Engel chest fridge /freezer

[Guest]

Hi there, i am looking for an chest fridge approx. 35 -45 liter and came across the engel range, so far i have had only positive commments about the brand, i am particularly interested(of course) how power hungry these units are. any experience? spec sheet says 0.25-2.75 amp/hour. is this realistic? any comments appreciated, cheers. looks like we're in for a long hot summer....

sorry should have mentioned that i am looking for a 12 volt unit

[wheels 543]

Yes they are pretty good and that is a quite realistic current draw. The current range is difficult to calculate because it depends on what and how much is packed into it. Once everything is cold enough, the unit cycles, so over a 12hr period, the actual amp/hrs is much lower.

They are very small as far as the storage side goes though. You can not get around that. The issue is the compressor unit which takes a lot of space.

I assume you are wanting some transportable?

You see them on trademe quite a bit. There is also a second hand free standing 12V fridge on trademe (boating section) at the moment if you can get away with somethign a big bigger. But expect a current draw more toward the 5A range.

To help with reducing current draw, Refrigerate everthing at home first to get the temp down. If the unit is not full, place those plastic chillybin bolcks you freeze in with your food.This helps to drop the temp quick and saves lots of power.

[Farrari 4]

The 50L Waeco I have draws just over 4A when the compressor is running. Assuming a 50% duty cycle that's 2A/hr so I think the figures you mentioned are realistic providing you use it as a fridge, not freezer.

 

We used to use the Waeco on the Tracker when we went away for extended periods. It worked well as a freezer for the first few days/week but in the heat it couldn't keep the temperature down and the duty cycle kept climbing. It was fine as a fridge.

 

We don't use it any more and I was thinking of selling it. I'm open to offers

[Guest]

I sussed them all heavily due to being a power generation challenged boat. Weaco was the best by a noticeable margin when talking amp sucking. I got a something 40, CF40 I think it's called, and the compressor version over the thermo-electric.

 

The Specs said 1.1amp average, I thought Bollix!!, I now think they are spot on. Once down to temp it uses next to bugger all.

 

I think my 40 has the same running gear as Farraris 50 and would totally agree that while running 4amps is about right but it doesn't seem to need to run much. I work on 25amps a day and so far nothing suggests I'm wrong. It went from 19 degrees to 3 in 20-25 mins last week.

 

The numbers I saw suggested that while the Engel was good the Weacos were a reasonable amount better when talking power consumption. The compressor versions while a tad heavier do use a lot less amps than the thermo-electric style.

 

We load and turn it on at home or in the marina using mains power and when down to temp (1/2 hr odd) swap it to the 12v boat supply when possible. Saves a amp or 2 there.

[ab1974 1]

We went with the Waeco CF-35 and have nothing but good feedback. Cools down quickly and I reckon it uses about 1.1 - 1.5AH depending on outside temp and what we have in it (usually cans.....) Definitely better than the thermo electric albeit twice the cost. Not a heap of room but enough for us for a few days.

 

Looked and the Engel, but for me the Waeco was a bit cheaper, fitted the space I had under the chart table amd had a good power rating.

[Guest]

Thank you guys for the great feedback, much appreciated

waeco or a engel seems the way to go, now i need to do my homework and see what would fit best dimmensionwise, cheers

[Atom Ant 0]

Actually you've missed out on Isotherm. They are generally considered to be at the top of the range. A number of years ago I did a significant amount of research on the topic of boat power consumption with specific attention to portable boat refrigeration and came to the conclusion that the Isotherm units were better insulated and also on average used less power. I bought an isotherm 50 litre portable unit. It can be used as a freezer or a fridge but not both at the same time. It can run on 240 v, 24 v or 12 v and averages 0.8 amp once down to temp which I ran at 4 degrees. Good unit - not cheap, but worth every cent.

[Guest]

Thanks for your input Atom Ant, I realized that i need to do more research, will let you know the outcome, cheers, great to get those replies