mates esky for a while ). It usually runs fine even on hot days (set to -2 deg). This time it slowly came up from -2 (cooled from 240V supply at home) to 12 degrees over a few days.

I have a duel battery setup with an auto-switching relay. Both newish batteries, decent wiring (not massive) to the back of the car and cig lighter sockets for the fridge and lights, with a good earth. As i said, this normally works ok even on hot days.

Some info: The error light was flashing. After switching on, it would cut out (the compressor) after 10-15 secs. I changed to low battery protection and still cut out. I switched to emergency bypass (compressor always on) and still cut out/didn't cool after an hour or so. I ran the engine and still cut out. I linked the two batteries (pos to pos) with a jumper lead to elimimate the relay, still cut out with the engine running. I had the fridge in the shade (most of the time) and out enough to allow air to the vents. The fluro light was still happy to run when tested, but i kept it off to help the fridge.

IMHO, if some bad wiring was causing a few volts to be dropped thru the wiring/sockets, this would make the fridge cut out at 12V, but with the engine running it should be 13-14V and therefore make it run a bit longer before shutting down, but it seemed to make no difference. I am also a bit suprised that it kept a fairly low temp (considering day temps were in the high 30's). It didn't rise above 12 degrees, and sometimes got down to 8 degrees.

I didn't have a multimeter with me and i'm yet to set it all back up again to test it. I'm sure the answer here will be 'check the connections and earth' but they all seem pretty good. Any ideas please. Thanks in advance .

A mate's fridge "gave up the ghost" while travelling outback. The problem turned out to be a break in the solder joint of the coolant pipe, hence no refrigerant. I think it was a Waeco, but I could be wrong.

Connect it back up to the 240V supply and see if it returns to its previous performance. If not, I suspect that you've lost refrigerant.

My mate has a different brand of fridge now.

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Hi guys.

Just got back from the new year's camping trip, and had to suffer with not-so-cold beer from the Waeco (even had to put some in a mates esky for a while ). It usually runs fine even on hot days (set to -2 deg). This time it slowly came up from -2 (cooled from 240V supply at home) to 12 degrees over a few days.

I have a duel battery setup with an auto-switching relay. Both newish batteries, decent wiring (not massive) to the back of the car and cig lighter sockets for the fridge and lights, with a good earth. As i said, this normally works ok even on hot days.

Some info: The error light was flashing. After switching on, it would cut out (the compressor) after 10-15 secs. I changed to low battery protection and still cut out. I switched to emergency bypass (compressor always on) and still cut out/didn't cool after an hour or so. I ran the engine and still cut out. I linked the two batteries (pos to pos) with a jumper lead to elimimate the relay, still cut out with the engine running. I had the fridge in the shade (most of the time) and out enough to allow air to the vents. The fluro light was still happy to run when tested, but i kept it off to help the fridge.

IMHO, if some bad wiring was causing a few volts to be dropped thru the wiring/sockets, this would make the fridge cut out at 12V, but with the engine running it should be 13-14V and therefore make it run a bit longer before shutting down, but it seemed to make no difference. I am also a bit suprised that it kept a fairly low temp (considering day temps were in the high 30's). It didn't rise above 12 degrees, and sometimes got down to 8 degrees.

I didn't have a multimeter with me and i'm yet to set it all back up again to test it. I'm sure the answer here will be 'check the connections and earth' but they all seem pretty good. Any ideas please. Thanks in advance .

If it helps,I had the same problum,with my waeco fridge ,I have a 40 lt,it did the same as your fridge started at- 03 and went up to +5,started the engine,ran for two hours,droped to +4 after a hour went back to +06,but it stayed there for two more days till I came home

I had similar problem. Found it was the cig plug. Replaced it for an anderson plug. Fixed the problem(I had already replaced wiring to rear with 10 amp.)

Works a treat.

Originally Posted by waynep

The only real way to tell if it is your supply/wiring, or the fridge itself, is to get a multimeter and measure the volts at the power plug at the fridge end, with the fridge connected and running ( ie compressor on/whirring -put it in "Turbo" mode). You might need to take the cover of the plug or strip back a bit of insulation to be able to get your probes on to the terminals .

It's no use measuring the volts without the fridge connected, it needs to be under load. It should stay up above 12V at the fridge end. If the volts are low there, try measuring at the battery itself, stil lwith firdge on load. If they are normal there, your wiring between fridge and battery is too thin or has a bad connection somewhere.

I had the red error light flashing and it was because of too thin wires to the fridge and a stuffed cell in the second battery.

I suspect you've got something wrong with your wiring. Rather than run just a hot wire and relying on car earth ( which it sounds like you're doing ) , its better to run both pos. and neg. wires from the battery ( at least 6mm I'd say ). Get rid of any cigarette lighter type sockets and repalce them with better ones. ( even though Waeco use them on their leads !! )

If all that seems Ok try running the fridge off a 240V/12V power supply ( if you have one ) and see if the error light stops and it cools normally. If it doesn't your fridge is bung I'm afraid.

I have the fridge on 240V now and is cooling nicely.

I like the idea of running a neg wire to the sockets. When i wire my car, i try to do it in a way that is normal in a car (ie. neg to chassis/metal etc) but being an electronics guy i understand +ve wires and -ve/gnd wires. I'm glad to hear that this is (possibly) and accepted method. If/when i rewire it i will run a -ve too.

Yes, might improve the socket type, but the fridge came with a cig lighter plug so you'd think it would be ok for the current. Also means i can't use the fridge in other cars unless i change all their sockets too .

hi bulldog
ive got a waeco to .dragged it around aust last year and had the same problem im a electrician so i need ed a swift kick first get rid of the cig plug
there totaly useless use a 32volt polarised plug and socket
then check the cig plug on the waeco lead there is a fuse inside and loose connections are common. i unless your batteries were flat i think you will find
it will be a connection issue
regards wayne