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Waeco TC-32 fridge/cooler

Submitted: Monday, Sep 01, 2003 at 22:44

BCC

Has anyone had any experience with the Waeco Tropicool Classic range of coolers, and do they keep food cold?

On the spec sheets it states that it cools to 30*C below the ambient temperature, and can heat to 60*C.

Considering the temperatures dont regularly exceed 35*C where we travel, I thought this might be appropriate to keep food >5*C.

Another advantage of this model over the Waeco CF-35 (equivelant size) is that it is $520 cheaper.

The link to the website is as follows:

http://www.waeco.com.au/tc32.html

Thanks for your help

Brett
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AnswerID: 29855   Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003 at 06:39

Hughesy replied:

Brett the only thing wrong with those models is that they don't actually have a compressor as such (correct me if i'm wrong) and use Eutectic's (spelling???). For it to work it runs all the time (doesn't cut in or out like a compressor unit) and hence would chew your battery down faster than a starving dog in a butcher shop. But that might be ok for you. Good luck.
Cheers,
Hughesy
Reply 1 of 4
AnswerID: 29858   Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003 at 08:01

Steve L replied:

Brett,

We have both a Waeco fridge/freezer (CCF-40) and a Tropicool Classic 8 litre (or is it 7?). We use the smaller one to keep drinks, etc., cool on a daily basis while everything else is frozen in the big unit.

We've found that it cools up to around 30 degrees below ambient, but only to a minimum of 4 degrees (so if the ambient temp is 22 degrees you only get 18 degrees of cooling), but that's perfect for cooling, etc. 've also found the heating works well too - I had a bad back on one daytrip and set it to heat with a heat pack in it as I left Sydney, by the time I was at Lithgow the pack was hot enough to use!

As stated above, it doesn't have a compressor, so it doesn't cool as effectively (or freeze!). And the power drain is significantly higher than the CF units (I remember to turn it off overnight even with dual batteries).

Hope this helps - we have had no problems with either unit.

Steve
Reply 2 of 4
AnswerID: 29939   Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003 at 21:32

Shaun replied:

Brett I have one and have found it pretty good. One thing that I noticed is that you are best running it for a couple of hours before you throw stuff in so it gets a chance to cool, otherwise it will take a while to get down to temp. I got mine 'cause it was heaps cheaper - had it for @ 4 years and use it regularly camping and had no problems.
Reply 3 of 4
AnswerID: 30158   Submitted: Thursday, Sep 04, 2003 at 22:27

Terry replied:

Brett

I'm sure the Tropicool is a peltier cooling system, it works by running a current over to dis-similar metals, the current one way removes heat (cooling) reversing the current adds heat. because its a resistor type setup it draws a lot of energy to work, thats why you don't get larger units for motor vehicles. You are also limited by the ambient temperature level, hot days inside a car would test its cooling ability.
Reply 4 of 4