Dometic Waeco CoolFreeze CF-80 / CF-80DZ

Good large single zone fridge – Have had this single zone fridge for 10 years and it has been faultless. We mainly use this as a deep freezer (-18c). The vent design where the fans intake is next to its outlet can make it suffer a little when it is hot, but I have made a duct that directs the outlet away from the intake, and now it cools perfectly in anything i have… Read more

experienced up to 40c. It will cool from and internal temperature of 37c to -18c on a 32c day in 2.5hrs. It would be nice if it had better latches, not that i have broken any, but they are a little fragile looking. Cant go wrong with a Danfoss compressor. The people having issues regarding the Er1 error (one flash of the error light) it is your inadequate wiring or battery capacity, not the fridge. I run a 120ah AGM which is charged by the vehicle and an 80w solar panel and have no power issues.

Excellent cooler – This is a really great cooler, ran for days on end off 145AH battery. Can use as a freezer or a fridge. Operation is easy. Internal lids for zones would help to keep temps low when opening / closing but still it's a really great product. bit heavy, lifting it in and out of the car (empty) is no easy feet.  Show details

Fantastic fridge/freezer – Bought my CF 80 for a round Australia trip. Found that it performed extremely well, even in the back of our Patrol at temperatures in the high 40's.Only once did it let me down. That is when a gecko crawled into the cooling fan and shorted it out, Fixed in Cairns. My Waeco was dual zone,good sized freezer and also refrigerator. Bounced around… Read more

Australia for 5 years,extreme heat and dust, People will recommend more costly fridge/freezers but give Waeco a go. Fantastic.

Surprised And Bewildered As To Why Inside Paint Peeling Off – We have not used this fridge all that often as we have a smaller Engel that is easier to cart around so only use it when we want to have duel fridge freezer when we go camping for a week or more. Have discovered when i went to wipe it out last time that the white plastic coating on the inside is starting to peel of in bits.  Show details

top product – Fantastic product. Size is ideal for caravaning. Holds all your meats etc at constant -18 .no spoilage . Bought another one to carry in vehicle. Recommend to any one as the have a proper compressor fitted . Even on really hot day 44 c it still maintained constant temperature at -18  Show details

Great fridge for camping! – . We purchased this fridge online after looking at a number of fridges. We bought the fridge stand also a cover, for optimal insulation while traveling. We were camped in the Flinders Range area, so had 2 day drive to get there. This fridge kept everything that was frozen; frozen while traveling, & kept food in top condition while camping. … Read more

Would highly recommend this Fridge/freezer/stand/cover to anyone.

Brilliant combination fridge/ freezer/

A great unit when hooked up to 240V but – The Waeco CF80 came with our camper trailer which runs everything electrical via 3x100amphour deep cycle batteries. When on a powered site with batteries plugged into 240 V the unit is a ripper, can't fault it. However when bush camping or on an unpowered site when the battery voltage gets down to around 12.3V the unit ceases to cool although the… Read more

fan keeps running continuously. This is with the units battery monitor set on low (should cut out at 10.3 V) and yes I've had all the batteries tested and they are in perfect condition. Have had great assistance from local Battery Word dealer in trying to address the problem but to no avail. Am selling unit to a mate who will mainly run it off 240V and have bought a 57 litre Engal Fridge freezer which I'll test on its maiden voyage coming up soon.

Waeco - Be Aware if you buy one they are a Lemon – Waeco CF80 Fridge Freezer. LEMON - LEMON - LEMON - Chinese Land fill I have updated this review (01-01-2017) and downgraded it because it has stopped working AGAIN. the reason is it now gives an "err1" message of which i can find no reference as to what the fault is other than it needs to go to a Waeco repairer which will probably be another… Read more

expensive repair.

I have contacted a Waeco Repairer & they want approx $66 just to look at the problem before any work gets done which would suggest to me that some people have not wanted to go ahead with costly repairs.

If you don't believe me on how much trouble these units are do a search on line & you will find plenty of out of pocket Waeco owners of all models who are dissatisfied.

ABOUT OTHER REVIEWS ON THIS SITE & OTHER SITES FROM WAECO OWNERS

Admittedly there have been some good reviews on Product Review about these units BUT HOW MANY HAVE COME BACK AND UPDATED THEIR REVIEWS WHICH IN SOME CASES ARE OLD.

Some are newer REVIEWS just after they have bought them WHICH IS NOT A TRUE INDICATION OF SATISFACTION & RELIABILITY over a long term.

