Those who were at Hedlow would remember my Waeco Fridge/Freezer giving up the ghost while I was up there.  Just to give everyone the story.

Put the fridge on 240 volt power at home and cooled it down to 2 degrees and filled it full of everything I was taking with me and kept it at that temp overnight before I left.  Placed it in the car and plugged it into the 12 volt system and away I went.

Arrived at Rockhampton about midday and bought the meat to take out to Hedlow.  Got back to the car and noticed the fridge temp was 7 degrees.  Thought that was a bit odd and headed out to the camp.

Set up the camper trailer (yep Skip, it easy for one person ) and went to pull the fridge out of the car and now at 9 degrees.  While watching it a small error light was flashing about every 5 seconds or so.  Couldn't get it to run properly so had to scrounge space in others fridges and eskis for all my stuff.  Pissed off to say the least.

On arrival home plugged it into the 240 volt power and away she went. Cooled off to -2 in no time.  Plugged back in the battery and nothing.  Read the Waeco documentation and all indicated that there was low voltage.  Weird so tried it on three different 12 volt sources and still the same.

Rang Waeco and told them the story.  Guy on the other end of the phone was very helpful and his diagnoses was that there was low voltage.  Told him all that I had done and his response was they would need to have a look at it.

Nearest agent was just down the road at Browns Plains so dropped it off there.  Five days later received a call that it had been repaired.  On pick up I naturally asked what the problem was.  They told me it was the .  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, what's a poly fuse, I asked as I had never heard that term before.  It is a small fuse soldiered into the circuit board.  Looks about the size of a postage stamp and a little thicker.

Ok, what caused it to blow?  Was told that, like a lot of equipment manufactured these days, they put in the very minimum they can get away with.  Great, so it's going to blow again sometime and I will never know when.

Nope, says the guy, we put in a bigger one as we always do.

Sooooooooooo fridge is home.  Filled it up with cans and cooled it down to -1 degrees on 240 volt power then switched it over to 12 volt and run it on that for 2 days and all is going well.

Did a search on Google for 'Waeco Poly Fuse' last night and guess what?  Common problem.

Overall though it was repaired at no charge to me so thank you once again to Waeco.  They have been pretty good to me over the years.


Derek

I prefer Engel's too Hotshins.
Quick duck again!!


Skip

sooty wrote on Mar 5^th, 2009 at 8:21pm:


I can't remember a f...... thing Soot, Where the hot pies alright???    

Jono

Philistines !!!!!!!!!!!! 

I am a Trailblazer fridge guy....



Cost more but virtually bomb proof...

http://www.norcoast.com.au/

Been using them for years and years..  Even had a service call tot he factory one Good Friday (located at Caloundra)

They are bigger than most, but for my money, the best I could afford..

Rastas000 wrote on Mar 5^th, 2009 at 10:48pm:

This seems to be another thing Beryl says I must have....................

Rastas000 wrote on Mar 8^th, 2009 at 7:33am:

What Model and size is yours? It looks like the Celebration model going by the brochure.
I received the brochure, price list and DVD from Norcoast today.
Together with a personal letter from Margaret who added a hand written note: "Please pass on my best weishes to Bob".
Unfortunately the DVD cover was empty! No DVD disc - have emailed Margaret advising.

Rastas000 wrote on Mar 5^th, 2009 at 10:48pm:


I have always relied on the failsafe esky, but have recently been lured by the call of a camp freezer, (to top up the esky & keep frozen goods).
Trouble is that most are twice the size of a comparable size Esky.
They definately look the goods for what I want Rastas, nice & square to pack & bullet proof!!!
But size (& packability) will determine the outcome? (have always had a soft spot for Engels, being a 4wder at heart!!)
A 60L freezer would be a good back up to a 60L Esky for drinks & thawed stuff !!!

Thx, Mick.

BillyBushCook wrote on Mar 11^th, 2009 at 10:10pm:



Whne we are on the road for a long time we use an esky for the day box.  I freeze down ice bricks in the Trailblazer, and use them each day in the esky...  When the freezer needs drop down to half, I can set the thermo to make the bottom freeze...

When on the fishing trip, it seems like my freezer gets the task to be the freezer and chills down fish real quick!!

Been looking at Waeco, Engel and Trailblaza and getting confused.
Trailblaza does seem the Rolls Royce job................except I cant get their DVD to open...........
Still evaluating..............

KD

KD

My son has a trailblazer..
Its a beauty.
Very large, but quite expensive.
I have a 40litre Engel.
It has worked very well.. It is a tall fridge and difficult to get into for short people( Read the missus here) when in the back of the Patrol.

The 80 litre Waeco would be a better prospect to get into..and double the capacity.

Aart

sooty wrote on Apr 4^th, 2009 at 8:07pm:

WAYCO = WAY to a  Cold One

Derek wrote on Apr 4^th, 2009 at 8:21pm:

Yes it was Derek the only Cog I have attended and the only lonely Wayco was the Heater 

DubDub wrote on Apr 7^th, 2009 at 8:36am:


Don't know about the Waeco 3way fridges.
I had a very old Chescold 39 litre 3way.
When on gas it worked the best of all.
They work okay off 240 but when on 12 volt in the back of the car they struggle. Particularly if you put warm drinks in the fridge.
They take a long time to chill down.

Aart

Yea PD I had a 20 year old  Chescold that was lost in the flood
Went out and bought a new one asap as was so impressed with the old one.
The old one  and this one run constantly on 240 as my beer fridge, I think that constant use is better than infrequent use.
Agree that on 12V they can only hold the temp, on 240 work OK and on gas will freeze everything if you are not careful.
No generators,solar panels or batteries to worry about. 3  weeks on a 9kg of gas
Soot

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm looking for the right fridge freezer to sute my needs, around 40 - 60 Litre.

Looking to use it mainly as a freezer on long trips, say 3 - 7 days...Plan is to take most meet frozen + pastries etc, then use it to keep freezing ice trays for topping up the esky where all drinks etc would reside.
Of course it would also see service on overnighters as a fridge as well.

Leaning more towards the Engels & Weaco compressor types but have a few questions about the possability of a 3 way I hope you guys can answer for me.

• Will the 3 way fridge freezers have the grunt to freeze stuff in the middle of Summer (40 deg) running on gas ??
  
  • How much power do the Engels & weaco's use? how many days on an aux, battery?
  
  
  • Would it be feasable to run it on an aux batt during the day, then run it off a generator in the evening while the battery is on a charger.

Regards, Mick

Thx Skip that helps, been wanting confirmation that they will produce plenty of ice cubes without any problem.

Had a look at a few today, the plastic Engel model "eclipse" , 39L sideways opening lid & no digital temp display for $899 but was not impressed with the lack of display nor the plastic constructuon,

Got my heart set on the MT45, ($1299 on special with a travel cover for $1249) the flagship 40L Engel, metal body, 1 - 2.5 Amp current draw, which means my 4 Amp charger running from a small geny will replace any used current in a battery in half the time it has been running at full noise.
So I should be able to run the freezer near flat out for about 16 - 18 hrs on the battery then when night comes around, run both the charger & freezer of the geny with a couple of lights at night to be fully charged again.

Cheers, Mick.