Bongo Fury

Running the fridge from a socket is never a good idea, the wiring will cause a significant volt drop itself, but also the contacts in the socket are not the best, you will often find that if you feel the connector tip after its been in use a while its quite warm/hot that is power not getting to the device!
Much better to use fixed wiring well rated and do away with the connector itself, if not then use an ISO plug as they are rated to 16Amps and are designed to be a connector rather than a cigarette lighter!

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-car/57607002 ... dp/CN04116

g8dhe wrote:Running the fridge from a socket is never a good idea, the wiring will cause a significant volt drop itself, but also the contacts in the socket are not the best, you will often find that if you feel the connector tip after its been in use a while its quite warm/hot that is power not getting to the device!
Much better to use fixed wiring well rated and do away with the connector itself, if not then use an ISO plug as they are rated to 16Amps and are designed to be a connector rather than a cigarette lighter!

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-car/57607002 ... dp/CN04116

Good advise. I need removable so tend to use a plug/socket regardless but I mounted an ISO tyope in parallel with my rear ciggie socket so I have both (yet to bother upgrading the wire though I know I should).

BUT, would the wiring/plug voltage loss alone explain failure to get down to required temperature?

Possibly just looked up the spec and its the standard compressor, so it could be tripping out with low volts.

I've had no problems with my Ezetil ezc35 getting down to temp (used since Easter). Mine came provided with 240v and 12v leads.
In the van I have 12V sockets (20A obtained from a Landy specialist) with 30A wiring separately fused and controlled by load on my solar controller, (previously direct to LB fusebox).
They can/ will work with the correct wiring (it does not get hot).
Listen to Geoff.

Thanks to all for your replies and advice. I've just tried the fridge in my wife's car and it works a treat so I think this backs up what I've been told.

I can feel a trip to see Adrian at Japan Direct coming on!

Thanks again, kind of you to take the time to help.

The Bongo internal wiring is not thick enough to run a compressor fridge "effeciently". They will run, but they won't get the most out of the battery as the thin wire fools the fridge's low voltage cut-off into cutting out early. In layman terms, it'll work, but it will think your battery is flat sooner than it really is, and consequently cut out earlier.

As for the temp - well, as long as your battery can run the compressor, then the fridge temperature is irrelivant. When the compressor is running, it essentially is freezing the chiller plate in the fridge. If left to it's own devices, then you'd freeze everything in there eventually. The thermostat lets you select a temperature for the fridge to stop "freezing" and hence you get the desired temperature. So thin wires don't make any difference. Your compressor is either running or it's not.

I don't know your fridge (not use done) but compressor fridges all run on teh same principal. The only thing I can think of is the compressor not running at full speed, so performing less than optimally. Easy way to test that is connect the fridge power much nearer to the battery, or ideally with your own chunky cable, and see if the pump sounds "faster". I'm really guessing here though.

Just done a weekend away with this: http://www.mgdonline.co.uk/products/wae ... dmains.php

It worked a treat and even froze the milk.

Roger, from Solar Camper Solutions, put in some hefty cabling behind the scenes when he added the solar panel and everything was hunky dory from the 12v cigarette lighter thing.

Thanks for all the recommendations!

Well, Just to close the loop, Adrian fitted a new socket for me with beefier wire and when I collected it off him on Friday afternoon the fridge was showing -13c!

I've left it running ever since, albeit at +2c, and it's still going so all is well.

The coolbox the new fridge replaces would drain my leisure battery overnight so my new set up looks set to do all I need it to do.

Thanks again for the help and advise.

Nice result

We have the Dometic /Waeco 3 way, 12 v 240v and gas cannisters, love it. It is very quiet, only down side is the size, it is quite big.