Mobicool/Waeco A40 3-way Fridge?

[gasman]

ijust missed a sale on these at canadian tire,, i still wasnt convinced that this is the fridge i want and .. well i didnt get one.. have you had a chance to giver any more testing.. aww fergetabout it, im just gonna buy one.. and try it out for myself..

I agree that there will need to be more consideration about the CO emissions. I am considering building a lockable tongue box that has ports to let the cooler breath.

Well I did some testing yesterday.

Inside in the sun running on AC at max setting. Ambient temperature: 25*C inside cooler: 3*C

Outside in the sun out of the wind on propane max gas flow. Ambient temperature: 30*C (I had the thermometer in the sun too so this probably isn't exactly accurate) inside cooler: 0*C

Outside at mid-night running on propane max gas flow. Ambient temperature: 13*C inside cooler: -1*C

Conclusion is that I will need to keep monitoring the temperature and adjusting the controls as necessary but I am confident that the cooler will be able to keep up with the cooling. I'll check the 12V operation on my road trip at the end of this month.

gassman if you want any particular fine print I can look it up in the owner's manual.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

There was a sale?! I looked just last week.

 

[jasondavidmann]

Hey Guys,

I'm not sure that there was a sale, I saw it in the flyer recently but it was advertised at regular price ($289.99).

I've done a little bit more testing...

I had it cooled down to -2*C and then turned it off at midnight, at 8 am it had only reached 5*C. Keep in mind I only had one 4L jug of washer fluid in it and the cooler may have stayed cooler if there were more contents. Ambient temperature was 20*C.

I ran it on DC power for a while because I couldn't wait for my road trip. I hooked it up to a battery and also had a charger on the batter to simulate being in the vehicle. It took a long time to go from room temperature to cool, I would probably get it down to operating temp via AC or Propane. At 23*C ambient temperature the cooler was able to maintain 3-4*C on DC power. I do not have an amp clamp on my multimeter so I could not measure the power draw. I did measure the resistance and it was 1.9 Ohms, that would give a draw just over 6 amps. Keep in mind that on DC it runs constantly and is not controlled by a thermostat. So it is drawing 6 amps all the time.

I think it is time to draw a conclusion about this cooler, we've done enough testing. Knowing what I know now I would have bought this cooler earlier. I am very impressed with the performance and price and I am sure that it will serve me well. The only drawback is the CO emissions, we would probably have the same problems with any other propane fridge. The CO is less of an issue for me because I will not have the cooler built into my trailer and will take it out once I reach camp.

If you guys are in my area (Kingston) you are more than welcome to come take a look at it.

Jason

 

[Red90]

There was a sale?! I looked just last week.

Their website now allows you to sign up for sale notifications on specific items. If there is anything you may want in the future, set up one and they send an email before it goes on sale.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brow...Way%2BPower%2BCooler%252C%2B40L.jsp?locale=en

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I'm not sure that there was a sale, I saw it in the flyer recently but it was advertised at regular price ($289.99).

Ok, I think I know what happened. Last week they had a yellow and red "Great Value!" tag on the shelf, but the price was $289.99. They do that a lot it's like a fake sale.

I think it is time to draw a conclusion about this cooler, we've done enough testing. Knowing what I know now I would have bought this cooler earlier. I am very impressed with the performance and price and I am sure that it will serve me well. The only drawback is the CO emissions, we would probably have the same problems with any other propane fridge. The CO is less of an issue for me because I will not have the cooler built into my trailer and will take it out once I reach camp.

I agree. I think I'm sold. It's not so much about the price, though it is a nice price. I just think a propane fridge makes a lot of sense for my needs. I might set it up to be able to run on propane with my kitchen closed up, say if I'm stepping out of camp for a while. But I won't do that when we're sleeping. I'll just close it up and let it "coast". With the additional insulation from the cabinet I build around it, it should hold it's temp really well.

Their website now allows you to sign up for sale notifications on specific items. If there is anything you may want in the future, set up one and they send an email before it goes on sale.

Cool, thanks. Though, I wish they'd just stop playing the sale game. I never buy anything there unless it's on sale. I just wait. So save everybody the agony and just price things like Walmart.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Confirmed. They're still running a "Great Value" tag on the shelves this week with the price at $289.99, same as normal.

 

[gasman]

Hey Guys,


If you guys are in my area (Kingston) you are more than welcome to come take a look at it.

Jason

a little too far for me just to look at a cooler but i thank you for the offer..
im gonna take your word for it and just go buy one .. thanxs for the review

 

[gasman]

bought one last week . sort of got it free. we have a points reward type card at work and i had more than enough to cover the cost so i picked one up, plugged it in at home, it seems to be working ok, im gonna try it on propane one night this week and see how that goes..

 

[jasondavidmann]

I just completed half of a road trip, I brought the cooler along with me and it worked well. It was nice to not have to buy the overpriced drinks at the gas stations...

I decided to run the cooler off of my power inverter that is already installed in my vehicle. I have a 300W inverter that I use for my laptop (GPS), I plugged in the cooler as well because the thermostat works on AC and not DC. After this experience I cannot see myself using the DC function ever. The only time would be if I need to leave the cooler away from the vehicle and don't have access to or cannot use propane, then I'll use a separate battery. I have an axillary battery box very similar to this one at Pirate but with a few more goodies.

When I return home I'll be bringing a lot of frozen meat (from my aunt's farm) home with me. I'm curious to see how much insulation is in the sides. I'll be running the cooler full blast the whole way home, it is 28 hrs if I don't stop, more if I do stop hopefully the meat doesn't warm up too much.

Jason

 

[gasman]

ok boys and girls.. so i have started some testing on this unit fisrt on a/c plugged it in and threw in a 12 pck of corona.. and filled the ice tray.. over night it made ice.. and the inside temp was around 43 degs.. 70 in the house

i just took it out side and hooked up the propne right now its 73 degs outside .. temp in the unit after 5 mins had dropped 2 degs i will let it run a few hours and check back..

rob DO NOT! use this unit inside your trailer on propane at all.....

my corbon monoxide detector went off the scale.. almost, i pulled the the probe out at 2,500 ppm but the unit had just fired i need to test it in a ''steady state '' after a about 15 mins of run time..

going to a hockey game right now eh !. so when i get back i will post my results.

 

[Red90]

What I am interested in is whether or not it is using a thermostat and is controlling the temperature. If you have a max/min thermometer, that would be the best.

 

[gasman]

ok heres what i got so far .. i took the cooler to my very own outdoor testing facility, and after 1 hockey game lost 4-0 a couple of hours shopping with my duaghter and my mom.. here are my results

outside temp out of direct sunlight 74.1 f

temp inside cooler 44 f

that means a delta t of 30 f

or in celsius

 

[gasman]

so how much coarbon monoxide does this unit produce.. too much to run indoors or in a tent thats for sure.. i was getting light headed sitting over top of it for the few minutes it took to take my readings

coming directly out of the top of the unit . very little breeze or winds

fluctuating between 2,500 ppm and 3,300 ppm

 

[gasman]

so im not overly impressed nor am i completely dissapointed either.. i beleive it will do the job that it was designed for.. and not having to depend on electricity is a huge factor for me.... so right now i am gonna take out one or two of those beers and do some real world testing.. in the end if the beer is cold enough . what more do you need???

 

[gasman]

well the gas bottle was almost empty when i fired it up this morning . i put a new bottle on at 5;30 pm fired up the bbq and cracked open a couple o beers.. they were cold but i dont think they were cold enough.. not sure if im happy or not ?