How long can a 40L Engel fridge run on one battery charge? What about with a cover? Keep reading to find out!
Engel are known for their durable and efficient camping fridges and anyone who has an Engel swears by them. But is it all clever marketing? Are they really that efficient? And does adding a cover really make a difference to performance?
Having recently got my hands on an Engel 40L 60th Anniversary Limited Edition, I’ve now had the chance to test out just how long it will run on one battery charge both with and without a cover.
Here’s how it went…
The setup
Now, I’ve kept the setup fairly simple for this 40L Engel fridge experiment because as a parent, sadly my hard-earned dollars go elsewhere and not on the latest and greatest camping gear. I know many of you are in the same boat so here’s how I set it up for this test.
Battery
I’ve used a deep cycle battery which I fully charged with solar before connecting to the 40L Engel fridge. The battery is housed in a battery box and as you can see below, it’s a bit battered.
Fridge
The fridge was set to a cool 3 degrees Celsius by pressing the handy beer icon on the Engel app. Engel has a built-in battery monitor that you can set to low, medium or high. I set it to low which means the fridge cuts out at 9.6v so as not to completely deplete the battery. Normally I would set it to medium as not being a lithium battery, it really shouldn’t be drained too low.
The fridge was plugged into 240v mains power to get to the desired temperature beforehand.
Conditions
Outside daily temperatures ranged from a sunny 21 – 30 degrees Celcius. The car was parked in full sun for the majority of the day and the Engel 40L fridge was housed in an enclosed canopy on the back of the vehicle. To be honest, I have no idea what the temperatures were inside the canopy but one can assume they would be high given the great weather. The battery box was housed nearby but in the ‘dog box’ part of the canopy, which means it has more ventilation.
At no point was the battery recharged in any way. The fridge had both food and drinks in it so for a family of two adults and two kids, it was opened more than I would like. I do enforce a get-in quick and get-out approach to our camping fridge though!
How long did it last?
The fridge lasted just over four days before it cut out. I was expecting around three days so this is a good result.
Now, let’s add the fridge cover and see how it goes
In the meantime, I ordered a 40L Engel fridge cover from BCF. The experiment was repeated with the same parameters however, given that we passed through two public holidays, it was opened a few more times due to drinks.
Wanna know how long it lasted? Five and a half days. So I got an extra day and a half out of it just by adding the Engel fridge cover.
This is a great result!
What this means
This means you can confidently head out for a long weekend of camping off-grid and not have to worry about the solar failing or needing a sophisticated set-up to power it all. More importantly, if you are connected to solar or are set up to charge from the alternator when driving, you could go off-grid adventuring for a heck of a lot longer knowing you’ve got a few days up your sleeve between recharges.
Or you could do what I do, and use it as a drinks fridge for the house during the week sans the cost of electricity.
So, how is it so efficient?
Engel fridges are powered by a secret weapon, the Sawafuji Swing Motor. It’s the most efficient motor available on the market and Engel has exclusive use of it. The Sawafuji Swing Motor has only one moving part, is self-lubricating and even works at angles of up to 30 degrees.
Find more information on the nitty-gritty of how and why it works on the Engel website.
The Verdict
Am I sold on Engel? Yes, I am. The 40L 60th Anniversary Limited Edition comes with a five-year warranty and I was able to get up to five and a half days of use out of it on one battery charge. This is three more years of warranty than any other brand I have owned and two more days of run time.
I’m also pretty impressed that you don’t need to worry about level parking to ensure it runs smoothly, making any off-road trip a bit easier.
Connected to solar, it’s been running full-time for around two weeks as a drinks fridge with no problems. I don’t expect any problems unless the solar fails to charge the battery for any reason. Of course, a quick drive and charge from the alternator would solve this problem.
How would it perform on a lithium battery? Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to test this soon!
