Waeco FR-35 Compressor fridge

[sotal]

I'm really keen on sorting out a fridge for the bongo but can't justify a huge amount.

Ideally I'd like to end up getting a 100w solar panel sorted so that we can leave it running. So I'd like to make sure whichever we choose can be left running. With daily use of the car etc I'd ideally like to leave the fridge running for most of the year with drinks, butter etc left in.

I've seen the FR-35 for £240 which seems to be the best value for money. It has a 31L capacity.

Has anyone got one of these? Any thoughts on them? It will probably have to go in the cupboard and be pulled out to get things in and out but again I can't justify the cost of a front loader to be integrated.

That's pushing what I want to spend really and I'd say £200 is really the budget with another £200 set aside for some point for the solar setup.

[John_H]

Hi - I've got an older Waeco B40 Hybrid AC/DC portable freezer & cool box. Very similar to the FR-35 but older technology.
Runs the compressor on 230v or Thermoelectric on 12volt. It's very, very good, can't fault it (but very heavy @ 21kg)
It can be used as a fridge or a freezer, but the freezer on mine only works on 230v
I think the FR-35 uses either. Just be careful of its power requirements. Take a good look at that!
I need a 600 - 1000 watt inverter (non-sine wave) to run mine for the freezer.
I use mine as a reserve freezer in the garage!

[g8dhe]

We have had our 100W solar panel now for two years including two winters, the first year 2014/2015 we ran the fridge full time and only on one or two occasions did the LB get low - however the solar panel was well lit with no shade at all so had the full amount of sunshine available over the winter period.
This last winter has been a totally different situation the van has been parked closer to the house and so was shaded from the sun until about 10am and then back into shade after around 16:00, however the biggest factor has been the decrease in available sunlight, I only started digging into this after the battery was flagging up low volts on a very regular basis!

So first year was 228 Hours sunshine compared to this last year of 178 Hours.

During the Spring to Autumn we had no problems either year.

One other factor to bear in mind when running it full time is that it will cause a LOT of charge/discharge cycles on the LB, even the best quality ones are only rated for 200-300 cycles and those cost in the region of £150, the cheaper end batteries rapidly show there lack of charge/discharge cycles the poorest are only rated for around 70 cycles and then the cost is in the region of £60-80. So bear this in mind when you decide to run the fridge full time!

[sotal]

Thanks Geoff & John - useful information

[Dodgey]

If you are going to leave your fridge on all spring, summer, winter, then make sure your fridge is connected via your solar charger/regulator so you get the low voltage cut off protection.

It's very common for us to have days or weeks of gloomy weather and in that instance, the solar won't keep up and your fridge will drag the battery down. Being wired through your solar regulator means it will cut the power off to the fridge until the battery level rises to an acceptable level again.

Nearly all compressor fridges have built in low voltage cut off protection but due to the way it works, it will eventually flatten your battery.

Fridge fires up - battery voltage sags - fridge cuts off to protect battery. Battery level climbs a little (because there is no load now), fridge tries again. repeat ad infinitum. Each time it does this it drags your battery down a little bit more, and each time, the battery rebounds just enough to trigger the fridge to have another go.

[sotal]

We plan to use a compressor fridge from April until October. It would be nice for it to be on for that whole time constantly.

The way I understand it, the fridge should be able to run for 48 hours without depleting the battery beyond 50% (with no solar or alternator).

The Bongo is a daily driver - it is driven (albeit not the longest journeys ever) every day - with longer drives on Fridays and Sundays.

Based on the calculations I have seen and figures I have guesstimated about how much charge would go into the battery whilst driving. I am guessing that the Bongo should be able to sustain the compressor fridge just from the alternator topping the battery up.

However when we stop on sites we may want to stay put for days at a time and the solar would help to keep the LB topped up.

So in effect I'm planning on the solar being used as a backup and to help to prevent the battery from getting too low - especially Mon-Thur when the Bongo does a series of short journeys rather than long journeys which would fully top up the LB.

Does that make sense or is my thinking fundamentally flawed?

[Dodgey]

Makes perfect sense

[g8dhe]

There is one aspect the number of charge cycles the battery will go thru. 180 days even at only 50% will mean that unless it's a high quality battery you will have 90-100 cycles so the battery might only last 1-2 years at most.

[roosmith]

I don't have this Waeco but a similar one. We use it occasionally and it cools within minutes. Unless you need to keep something in the fridge, do you need to keep the fridge on all the time? It only seems to serve to ruin your battery if you don't need it.

[sotal]

There is one aspect the number of charge cycles the battery will go thru. 180 days even at only 50% will mean that unless it's a high quality battery you will have 90-100 cycles so the battery might only last 1-2 years at most.

Thanks - 2 years I can cope with, might be worth getting a LB with 5 year guarantee! 1 year I'd be a bit disappointed with. I read up a bit last time and the decent batteries look great but the cost makes them uneconomical - might as well just buy a new LB every year.

I don't have this Waeco but a similar one. We use it occasionally and it cools within minutes. Unless you need to keep something in the fridge, do you need to keep the fridge on all the time? It only seems to serve to ruin your battery if you don't need it.

Thanks for that info, I imagined it taking an age to cool down. It would be handy to have it running on Fridays and Sundays every week but if it cools as fast as you say then perhaps it would be fine to just put it on as required. Do they go mouldy though if left unused like caravan fridges do?

[roosmith]

Like I say I haven't got the exact one you mention (I think mine is the CDF35) but ours has a wire basket in it, that you can turn round the "wrong" way which stops the lid shutting and prevents a build up of mold. We just wipe it out when we finish with it at the end of the weekend and with the lid ajar, it stays fresh.

I was gobsmacked by the effeciency of it. The first few times of using it I ended up freezing everything! We'd start the journey, transfering the items from the house fridge to the Waeco and turn it down a bit too much and in an hours journey would end up with everything frozen. They really work very well. We occassionally put it on the night before we need to use it but it isn't really necessary.

[Alison01326]

We have a Waeco CDF 25 and have had that going for four days without troubling the battery. We didn't take a battery reading, but the low voltage jobby on the cooler didn't kick in before we went out for a drive.

As far as battery guarantees are concerned, we have just bought an EXV100 Enduroline Leisure Battery 100Ah from Tayna which has a four year guarantee.

[Dodgey]

You wouldn't know if the low voltage protection had kicked in on the fridge - the fridge comes back on when the battery recovers a bit. You end up with a fridge that goes off more often than it should, but still runs some of the time. It still appears cold. An easy test is to put an ice cube in the freezer and see if it has melted at all.

4 days is good for a 100Ah battery. When the weather warms up a bit you are more likely to see three days tops.