Ok guys, I have a Waeco CF50 hooked up to a deep cycle battery via a cable (attached to the poles of a battery box) and the fridge cable attached to that. The deep cycle is connected to the crank battery and controlled by a Projecta 150 unit. Problem - lately while the car is off, the fridge seems to error and stop start every few seconds. I think it's trying to draw power and then cuts out. I have a volt meter attached and can see it fluctuating from eg. 12.7 to 12.8 as it draws and then errors. As such I wake up in the morning and it's not really run properly overnight. I drive again and it's sweet. What's going on? Are there too many fuses sitting in the circuit? Is the battery failing? Can't quite work it out. Cheers.
Waeco fridge errors
- Thread starter PeteV
- Start date
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Waeco have a history of issues with a particular fuse that protects the voltage-sensing circuit in the fridge. This circuit (you can't bypass it, it's on the one small control board) will check to see if the voltage on the other side of that fuse is above 11.75V. If it is, all is good. If it's not, it will turn the compressor off. Here's how it goes while it's running:
Battery voltage good (say 12.6V) undersized cable runs to fridge and fridge sees (with NO load) marginally under 12.6V. It's fine, compressor starts and loads up about 5A on the cable. Cable begins to warm fairly quickly, voltage at the fridge falls below 11.75V so the circuit flicks the compressor off. It then waits a few seconds and goes back to the start of this paragraph until the battery's flat (which happens REAL fast).
There are TWO solutions that are needed and you might avoid the more troublesome one by doing your side - that undersized cable. Any 12V DC cable over 3 metres long really does need to be rated for much more than it needs to be. Grab some nice heavy (8G twin is good) cable and try to keep it as short as possible - that's your side done.
The other side is having Waeco repair the circuit. They were replacing the fuse for free, if memory serves, but you had to ask for it. I should point out that if your cabling is inadequate, there's no point getting the fuse replaced because it won't actually be the cause of the problem - you'd only bother with this if you were still seeing that sort of behaviour after you were sure your side was all good.
The other possibility is that there is something wrong with that battery. Surface voltage might be ok but it may be unable to maintain any depth of current delivery. Try it with another battery - even a gel battery will run a Waeco fridge properly for around an hour.
Battery voltage good (say 12.6V) undersized cable runs to fridge and fridge sees (with NO load) marginally under 12.6V. It's fine, compressor starts and loads up about 5A on the cable. Cable begins to warm fairly quickly, voltage at the fridge falls below 11.75V so the circuit flicks the compressor off. It then waits a few seconds and goes back to the start of this paragraph until the battery's flat (which happens REAL fast).
There are TWO solutions that are needed and you might avoid the more troublesome one by doing your side - that undersized cable. Any 12V DC cable over 3 metres long really does need to be rated for much more than it needs to be. Grab some nice heavy (8G twin is good) cable and try to keep it as short as possible - that's your side done.
The other side is having Waeco repair the circuit. They were replacing the fuse for free, if memory serves, but you had to ask for it. I should point out that if your cabling is inadequate, there's no point getting the fuse replaced because it won't actually be the cause of the problem - you'd only bother with this if you were still seeing that sort of behaviour after you were sure your side was all good.
The other possibility is that there is something wrong with that battery. Surface voltage might be ok but it may be unable to maintain any depth of current delivery. Try it with another battery - even a gel battery will run a Waeco fridge properly for around an hour.
bods
Member
I could have sworn I replied to this earlier, but anyway... I was going to say as above with the internal fuse. Supposing your battery is in the tub next to the fridge, voltage drop through the wiring won't be a problem. That doesn't mean the internal fuse isn't causing a problem when the battery voltage is lower after shutting the engine off...
I have had this problem with mine and it's due to low voltage. I had to earth my tub better and I used an Anderson Plug and it is now ok. I have a CF60 and I all set the low battery cutout to minimum to get longer out if the battery.
Cheers
Cheers
