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Just bought a 40litre waeco 12V compressor fridge and was wondering what others have done to keep fridge running, using cigarette lighter socket, with ignition turned off.
Any ideas

ideally you'd have it hooked up to a second battery with a dual battery system. But you could just wire it up direct to your battery be careful it will go flat fast!

timmo

timmo wrote:But you could just wire it up direct to your battery be careful it will go flat fast!

timmo

but put a switch in the line i guess and also have a huge battery

best bet is to set up the dual battery system. that way there is minimal risk of flattening the starter battery. most auto stores will have the wiring setup and controller fro $130+

I thought all Waeco fridges had a built in voltage protection so it wont discharge your battery 2 much. There should be a switch on the side... HIGH is designed for a single battery... LOW is designed for a dual battery set up where your fridge is not hooked up to your starting battery... and OFF is just that.. turns the fridge off.

Because of this i have simply run some heavy guage wire into my boot and put 2 cig sockets in there... straight to the battery with a fuse in-line. I do have a very large battery though.

Dave

There is a kit that Waeco recommend for this. I can't remember the name of it the brand and the sticker has fallen off the one in my car, so I can't go and look at it. Basically what it is, is a dual "cigarette" power outlet that comes pre-wired. It has it's own switch so you can chose to run it all the time or only when the ignition is on.

There is only 3 wires to connect up. Obviously two of them are + and - with the 3rd being a light wire that is connected to a power source that becomes hot/live when the ignition is on.

There is 2 differnt size power outlets. One that is the small "Hella" type outlet that allows you to remove the red retainer ring from your Waeco and plug it in that way. Doing it like this actually clips the power supply in which is good when 4wding. The other power supply is the standard lighter size.

Just get a relay solenoid for your dual batter setup, only $30 vs the $130 kit which doesn't do much better.


Heres a quick sketch I done for a mate on how to wire the second battery along with the solenoid. Of cause, I made a mistake and put the Ignition switch in instead of the acc switch. You want it wired to the acc wire on the key as when you turn to start it turns all acc off and there for you can't draw starting current through the solenoid or second battery.


Then you just wire the fridge right onto the second battery along with a fuse of cause, other wise you might have a small problem similar to what I had where the wires not only let out smoke but fire too.

Thanks for all the advice guys...The fridge actually came as a pack with the RAPS wiring and the fridge does have battery protection:)
I also began thinking that even when I fit the fridge wiring that the fridge will prob' need some sort of second battery. Saw that waeco do a RAPS 36amp battery that can run the fridge and charge off the car battery, similar to a dual battery set-up I guess? At $300 would this be a good option for the 'L'
Thoughts...

The RAPS36 Battery pack sucks..... It is only 36Amp/Hr it wont run the fridge for very long.. I will take a few photos of my Dual setup...

Is there anything available that is similar to the raps36, but with more amp hours? I like the idea of having a power source thats portable and can be moved between vehicles. Also I don't really wan't to go to the effort/$ of installing a dual battery in a vehicle that will only be used for touring/camping in the short term (12-18months).

Buy /build a battery box with all the dual battery stuff (solenoid) mounted on or in it and spec it with what ever battery you like (keeping in mind anything in the cabin battery wise has to be of a sealed type). Use an anderson plug to connect everything up. Much like this off the shelf unit - http://www.oppositelock.com.au/redesign ... emID=CMPP1

I am planning on doing something like that when i get a fridge for my car. Mount the battery and all the associated control gear on the same frame the fridge is mounted on, then just plug it in when its needed.

obviously avoinding doing it because fridge + sealed battery = big $$$

That OL looks impressive and exactly what I'm after:) Wonder how much $

About a thousand.

Lightning_Silver_RX wrote:About a thousand.

Whoa:( Back to the drawing board:rolleyes:

You can get a good quality battery box from Battery World for around $60 that comes with a cigarette lighter attachment. Add in another $200 for a 120 amp hour deep cycle and the solonoid/dual battery set up and you will never have a problem with it.

It is an excellent way to do this as when you go camping you can just lift it all out of your car and sit it in the tent or shade some where. Simply back the car up to it every now and then to charge the battery up.

I ran some heavy cable from a isolater up to the back and a short body earth wire, had a sealed battery.The battery fitted behind a 60L weaco and i still had plenty of boot space.Buy a good quality isolater[mine was returned when i got back after the fusible link kept smoking]

Would the raps 12 wiring that came with the fridge be suitable, pretty sure it has an isolator
Went to TJM Geelong today to do a bit of research and came out thinking that the way many of you guys have suggested, with the sealed 100amp/hr battery ($275) and pre-wired battery-box ($75), looks to be the go:)

The raps kit does not have the isolator we are talking about. The one we mean gives priority charge to your start battery, then links your two batterys together for charging. When you stop they disconnect so the only way your going to get a flat start battery is if you do something silly like leave the headlights on. That is a basic dual battery set-up that most people run when they have accessories like a fridge.
If it was me, I'd get the pre-wired box, glass mat battery, redarc solenoid off ebay and get some nice big wire off a car audio shop. Mount the solenoid under the bonnet and run the wires back through to where you battery will be and depending on the box you end up with, use an anderson plug to connect it for charging. Quick, easy simple and will last.

This is the redarc version - http://www.redarc.com.au/smart-start.htm but there are many that will do the job.

Hope that helps.

I use some redarc gear at work. They make excellent stuff