Engel portable frig.........

[s/v 'Faith']

Originally Posted by w32honu

This where I am a bit confused.......

If the unit draws approximately 4 amps per hour..........thats 96 amps in a 24 hour period. Thats a good bit of juice.

Has that been the real world experience with these units??

Some have said they operate at a total of 45 amps for everything including frig.......... I am missing something here?????

It only draws current when the compressor is running.

How often it cycles depends on the temperature, how often it is opened, and what you have in it... Load it up and it will run to cool it off... Open the lid often you might see it run more.

I do not have my log from s/v Faith with me, so it would be hard to recall the hard numbers. I had 60w the first trip I made with it which was not enough, but it was not accurate since the panel was not putting out to its rating... My recollection wAs that it never ran more then 50% of the time but I can not swear to that.


The boat I have it on right now has 370w of panels so the engle does not even get noticed.... It is so quiet I never notice when it comes on aboard this boat (42', so the engle is farther away).

[jgbrown]

Originally Posted by w32honu

This where I am a bit confused.......

If the unit draws approximately 4 amps per hour..........thats 96 amps in a 24 hour period. Thats a good bit of juice.

Has that been the real world experience with these units??

Some have said they operate at a total of 45 amps for everything including frig.......... I am missing something here?????

I think the person mentioning 4 amps also said they were using it as a freezer instead of fridge. I suspect the colder you ask it to make the inside, and the hotter the outside, the more power you will draw.

[w32honu]

Thanks,

Appreciate the posts.....

Very helpful. I do understand the dynamics of the frig. Its just the numbers seem to vary so much.

At the moment I have 108 watts of panels with no frig. Just starting to scratch my head to see how much more I might need to add. Solar is our only source of energy at the moment.

[Snowpetrel]

I have a new eclipse 38 ltr. It's just started to get very very noisy and vibrates badly after about 2 months use. No way this is going back on the boat unless they can fix it under warantee.

[vancouver25]

I have had a Dometic CF-35 with the Cool Freeze Cover on my boat for the last year in SoCal with 420 amp/hr of batteries and 2 x 54 watt solar panels. I don't have hard numbers but I leave the fridge, bilge pump, and handheld vhf charger on when I leave the boat (I don't have shore power). Never had anything less than full batteries (and cold refreshments) upon return. My theory is that in winter there is less sun...but it's cooler so the fridge doesn't work as hard. Summer is warmer but the extra sun allows the panels to do better work. Not sure about the tropics or if I was running lights and nav for days at a time?

PS. I don't use it to freeze...just cold drinks.

[jeremiason]

Originally Posted by w32honu

This where I am a bit confused.......

If the unit draws approximately 4 amps per hour..........thats 96 amps in a 24 hour period. Thats a good bit of juice.

Has that been the real world experience with these units??

Some have said they operate at a total of 45 amps for everything including frig.......... I am missing something here?????

Remember when I quoted our amp per hour that I said we are using it as a hard freezer, not a refrigerator. Using it as a refrigerator will obviously be lower power consumption. Also you mileage is going to vary depending if you are in 70 degree weather of 100 degree weather. We found that in the Baja California and in the tropics of Panama the refrigerator used about 1.5 amp more per hour than in San Francisco.

Also we found that using their insulated cover does make a difference and keeps the unit running less.

[deckofficer]

For something as small as a Engel 17 qt with ambient temp of 25 C

For fridge (6 C) 27 w-hr for a 24 hour day
For freezer setting (-9 C) 227 w-hr per day
For deep freezer (-20 C) 498 w-hr per day

For ambient of 35 C
For fridge 117 w-hr per day
For freezer 546 w-hr per day
For deep freeze 826 w-hr per day

For Engel's large 60 qt set at the coldest freezer setting in 35 C ambient
1075 w-hr per day keeping those T-bones and ice cream frozen.

https://www.engel-usa.com/images/sto...ance_curve.pdf

[AnchorageGuy]

We have been using an Edgestar 42 quart that runs off of 12 volt or 110. It is very quiet and uses very little power. We really like the unit and it is much less expensive than the Engel. Chuck

[Boulter]

Originally Posted by w32honu

Thanks,

Appreciate the posts.....

Very helpful. I do understand the dynamics of the frig. Its just the numbers seem to vary so much.

Telling us how many amps one's unit draws is useless. Amp hours is the relevant info that nobody can provide because nobody has a system for measuring it. Unless of course they use the ship battery monitor after turning everything else off. And they measure ambient temp etc...

I was checking these units out because a boat I was looking at had one. They had excellent technical info and a number of performance graphs. I don't see why one couldn't estimate their usage from this info.

Regards,

Boulter

Oh, I see Bob above has made the same point with reference to the performance graphs. Sometimes it pays to read the entire thread first ...

[msponer]

Originally Posted by Boulter

Amp hours is the relevant info that nobody can provide because nobody has a system for measuring it. Unless of course they use the ship battery monitor after turning everything else off.

Au contraire!

If you are ever nerdy enough to want to measure consumption for a single device, these work very well -- Watts Up Amp Meter -- better than a Kill-A-Watt for AC.

Though of course I am not implying that anyone here is a nerd.

[s/v 'Faith']

I just bought a 17 to replace my 27. The owner of this boat wants to keep it onboard.

That is how happy I am with the Engle.

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

We have been using an Edgestar 42 quart that runs off of 12 volt or 110. It is very quiet and uses very little power. We really like the unit and it is much less expensive than the Engel. Chuck

please--i need your estimated usage electricity wise, and measurements of outside of box and how to contact and purchase, as my research is not complete without each brand of these lil wonders. thankyou.

funny--even i have been able to count my amp hours used in my boats..lol...must be my excellent electrician...rodlmao. sorry---is a fact and is being done as we speak--continuously in both my boats.....i KNOW what my equipment and systems use. thankyou. is kinda important when cruising and making own electricity.

[galynd]

I have the engel 45. It draws about 2.5 amps when running. It runs about 10 hour/day, during summer. It will freeze contents and will get down to approximately 0 degrees F. It is almost silent. You won't hear it unless you get close and listen for the fan/compressor noise. Awesome unit.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

For something as small as a Engel 17 qt with ambient temp of 25 C

For fridge (6 C) 27 w-hr for a 24 hour day
For freezer setting (-9 C) 227 w-hr per day
For deep freezer (-20 C) 498 w-hr per day

For ambient of 35 C
For fridge 117 w-hr per day
For freezer 546 w-hr per day
For deep freeze 826 w-hr per day

For Engel's large 60 qt set at the coldest freezer setting in 35 C ambient
1075 w-hr per day keeping those T-bones and ice cream frozen.

https://www.engel-usa.com/images/sto...ance_curve.pdf

The engel fridges are efficient but most of those figure look too low to me.
For example as a fridge @25C this would be less than 3AHrs a day

Using the reference (which seems to involve cooling down from the ambient temp) but then no openings. I think the correct manufacturers figures are:

For fridge (7.5 C) 154 w-hr for a 24 hour day
For freezer setting (-9.5C) 430 w-hr per day
For deep freezer (-20.5 C) 599 w-hr per day

For ambient of 35 C
For fridge 323 w-hr per day
For freezer 694 w-hr per day
For deep freeze 826 w-hr per day

[Dos Gatos]

The engel outer case is better built of the various models. I have a waeco CF-50 and the case is all plastic with no latches. the engle is like an ammo box compared to tupperware.

I run all of my meager electrics on 125 watts of solar and 250ah of battery. no generator or wind. the fridge runs whenever it wants.

for about the same money you can buy the compressor and build your own box with as much insulation as you want.

Waeco Compact Compressor Cooling Kit