If they have had problems since they put in their original review they havent come back to update it, maybe some don't want to be embarrassed they made a bad choice.

I have had mine for approximately three years & have updated my review a few times.

Even though I am reviewing the CF80 here, the negatives I will add seem to encompass ALL OF Waeco's range.

It does have some good points but they are negated mainly by poor reliability, poor quality fittings & expensive repairs.

The Danfoss Compressor is probably it's best point, seems to work fine & I have had no problem with that.

Waeco is made or assembled in China (enough said).

I believe the Danfos Compressor is German made & seems to be reliable.

When I went searching for a portable fridge freezer my intention was to buy an Engel but sticker shock set in when I found out they were much dearer & heavier than the Waeco.

Always thought Engels were the go because of reliability but read some stuff online that Engels fail to, so maybe newer Engel's are not as reliable as the older ones?

Apparantly Engel is now assembling some of their units in China but not all, as I have seen some sites on ebay advertising Japanese made units. That is actually Made in Japan.

The reasons I originally settled on the Waeco CF80 was that they were quite a bit lighter (essential when Caravaning or Camping as weight means a lot especially if you are retired & have to lift them.

The Waeco had a good internal design & I loved the idea of being able to use it in either freezer/fridge all freezer or all fridge combination.

It looked good, loved the design, It seemed to tick all the boxes. HOW WRONG WAS I.

THE NEGATIVES

1) Before the warranty expired mine stopped working correctly & the compressor never turned off.

This is a common fault with Waeco & is caused by the fact that a Thermistor failed.

The Thermistor regulates temperature it is a sort of thermostat.

This is a very common fault with all Waeco's & you never know when it is going to happen.

Apparently Waeco fit two thermistors so that when one fails you can then plug in the second one. That's if you are aware of it & how to do it.

Mine was fixed under warranty but It took some time & I think I was without the unit for nearly 4 weeks (Not happy).

If you happen to be out of warranty I think the cost can go as high as $400 (Definitely would not be happy).

Now you can buy a thermistor kit "on line" (You need the Long lead one) for about $30 delivered but then you have to replace the old one which is a long tedious task as they are buried in the insulation which means firstly trying to dismantle the Waeco then digging out the insulation to remove & replace the old one & replace the insulation afterwards.

Another one of my thermistors has failed again, of course mine is now outside the warranty so if I take it to a Waeco repairer I am up for a huge bill. (probably in Vicinity of around $400

As I said this is a very common fault so if you buy a Waeco expect it to happen to you.

The thermistor failures are huge worry considering how often they fail & the cost to repair.

If you intend keeping a Waeco for a long period I have visions of you spending as much money on thermistor repairs that it would come close to costing you the total of buying a new Waeco (very worrying) Probably the amount spent on recurring fault fixes would pay for the more expensive Engel Unit

But ....

There is Hope, I have repaired my Thermistor it is not hard & not complicated, wont cost you much at all, just a little time.

Considering the actual cost of just buying a replacement, after market thermistor (no lead or plug) from companies like Jaycar Electronics is about $1.75

If you want to know how to do it e-mail me at,

LRPE.MCC@ bigpond.com

I will email you back a file with some photo's on how to fix yours for a small outlay of probably around $10 depending on what stuff you may already have lying around.

2) It has not happened to me (yet) but my friend has same model as me and the 240 volt section of his has failed so it will now operate only on 12 Volt. He is not going to repair the 240 volt side as it is to expensive to fix.

3) Another common complaint & fault is that the door latchs & hinges are plastic, light weight, not very strong & durable.

Numerous complaints about them breaking & having to be replaced.

You can buy better quality metal replacements on line from other sources but they are not cheap.

4) It would appear that the internal wiring may be underated from articles I have read.

Also there are quite a few reports that the displays cause problems, as well as the up & down buttons can fail requiring replacement.

5) Now you can use the waeco in an all freezer function by removing the two slide baffles.

Just be aware that this is only partly successful as the freezing elements are at one end of the unit only, so if you have it stacked fairly full you will have to move your frozen food around otherwise the opposite end to the freezer elements never get frozen completely. The best option is to freeze everything before you put it in the Waeco as it could take days to freeze, if it will freeze them at all if the whole unit is to be used as a freezer

It is a good idea to try & leave some room so the cold can distribute a little more evenly between each end.

This of course reduces the amount of storage space.

Conclusion & Comments.

Waeco must surely aware of the complaints about their units so why don't the upgrade & fix them?

Make it easier to completely replace the thermistor setup

Considering the amount they cost the warranty should be upgraded to two years.

