Ok all you pissheads out there with flash waeco's/engels to keep ya grog cold

I am wanting to get an idea on the power consumption of these fridges around the 50 litre capacity mark, ie how long could you run one off a 120AH deep cycle before it needed a recharge etc... ?

ta much
Jules

drink faster!!!

It wii depend on how many times you open and close it mate

the newer 40 litre engels a stated to draw a max of 2.5 amps so that works out at 48hrs from a 120amp battery.
i'v just brought a 40 litre myself it was a pretty easy decision for me as when i worked a bbqs galore in darwin i
personaly sold hundreds of them and never had a return due to fault or failure. some customers still had their original
engels that were 20 years old and were still going strong despite being pretty beaten up from bouncing round the back
of the ute.
i have a 6 year old 120amp delcore as my duel batt and put the hot engel on it to test it out. it was still sitting on 1.2 degrees
after three days with only about a 2 min drive to work and back for those days. pretty good for the age of the battery.

i also have a 3 way chestcold awesome on gas SHIT on 12v due to arc system and has blown the 240 volt element as they do!!!

G'day Jules ,
I've got 2 waecos ,60 litre & 35 litre . When I first bought the 60 ltr about 6 years ago ,I couldnt justify spending another $350 to get an engel . The only prob I've had with mine is that I took a wave over the top in the hornet & fried the circuit board . I dont know about the engel but the waeco has 3 different settings for inbuilt battery protection so you dont run batteries flat & is 12/24/240 volt . I've run the 60 litre in the boat for over 5 days at 24 volt 100 amp before the batt protector cut in . The 35 litre I run off the ute for a min 3 days at 12 volt 80 amp before I have to start the ute to recharge . The waecos draw about .85 amp whilst running & I cant remember what the start up draw is . 5 year warranty on motor & i think 3 year on the rest .
Hope this helps
cheers AL

Hi,

I have a 50l waeco that I keep in the car whilst camping and have it running off a ark battery pack with a 720 (100 amp) marine battery.

The have kept it running at 2 degrees for 4 days and had to turn it off when I got home as it was still not flat. That was in 35 degree heat and the fridge stitting in the car which would have been a lot hotter, the beers where perfectly chilled every time It is so much better than stuffing around with ice.

great stuff, many thanks to you all
ill pass this on to my lucky mate at work who's just bought himself a nice new camper trailer and tinny and is now investing in a fridge to go with it all.... maybe one day i might get one from santa.

Hey Al
you dont happen to sell them do ya?

Yeah I've found that if you get it really cold on the power at home before plugging it into the battery it last a lot longer!

I've run mine (50L Waeco) off my boat battery for 2 or 3 days without any issues - I've also used it in the past and had it cranked right up and just run the car with it plugged in for an hour here and there rather than having it running all the time....

Jules,
The science behind SLA battery systems will do your head in. But keeping it simple you need to ensure you use the battery as it was designed for. To keep your SLA batteries in optimum condition and an expectation of a long life you need first have an idea of what current you will be drawing on an average. On average the 12v fridges normally draw 1.5 to 2.0 amps per hour (Engels/Waeco). And to best use your batteries capacity you should only ever aim to draw the batteries down to half their capacity before being charged to their full capacity by the correct charger.

So, if you only want to use a 120AH SLA/AGM battery you should do your calculation on 60 AH (half capacity), so drawing 1.5 Amps you should have an optimal use expectation of 40 hours use before you charge it to its full capacity. Of course you can get twice as much time use if you wanted but don't expect longevity out of the battery. AGM batteries cost $300-$1200 for 100AH or higher ( there are some cheaper ones but not sure of their performance). You should expect a life span of 8-12 years from your expensive AGM batteries but they must be used correctly to get optimum performance.

I now take 2 x 120AH AGM batteries and so far the longest non-stop use with out a charge has been 5 days and that should be a little under half capacity used.

And if using 2 batteries in parallel they also must be the same size, same age and identical usage.

Just to get even more anal, you shouldn't charge your AGM's on the cars alternator without an inline smart charger either but most do.

On the other hand it's only money, and anglers seem to always have plenty of that!