Engel MR40F Questions & Answers (page 2 of 2)

Hi Rob the manual is very basic it is mainly on how to put fridge together eg handles and power leads and wireing into car ect .The manual is thin eg a bunnings junk mail catologe would be thicker i would ring engel australia or engel land i think they are in western australia they have heaps of parts for engel I think it is the biggest one in austalia ? thanks Brian

Thanks Brian! :-)

I cannot say that I have used my Engle as a freezer, My other fridge does that job. One thing I learnt the hard way, keep moving your frozen stuff around if you are leaving it in there for a period of time, food sitting on the floor of your fridge will defrost over a period of a couple of weeks.
One thing I will note is that when my waeco is used as a freezer it does make a completely different noise compared to running as a fridge, I guess this could be attributed to different operating pressures, might also be the case with the Engle.

Hi Mick,

I had the exact same problem with the exact same Engel fridge. Mine was also used as a freezer but also did it whilst using as a fridge, also was on 240v as was very rarely used it on 12v. Service agent didn’t know what was wrong with it and apparently couldn’t get it to do it for them even though it did it for me every single time the compressor kicked in for months beforehand and months after. I ended up selling it, very easily and very quickly mind you, and bought a bushman after alot of research!

Hi mate

I don't believe the consumption shown on the unit (though mine is full of beer and I'm not checking the bottom....)from the Engel website
DC Power Consumption: Variable from 0.5 to 2.75 AMPS Maximum

Cheers

Brett

They will do that yes, how much stuff do you have in it? If you have it lightly loaded put a couple of milk bottles of water or something in it to take up some space and to hold some cold.
In hot weather as we are having at the moment they will run a lot, I had a problem with mine running constantly a little while ago on 12 volts, turned out to be a dicky connection in my wireing.
Hope this helps,
Cheers Martin

Thanks Martin
I’ve tried that but still does the same
Turned it up to 3 and iced over on right hand side
So it’s going to be a warranty job as it’s already cost me a battery in my 12volt system in my car
Cheers

My husband leaves his ute ignition on accessories for 8 hours during day, then starts his ute. Then leaves it in all night. Battery hold up well.

thank you jen fromnz

Hi Jeffy, that sticker is very misleading and shouldn't even be there, in my opinion. There are any number of reasons for the fridge not working, but one of the LEAST likely reasons is that the polarity is wrong. It certainly would not be the case when you plug it into 240V, because there is only one way to insert the plug into the socket at either end, and to change the polarity you would have to disassemble the plug (which is not feasible without destroying it). So I would look for the reason elsewhere. First of all, check that your 240V is turned on and plugged in securely! Then, check the fuse (just above the inlet socket on the fridge). Then, check that the fridge still works on 12V. If all this is OK, then you may have to contact an Engel dealer to further investigate the problem.

Yeah thanks, I guessed that was the case but thought I may have been just stupid lol. It's at the repairers now.

There is a 10A fuse just above the power inlet socket on the unit. There is also a fuse inside the cigarette-lighter plug at the end of the lead supplied with the unit (you need to unscrew the head of the plug to see it).

Hi Len, The question has already been answered hope it sorts your problem, cheers Martin

Hi Doug.
According to the Engel FAQ's on their website, you can leave both plugged in with the latest models (E & F series). The fridge will auto detect when 240v is available and leave your battery alone. When you unplug the 240v lead, it will use the 12v battery again.

G'day. My fuse is located near where the lead plugs into the unit. The only fuse I've ever blown was when I had the wrong polarity with the 12v cable. I would check that before using with new fuse.

Definitely not while driving. A lot of people don't have the problem. My one is noisey and too loud for me to sleep in back of van with it running. Apart from that, a good size fridge and side opening lid is a good idea

Easy, all hinges and latches are reversible. I swapped mine over and suits our needs so much better. The only tool required is a "Phillips Head" screwdriver.

It's available as a 'plug-thru' accessory (although I run ours from a dual battery system in the LandCruiser, so haven't needed it).

It is built in on other, more expensive models, also.

I investigated this issue extensively when I fitted my van out to circumnavigate Australia in 2013.

You don't want to run a fridge off your main start battery, no matter what vehicle/battery system you've got. A fridge draws a lot of current and it won't take much usage before the fridge has drawn down too many amp-hours leaving your main battery unable to start your car. So first and foremost, if you want to run a fridge in your vehicle you need a second (preferably deep-cycle) battery. The only exception to this would be if you ONLY used your fridge while driving and for a short while afterwards, such as a long drive followed by a quick fishing trip or similar, when your fridge is mostly being powered from the alternator (i.e. while the engine is running).

As to the other issues of your question, the answer is not as straightforward as the fridge sellers would have you believe. The brochures and technical specs of the Engel Eclipse (or MR40F) DO NOT claim to have any low-voltage cut-out. On the basis of this I bought a $125 Engel "Voltage Regulator" which claimed to protect your fridge by cutting it off when the voltage dropped below 10.5V (it also had a digital voltage readout). This was a complete waste of money and a source of much frustration. After a trip half-way round Australia and extensive analysis with a voltmeter I found out that this so-called "Voltage Regulator" was in fact drawing an extra 1.1 to 1.2V from the supply. So the volts with the fridge static (not operating) would be 12.2V, for example; then the compressor would kick in and the voltage would drop to 11.0V!! As you can imagine, it didn't take much time with the vehicle not running for the kick-in voltage to drop to 10.5V, whereupon the regulator would shut down the fridge ( I thought this was pretty strange, but nobody could explain it). So when I finally got to Broome I got fed up and performed my own voltmeter analysis, and found that by removing the "Voltage Regulator", the voltage dropped by just 0.2V when the compressor kicked in!!! So I promptly threw my "Voltage Regulator" away and my Engel has worked brilliantly ever since.

The fact of the matter is, as an experienced Engel Service Technician eventually informed me, the Engel Eclipse DOES have a built-in cut-off at 10.5V (why on Earth would they not have one??), so there is no concern about damaging the fridge with low voltage; the only issue would be running your battery down, which WOULD be a serious issue if you were powering your fridge off your start battery, but not if you had a separate deep-cycle battery.

Of course, it is important to isolate your start battery from your secondary battery, so that your fridge and other accessories don't drain your start battery. This is easily achieved by installing a battery isolator solenoid (Redarc is a common brand). This means that while the engine is running, the alternator will charge both batteries, but as soon as you turn the engine off, the solenoid isolates the start battery from the secondary battery, so that any fridges and accessories (connected to your secondary battery) will drain charge ONLY from the secondary battery and NOT from the start battery.

P.S. The system I am using in my Mazda E2000 van is a Redarc Isolator Solenoid with a 100Ah MarinePro 720 (combined starter and deep cycle) as my secondary battery, and an Engel Eclipse fridge. No problems to date.

Hi, you don't need a stand, and yes you can use the fridge from the back of your vehicle. Depending on your particular vehicle, height fridge will be, accessibility to said fridge are all factors. Most buy a fridge slide, this allows fridge to be easily accessed from outside car and also gives it a point of lock down. We have slide drawers in our troopy, which makes our fridge way to high for me, so my husband made some modifications to the floor which covers the drawers and now my fridge simply lives in the drawer and slides out when needed. And yes you must leave room for ventilation.

Engel sell one for it. It`s a bit expensive but great quality. Or make your own