Waeco fridge help

[Amarillo]

We have a small Waeco fridge, Coolfreeze CFX28, powered from the leisure battery, which in turn is charged from solar panels. After nearly 3 months touring in murky Scandinavia, with no leisure power problems, we took the, perhaps unfortunate, decision to leave our hookup cable at home.

Overnight the fridge temperature rose to 10C - it is set at 4C - and the USB port stopped delivering power. The fridge compressor was intermittently starting up, then stopping shortly afterwards. Now the power light is flashing orange every 5 or so seconds.

I am hoping this is a simple leisure battery issue with the solar panels not properly charging the leisure battery. We are on a well shaded campsite under mature trees.

The solar charger gives the following information:
P.V. 14V, 0.4amp, 35kWh
Batt 12.5V, 0.5amp, 25C
Load 0

Our cheap voltmeter died after about 5 days.

Any help or advice appreciated.



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[Amarillo]

Any help or advice appreciated.

I think I have found the cause of the problem - the leisure battery not sufficiently charging from the solar panels in the shade of the trees. Leaving behind the hookup cable is looking like a very poor choice!

I turned on the engine, to frowns from other campers, and the fridge works just fine.



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[jts46]

You could buy cable and plugs from supermarket or camping store, or borrow one from the campsite?

 

[Amarillo]

Picture showing the probable root cause of the fridge failure.

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[Amarillo]

You could buy cable and plugs from supermarket or camping store, or borrow one from the campsite?

Yes - my concerns have evaporated. Several solutions have opened up:
Park in a sunnier spot;
Buy a new hookup cable;
Use less power;
Trickle charge from the engine.

My primary concern of a broken fridge has gone.


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[T6 VCO]

All Waeco units are prone operating issues when there is a voltage drop. We get this a lot when customers call saying there is an issue with the fridge, 99% of the time it's what it's pugged into is the issue it being the wire run is too long from the battery and cable is of insufficient thickness.

 

[MattBW]

What do you have the protection setting on? I find that the battery cut out will come in too soon due to voltage drop in the Beach cables.

I have mine set to Low and it should then work fine. Just keep an eye on the voltage so it doesn't go below 11.8v.

A socket directly to the battery solved my issues too.

 

[Amarillo]

What do you have the protection setting on? I find that the battery cut out will come in too soon due to voltage drop in the Beach cables.

I have mine set to Low and it should then work fine. Just keep an eye on the voltage so it doesn't go below 11.8v.

A socket directly to the battery solved my issues too.

Superb information. I'd left the manual behind, and had forgotten that information. The three settings are lo, nd and hi. I think it was on hi. When I looked at the charger this morning it was showing 2 out of 5 bars, so plenty of battery left. When I checked at about midday it was showing 4 out of 5 bars, and charging with 17 volts and 3.5 amps from the panels.

From your post I think we had thre issues:
1. We used a lot of power last night, awning lights on 6pm to 11pm, children watching a DVD while we were preparing dinner and TV left on pause during dinner, drained iPhones and iPads charged overnight.
2. Parked under a tree severely restricts direct sunlight onto the panels.
3. Fridge voltage cutout set too high.

The fridge is plugged into the 20amp socket with the original Waeco lead, so I have no concerns there. I use the fridge USB port to charge the MiFi dongle, which is fixed to the trim high up by the front passenger seat belt.

We have 200 watts of solar panels, so with sensible management should be able to cope off grid all year.


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[Amarillo]

6pm and the solar charger is showing 3 out of 5 bars (about 60%) for the leisure battery. We've been on the beach all afternoon, so our biggest single issue is parking in the shade. We are simply not giving the panels sufficient time in the sun to recharge the battery.

We will be frugal with lighting tonight, and no TV for the boys!


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[Bigted]

If you have the fridge plugged into the socket behind the passenger seat then voltage drop is an issue. This socket has a large voltage drop under load. My CFX28 has to be set to low to use this socket - and keep an eye on the battery voltage.

 

[Amarillo]

Fridge set to "lo" has resolved the issue.

My leisure battery is not fully charging in the daylight - maxing out at 4 out of 5 bars, but it's not dropping below 2 out of 5 bars either, so plenty of power left at daybreak.

We may well be trying the 12v kettle on Sunday morning. That will be interesting, drawing up to 20 amps for about 45 minutes.


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[kave]

I have never used the cable, but now I store it in the battery compartment under the bonnet. Its 10m and fits there without problems. I would buy one just to keep batteries topped up, sun is probably not giving close to what you got in mid summer now and the cost of the cable might extend your battery life.

 

[Amarillo]

According to timeanddate.com:

The sun is at 42.3 degrees at midday on 21 June in Nordkapp; sunrise lasts for 24 hours.

The sun is at 28.5 degrees at midday on 21 December in Palermo; sunrise lasts for 9h 30min.

So as well as having shorter daylight hours in Southern Europe in winter, we will have a lower midday sun.




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