Maybe they are relying on more constant income from spare parts knowing full well that if a customer has spent about $1600 on buying one they really are forced to repair it rather than do their money by discarding it.

Must be a good money spinner for their repair agents.

A UNIT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING ................ YOUR MONEY TO THE REPAIRERS

I wish I had bought an Engel

If some one from Waeco reads this perhaps they could also modify or upgrade their units so the internal baskets are reversible, in other words instead of only being able to have a one third freezer basket, by making it reversible you can have a two thirds freezer basket, a choice of size.

Also could they redesign the carry handles so they can collapse to save on length of the unit rather than having to spend time unscrewing them so that the unit can fit into a smaller space.

Regards,

L. McCALLUM

What A Rip Off – Buy an Engel or a trailblaser. The Waeco uses less power because it never works. The first time it stopped I lost $3-400 worth of meat and prawns, etc. en route to our camp in Arnhem Land. Just pay the money up front and get quality. Even their own service agents will tell you what a steaming load of poo they are. You've been warned.

Had my CF80 for 6months, its a beauty – Ran my on both power supplies on and off but last 3months it has run fulltime from the back of my wagon and it hasn't let me down. It does use a lot of power, that's its only downfall. I run a separate 120amp AGM deep cycle battery being charged from a 40amp Redarc charger and 120w solar panels when stationary for more than a day and that then… Read more

keeps it going but I got mine set low temp -15c and thats been over Aussie Summer so pretty happy but cost $ to get power to it to work well.

absolute dog – bought new 7 years ago. didnt work out of box. got it replaced next day. this one lasted 2 weeks. got it fixed. lasted a whole month before breaking down again. has never worked for more that 5 weeks. wont work at all now. A mate had same model with same problems. Another mate asked me about purchasing a camp fridge. NEVER buy a bloody waeco was the reply. Not good when the tech advises against buying one.

Certainly good enough – We bought the 80DZ version; used it twice so far in Qld heat of around 35 deg C. It easily coped with this & we set the freezer temp to -5. (anything lower and it struggles a tad.) As far as camp 12v battery load goes, it uses between 3.7 & 5.5 amps depending on the temperature ...and it has an average duty cycle (ie on/off) around 50%. What… Read more

this means is that our small 40Ah SLA battery keeps it going for a full day. ( consumption is marginally improved with a 24v supply & exemplary on 220VAC)

Sadly, from what I have experienced, many seem to have this 'Holden/Ford' mentality when comparing Fr/Freezers, but honestly most of them use Danfoss compressors (Engel is the only one that doesn't) so the only difference in cooling will be the insulation type, the thickness & if the unit has proportional temperature control. And here the Waeco is certainly no worse than others & from what I've seen, a lot better. We also liked the all-plastic design which shrugs off the scratches, knocks & bumps way better than steel...

But the harsh truth is not so much about one brand being way better than the next for keeping stuff cool - its more to do with how often you open & close the lid & how capable your power supply is.

Waeco CF80 thermistor problems – I've had my CF80 since 2006 it came with my camper, within 12 months the control panel went spastic had to run the unit on emergency, waeco repaired under warranty (new control panel) 3 years down the track first Thermistor collapsed control panel showing 25- 35deg and the fridge then began freezing everything,I connected the spare thermistor… Read more

which Waeco kindly had fitted to the unit knowing that the original was going to collapse!!!, sometime soon, I figure that this spare had a shelf life too! and probably came from the same batch as the original, it gave up 9 months latter, went back to my dealer he said that fitting the next new thermistor was going to be very expensive in excess of $300,saying that the whole unit had to come to pieces and holes had to be drilled into the insulation to glue the new Thermistor to the panel. The cost of a thermistor was $36. I did a little surfing after all this, bought a pair of new thermistors for $34, began to contemplate ripping my fridge apart, then I saw a post from a guy fitting a thermistor in through the light, and yep, it's a 15 min job admittedly you've got some wires inside but it works well, poked the little press in plug down the hole where the light wire comes up through the insulation from the circuit boards, I just removed the big bulky insulation of the small pr of wires and put few dobs of car windscreen urethane along the upper panel pushed the wires into the glue and dropped the probe 1/2 way down the side of the freezer panel slide rail taking care to keep it tight against the track and glued the wires to the track just above the probe so as not to allow the basket to touch it as it slides in, It works a treat.

