Problems with new Engel fridge

[Tweetjie]

Bought a new 40l Engel before going to Lesotho in Dec and the thing defrosted on the way up and we had to eat all our meat in one day When it is plugged into the cig lighter port in the back of the bakkie the compressor turns off and on intermittantly. I tested the cig port with my multimeter and it is a constant 12.6V. When i plug in the lead that came with the fridge and test the socket that goes into the fridge its all over the place. Anyone have similar probs? The fridge works fine on 220V.

[Family_Dog]

The fridge draws a couple of Amps from that cigarette lighter when running and I would imagine this is your problem. The cigarette lighter sockets are very poor electrical connectors and you should really use a better type connector instead, one that is able to sustain an amperage drawn over an extended period of time. You should also ensure that you are using cabling of sufficient size to carry the amps from the battery, at the very least 4mm cable but you could - and should - go up to double that if the cable run is longer than about three metres.

The voltage measurement you are making with your DMM is on a no-load situation, when there is no current draw and therefore no voltage loss across the cable and/or cigarette lighter. But when there is a load across the terminals, such as a fridge or a compressor etc, then the voltage drop caused by a high-resistant connection or too-thin cabling, would present a problem.

You should have received a suitable heavy-duty connector with the Engel fridge - use that instead of the cigarette lighter.


-F_D

[hentey]

Yip Eric you are quite right there.Just remember about the fuse in the male connecter, if you cut that off,gone is your warranty.I made myself a very shord lead using BOSCH male and female connectors to keep the fridge standard.Works well for me.REMINDER!....Watch your polarity.

[Tweetjie]

Ok, thanks for very useful advice Eric....I was ill advised on the size of the cabling from my battery (I was given 2.5mm2). The electrical supplier seemed to know what he was talking about and he even mentioned that the fridge will draw up to 16amps?? He said he will give me silicone wire which performs better. I will now re-wire it with bigger cable.

[LouisZ]

The amps the Engel 40l will be 2.5amps in an active cycle, startup will go up to 3.5amps. Wiring on the vehickle must be at least be 3 square mm for the Engel.

[Family_Dog]

Louis, what is (approximately) the duty cycle of the Engel 40, i.e. at a normal (?) fridge (not freezer) setting at an ambient temp of, say, 28°C in the shade, when run from a battery? In other words, the fridge will draw 2.5A for how long before it switches off, and then cycles back on again? For purposes of this calculation, let's assume the fridge is opened about 30 seconds every hour.


I have managed to get a couple of 50W Solar Panels at a reasonable price so am keeping one for purposes of touring when camping. I want to do a calculation on SP energy requirements.


If I remember, will post a photo of the Solar Panel, it's a very convenient size and well-manufactured unit.


-F_D

[JohanM]

Eric, It would be difficult to say, but over the holidays we had our Engel at home running to keep extra drinks cold and if I remeber correctly it was only cycleing as the temperature fluctuated and also by how much it had to cool down. If I remeber correct it being usually about 10 - 20 mins at a time during a hour cycle as it was not opened to often but also then remeber that Parys was reaching midday temps op 34 - 36 outside.

[Family_Dog]

Thanks Johan. What I really need is an average of how many hours it would run over a 24-hour period. Also, I have not measured this, but is there any current draw when the unit is in standby mode? Even as little at 100mA will add up to a sizeable amount over a 24-hour period and needs to be reckoned into the equation.

For example:

This would require a SP of slightly over 50W, but is an estimate. I haven't actually yet measured the Current provided by the 50W panel, which will in any case vary with the amount of available sunshine. I am also assuming that there will not be any overcast days, which would require an additional SP of at least 40-50W to cater for this additional discharge of the battery during this period of reduced charge.


Ignore the TX/RX and 10-10-80 references, this is a little program I normally use for purposes of planning remote SP powered Radio Repeater installations.


I think, used sensibly, one can get away with a 50W SP under the circumstances above. When I feel utterly bored, I will put all this to the test and compare the results to the actual calculations.


-F_D