Waeco or Engel?

Hi fella's after having a blast at Tocumwal this weekend (will post some pics shortly) i was very annoyed at my esky, for bloody years now i keep saying to myself im gona get a camping fridge, i went through so much money almost $100 just in ice between me and my mate to keep our beer and food cold on the weekend.
I need your thoughts or bad experiences that you may have had on any of these two fridges.
Which one would you choose?

Any way im leaning towards the waeco, the big one,

its way cheaper than the engel its way bigger and uses the same amount of power and it can run on solar power.

and then theres the engel, this is the biggest they got, the top pic

this one can also run on solar power but its much deerer and way smaller.

go the Engel for sure...we have them in all our trucks and they can get a real workout frm the vibration and knocking about and they have been going well with no hicups,cheers.

Geez thats a big fridge! Dont forget you dont need room for ice like you do in an esky.

Have a close look at how much power they consume too, that might make the difference for you.

I vote Evakool fridgemate 70L (or 95L if you need it that big)

Buy off of eBay for $1047. I got mine for about $970 more than 6 months ago.

Get the quality of the others and spend the money you save on another accessory!

You can easily make it run on solar power by buying an isolator from jaycar

engel has my vote!

my dads (now mine, lol) 40L engel has been going solid for years now and it keeps my food cool for hours later even after i unplug it

it even stayed cool after 32 hours, lol

My preference is an Evakool too. Any large fridge will suck plenty of amps so don't forget to add in the costs of a big deep cycle battery, smart charger, solar panels etc........

I have always had a Waeco and few mates also have the Waeco's in the CF40 and CF50 sizes, would recommend them sure, not a problem between the lot of us, and a better price tag.

Thanks for your thoughts guys, the weaco i can get for $1500 that seems like an awesome price for that size fridge, and its uses 2.1amp an hour to keep your stuff cold at a 32degree day, thats very similar to the engel. Il also look into the evakool ones, im after a big fridge cos when i go away i got myself, wife and 2 kids plus hopefully another one next year so i need all the space i can get for food and drinks, plus this weekend just between 2 blokes we drank 4 slabs of beer.
Iv got a 3 way chescold fridge 30l fridge but forget about it on 12v when the car isnt running and the gas just doesnt cut it on very hot days.
The engel still isnt out of the pic, because a few people have told me they see less engels getting repaired compared to the waeco's, but at the end of the day the waeco has a 5 year warrantys and engel 3 year and then anything that goes wrong after that i have to pay for myself anyway.

We have an Engel 60Litre chest fridge - have had it for years. Draws about 1.5Amps on-cycle, and about 0.1Amps on standby. It automatically switches to 240V when that's available. It's been bounced around in a trailer and in the back of our Nav and in 37C heat (today), has no trouble making the drinks so cold they frost up as you pull them out to drink 'em.

For an upright fridge (to replace the 3-way in my van), we're leaning towards the Waeco. The Danfoss compressor used by Waeco uses less power than the Sawafuji swing compressor used by the Engel.

Word has it that the Engel's compressor is somewhat more rugged than the Waeco's. I can't say much about the Waeco to compare personally, I can only say that our Engel has never once skipped a beat, ever. It has never, ever let me down.

And when we get to our destination and look inside expecting the meat to still be ok - that's the main point to measure it by, for us. I can cope with larger battery requirements, as long as the food's still good when we get going where we're going.

Ive got an engel. cant fault it. Just wait for a camping expo or sale or something. i got my 40ltr over 300 cheaper then rrp

I have a Waeco CF50, no problems at all.

I was tossing up between the Waeco & Engel, what swayed me was that the Engel can run your battery flat (Waeco has built in minimum voltage protection) and the Waeco also comes with the 240V power cord (the Engel needs a seperately bought 240/12v power supply).

End of the day, both are fine. It's like a Ford v Holden debate.

my engel came with a 240v and 12v cable? its just a cable that plugs straight into the engel

Ah ok, some might, at the camping show I got mine at the comparable Engel didn't have one. Weird.

60l Engel. Goes really well, cant fault it.

Wouldn't worry about the solar aadvantage of the waeco. Every fridge needs a battery and solar panels can easily be hooked up to the batt.

I borrowed the Engel MT80F on recent Fraser Island trip, put second battery in (120Ah Deep cycle dual purpose) before hand and it worked perfectly. Parked the car on Friday morning in Brisbane, Monday morning was still at -15 degrees, can't fault that.
The only pain in the arse was that it has two compartments, and when the fridge is full the beers weren't really that cold, even when the freezer was at -18 (maxed out), i'd be getting a smaller one that had one compartment and seperating the stuff you didn't want to freeze.
Oh yeah, its absolutely bloody huge too, I don't recon you need all that room, even for a family

I'll be getting a 50L waeco I reckon.

Ours is the 60 litre single compartment model. Engel have realised their error with the dual compartment model and have changed back to the single compartment design.

Damn so many things to take in, but by the looks of it they both seem fine. Just my personal preferance now and most likely if i need all that room.
Thanks for all your advice.

Matt76 said:

I'll be getting a 50L waeco I reckon.

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Borrow mine on your next trip Matt and see if it meets your requirements. Least you'll know if you need bigger or not.

Cheers mate! I better pull my finger out and get the dual batteries finished first hey haha.