Good fridge but power hungry and bad lid on the 80 litre – We have had our fridge for 10 years. works well but at best get 24 hours out of a 105 amp hour battery with safety. We just run the 4by for 1/2 hour morning and night. we run it on 4 lights. to date we are on our 4th lid, everyrtime we hit the kimberlies the lids warp, have met quite a few others who have suffered the same problem. Waeco's… Read more

response is what do you expect as you have 3 caompartments at different temps. my reply well you said it was built for all aussie conditions, the plastics out perform engels metal ones, my reply was rubbish. met a guy in perth who had a aluninum lid made to fit and filled with high density poly. runs it on 3 in 40 + degrees and reckons it keeps it so cold and has increased his battery time. A auto sparky told us just after we got it that they can chew from 6-10 amps an hou at 30+ degrees. only other problem we have had was the control panel melted when it was left exposed to 45 degree heat. the repairer said they are not like engels and should never get direct sunlight on them due to the plastics. agree with him as a removalist i have see engels sitting on utes etc exposed to the elements for donkey years. would not try it with a waeco. For the lid i now have 2 ropes across the lid from the handles and pull down tight and has increased the effeciency big time

Great thing – Iv had my waeco for 6 months now I use one 100 amp hour battery and it last 3 days easy on that its better if u don't run the freezer with the fridge and if u do pack it correctly thers alot of room an no worries at all never had a problem my idea is plug it into the AC and get it cold befor u put it on 12 volt and also keep the compressors… Read more

ventilated they don't like to get hot as the duel compressers run sepratly great fridge It's big It could run a compresser for fridge and freezer separate and separate control panels

14 years now and going strong as ever! – I cannot fault my CF80. It has been all over Australia with us in searing heat to freezing cold and has never missed a beat. Imagine how hot it gets in the back of a ute on a 45 degree day. Yeah it can drain a standard car battery pretty quick but it doesn't seem to bother a big deep cycle battery too much. We have recently purchased a 100W… Read more

solar panel kit which meant we had a fully charged AGM battery and perfect fridge for over a week in the Flinders Ranges (35C+ temps). As per other feedback the latches are pretty weak and can break after a while... but after 14 years that's happened once. Quality and reliability It's a little bit big but what do you expect for an 80 litre fridge?

Waeco 80 – Have had waeco for around eight years. Has worked well the entire time. Only fault so far are the flimsy latches. Replaced four in that time. Fridge has had a lot of use and bounced around in back of ute and always worked fine. They use a lot of power but has to be expected due to size. I run a 100w solar panel if camped in one spot for a few days… Read more

and it runs the fridge and recharges battery for overnight.

Found the fridge uses a lot less power if you make sure the vents for condenser cooling have no obstructions cause if they do it circulates the hot air and needs to run more.

Some people have problems of three flashing red lights with only fan running. I have had this twice. Once was a dropped cell in battery and the other was bad connection in my power board. Nothing to do with the fridge.

It's excellent to have so much room in the fridge. My tips for owning one is to have a solar panel. Keep condenser well ventilated. Ensure your wiring is A1. Minimum 100 amp hour battery and don't use merit or cigarette lighter plugs. Cut the plug off of the cable and use a good quality connector Still going good after eight years. Plenty of room inside Latches break but a not overly expensive to replace

Rubbish - Cheap and nasty! – We picked up the brand new cf80dz 2 days prior to our camping trip, came home pluged it in, set it to freeze for 48 hrs. It droped from 26c to 18c. Called waeco and they didn't care or want to help. The compressor ran cooling fans ran but no cooling either somone forgot to gas it or it had a leak. Poor quality backed by even worse customer service!! Cheap, flimsy, bad latches, dosent even work from brand new.

Great fridge freezer top notch – Just got back from the coast a week of high 30's to mid 40's and could not be happeir with this fridge. It did take some getting use to, but we found that little things like chilling things before putting them in the freezer minimised temp fluctuation. the only thing we couldn't under stand was the freezer section worked great but the fridge… Read more

section wasn't keeping things cool all the time.

