How Many Amps Does An Engel Fridge Draw

Hamilton Wathre · Thursday, November 11, 2021

2nd April 2010,01:23 PM #1

Engel current draw question

Has anyone measured the current draw on their Engel fridge?
A friend has been having trouble with his 2nd battery going flat. We measured the current draw today and found that his 9 year old Engel 40l fridge was drawing 5.8A at 11.9v. This seems way too high to me but would be interested in what others think.
2nd April 2010,02:11 PM #2

Adam;
I assume the current drawn measure is 5.8 Amp/h , if that's the case , the current drawn is way too much , considering the setting the fridge is on and the ambience . something is not quite right? how did you measure the current draw?

my 40L engel draws no more that 2.5A/h if that and it doesn't continously cycle drawing this amount of current from my auxilary battery .
2nd April 2010,02:54 PM #3

The current was measured using an aftermarket in car meter. It measures voltage and current, getting the current by passing the positive wire from the 2nd battery through a current transformer. I guess it is just an instantaneous current rather than per hour. With the fridge and everything off it measures 0.0A. As soon as the compressor on the fridge kicks in it measured 5.8A. We checked about an hour later and with the compressor running it had dropped to 5.1A but this still seems way too much. My guess is there is a fault with the compressor.
2nd April 2010,03:06 PM #4

Disco_owner, I think you mean your 40L engel draws no more that 2.5A. I don't think A/h (amps per hour) is a common unit of measurement.
Walker, my engel is rated at about 2.75A at 12V. When it cycles on it draws 2.75A, When it cycles off it draws bugger all. A current draw of 5.8A sounds a bit high but it might be right for a fridge that old. Check out it's specifications on the Engel website. As the battery is at 11.9V, First thing would be to give the battery a good charge, wait for the battery voltage to settle, then measure the voltage again. I'd suggest the battery is probably almost dead or not charging. I'd replace the battery with one which has a higher Ah (amp hour) rating.
http://www.engelaustralia.com.au

Last edited by Mick_Marsh; 2nd April 2010 at 03:06 PM. Reason: added web link
2nd April 2010,03:38 PM #5

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Disco_owner, I think you mean your 40L engel draws no more that 2.5A. I don't think A/h (amps per hour) is a common unit of measurement.
Walker, my engel is rated at about 2.75A at 12V. When it cycles on it draws 2.75A, When it cycles off it draws bugger all. A current draw of 5.8A sounds a bit high but it might be right for a fridge that old. Check out it's specifications on the Engel website. As the battery is at 11.9V, First thing would be to give the battery a good charge, wait for the battery voltage to settle, then measure the voltage again. I'd suggest the battery is probably almost dead or not charging. I'd replace the battery with one which has a higher Ah (amp hour) rating.

Engel Australia - Portable Fridge-Freezers

that's what I meant ,for the age my 40L Engel is ,draws no more that 2.5A. the figure quoted of 5.8 amp seems a bit excessive even for a 9 yr old Engel fridge.
2nd April 2010,04:35 PM #6

My 40 L Engel draws less than 05 to 2.5 max amps accordings to paperwork specifications
2nd April 2010,10:16 PM #7

Could be a gas problem - we all have that from time to time - LOL.
A 9 year old fridge might just need a top up ??

Cheers

Steve
2nd April 2010,11:08 PM #8

I have a very old Engel & would reckon its around the 5.8 range. Its well known the newer -ie 10-12 years ago went more economical with power.
My solution is to carry a 3rd battery, lots cheaper than upgrading to a new Engel.

DeeJay
1999 Defender Wagon
1977 SWB Hardtop
3rd April 2010,12:19 AM #9

Originally Posted by rovers1952

My 40 L Engel draws less than 05 to 2.5 max amps accordings to paperwork specifications

This is what engle worked out to be an average over 24 hours. When the fridge is running it is drawing between 2.4 to 2.6 amps. most of the time 2.5 amps. The older 39 litre engles draw 4.5 amps. I own both and have tested with quality equipment.
5.8 amps? I would be checking the meter used to measure this.

Dave.
3rd April 2010,06:43 AM #10

11.9 volts is a dead flat battery.
You will not get a true amp draw reading.
As voltage decreases(electrical pressure) the fridge must use more amperage
(electrical volume) to do the same work.
12.3 volts is the lowest you really would want to go to discharge a battery as any more usually destroys the battery over time.
Try measuring again with another good condition battery with a charge of 13volts or more under the load of the fridge.
the fridge working at a higher voltage is better for the fridge ,battery and vehicles electrical wiring.
A cigarette lighter socket works good for just that...lighting cigarettes, but was never designed for use as a power socket.
The reason why just about every fridge is sold with a plug for a cigarette lighter is that every vehicle has one in them.
The fact is they are very poor at being a power socket as there is little contact area for the positive terminal and the steel socket tends to rust and this causes high resistance voltage drops.
Modern vehicles tend to have very small wiring to any power/cigarette sockets at the rear of the vehicle to save money during production.
The best set up is to run special wiring fused from the battery to a 50 amp anderson plug at the rear of the vehicle.
Ron