We may have been doing something wrong, numerous times yoghurts and cheese even milk were removed luke warm. it was running on 240v and froze the kids ice poles over night what more can you ask for. Quiet and fairly efficient. life saver Fridge section inconsistant and not enough user based advice (best way to pack ect.) in manual only really assembly and precautionary measures

Poor quality – Just bought a new cf 80 after my cf40 died after 7 years. Took it home and it worked perfectly on 240V. Tried putting it on deep cycle battery and compressor started for a few seconds and stopped, instead only running fan and failing to maintain temperature. Thought it was a dodgy one till I returned and swapped it for another brand new one which… Read more

after 5 min gave the three red blinks of compressor motor problems. Store manager suggested i try Engel instead and have been really impressed with its simplicity and better performance when on battery. Will never go back to WAECO Size and price Doesn't work well on 12V. DC power plug can fuse and have problems with cigarette lighter connection

Great fridge – Its been to the cape and back 1 month was always full ,it kept everything cold even the freezer was making ice when i was able to fit containers of water in there ,yes it does take a while to freeze water to ice block (2lt milk bottle) also froze bottles of soft drink quiet quickly as they were already cold, You also need i good size battery to… Read more

keep it going ,big fridge needs big battery ,der. :) i could get 3 days of use (130 amp hour batt) before needing to charge . (hint turn the temp up at night when the temp out side drops and fridge is being opened less) honestly i cant fault it ,used it many times camping now and for 6 weeks on 240 volt at home as the main fridge Big size Probably if you remove baffles to run as 1 big fridge anything near the freezer still freezes ,would be nice to run as all fridge if needed

Very disappointed in this, am selling asap – We tested this fridge at home plugged into 240V and were surprised & disappointed when it took 48 hrs to freeze water bottles. We set off for our 2 week camping trip with the unit absolutely full, with drinks, frozen meat, frozen water bottles, dip, cheese & fruit. When full it was OK, but as soon as it started to empty a bit it used so much… Read more

power, it drained the battery (deep cycle), the plug kept coming loose from the socket, it wouldn't chill anything, let alone freeze anything. Just dreadful. Don't put any dairy in the dairy compartment whatever you do!! Butter melted, cheese went off and fruit spoiled. I am selling this as soon as I can and buying a smaller Engel. Good value came with a cover & stand Won't cool or freeze things in less than 2 days, huge power consumption

It's great, can't believe its efficiency – Had the CF-80 for almost 12 mths now and been all over. Just got back from 2 weeks in the outback. Has never missed a beat, even coping with the dust being sucked in the back of the ute where I have a dedicated power socket. We always run it for a day or so on 240v before packing it for trips and it's flawless after that. So much so we've had… Read more

icecream and frozen meat in places unimaginable years ago. Plenty of room for drinks including bottles standing up, food and frozen stuff for a family. The latches are flimsy, if in the wrong position, pointing inwards when open and the lid drops, they can easily break

Terrible – A complete waste of money. Bad product coupled with lousy service. Never worked properly, only worked on 220AC, for that money I could have bought a super home fridge with icemaker included! My advice, steer clear of this manufacturer. I sued them for damages, and I am waiting for the trial date. absolutely nothing, I bought it believing the… Read more

documentation on low power consumption and sturdy construction, but it never worked since the unit, bought three years ago, keeps breaking down on 12volt function. the cheap chinese built electronics cant handle the summer heat and fry. The unit has been "repaired" 5 times but to no avail. The local dealer is most uncooperative, and the factory could care less. we definitely made a big mistake in selectig a Waeco

Terrible – Spend the extra money and buy an Engels. Other friends have had the same problem. If you ring Waeco they couldn't care less. good size. Does not cool the fridge area with both baffles in - even at -15C. Needs a thermostatically controlled fan between the baffles in order to keep fridge items even slightly cool. Would work fine in VERY cold weather no doubt.Will not cool drinks even overnight.

Excellent – you would be pushed to find a better product for outdoor camping its quiet, its versatile, both fridge and frezzer and dairy,its robust and it users low amps per hour on your 12 volt Absolutely great for a combo fridge freezzer using min amps to run of 12 volt, never run battery down yet, sometimes operating for more than 24 hours, can't find a matching fridge not much apart from overall size compared with internal volumn

Good – perfect for long holidays, leave home as freezer after awhile use as fridge freezer, than just fridge if need be. have sat on it on 40c day pulling out icy cold beers, just perfect. freezes well when on the road, i disagree with other comment about fridge section not cooling with both panels in i set it on -18 and my beer is always cold. does use a bit of power will drain a battery in less than 30 hrs

Terrible – I recieved this fridge under warranty as a replacement for a ff70 waeco which continually failed! this firdge has NEVER gone more than a few days without failing in some way! it is a very unreliable fridge which I strongly recommend people stay clear of this fridge especially those who rely on their fridge heavily while out camping. this is a… Read more

poor product with equally poor backup service! DO NOT BUY THIS FRIDGE!!!! nothing to like about this fridge poor power consumption, poor build quality,wont freeze even on 240v