Brass Monkey Fridge Review

No worries condor22

We have a 60 Lt Cold Station I bought 5 years ago 2nd hand, it gets cold for a while then it goes in to error mode and stops working. :/
Took it to a place that does repairs but the guy wasn't sure if it was worth spending money on it..so its just in the shed gathering dust.
It also has duel zones ( 2 compartments under 1 lid ) and the digger could fit a good amount in each compartment but a little more space would be very handy.

I thought my Engel was done n dusted, but managed to get a new switch last year for $70. Put it in myself, all fixed for it to celebrate it's 28th birthday, lol.

If I recall what the fridge repair guy told me, mine is probably not salvageable..
Weather that was him discouraging the repair or alternatively trying to get himself a sale on a new fridge , I have no idea unfortunately.

:/

During my Engel repair, I found several things of interest.

1. How many were just not interested in the job, didn't have the part anyway and either couldn't or wouldn't offer any advice.
2. A fridge as old as mine is well past spare parts availability. This I already knew.
3. The only chance I had was if someone had one gathering dust on a shelf. (In my case not dusty and the guy actually had 2)
4. How many phone calls I made and emails sent all over the country to the premium Engel repairers, only to find a one man show locally, albeit the other side of town.
5. The occasional great service, even though they didn't have a switch, from the Murray Bridge Agent, when the lady offered to send me the full workshop manual in PDF for my specific model, which made it easier to do the job. A huge thanks.
6. Some wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for me to send the old switch, circuit board and loom assy to the other side of the country for a "jerry rig" fix.
7. Several suggested I bought a new fridge, from them of course.

The big lesson is persistence, lol. It took me several weeks, but I finally got there. I guess one thing that is obvious, Engel and Waeco are the better known brands, akin to what we used to know as spares for Fords and Holdens being everywhere.

I can't complain about my money's worth paying about $1,000 in early 1993, but a new one was gonna hit me for $1,300+, so a $70 fix was a great outcome. Old Faithful worked flawlessly on my recent trip.

Having the reliability of the Engel is why I chose to buy the BM fridge for a freezer, cheap. As well as the having the van fridge in case it might let me down.
I actually have my additional "lemonade" supplies in it at the moment, in the shed on 240 V, which whilst I finish my quarantine is the only place I can go to from my van. I visit occasionally to get my outdoor exercise.... :beer: erfect:

nucopia said:

If I recall what the fridge repair guy told me, mine is probably not salvageable..
Weather that was him discouraging the repair or alternatively trying to get himself a sale on a new fridge , I have no idea unfortunately.

:/

Click to expand...

Have a look at this thread https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=31954

Bite the bullet and bought a brass monkey duel zone fridge freezer from jaycar on Sunday.
Was delivered yesterday and has been running on mains power since then. I packed frozen/non frozen items in both compartments last night, for our trip away tomorrow.
Fridge compartment is sitting at 2 c and the freezer is set at -18 c ..
So far its working well on mains power.
Ill put it in the back of the Prado and run it on the start battery in the morning before we leave.

Im also using the BM smart control app which allows you to control the fridges functions through your phone.
erfect:

FYI - Coincidentally, I fired mine up (15 lt single zone) inside the house yesterday as a :beer: fridge. (primarily to keep SWMBO happier re the food fridge, lol).

Although I know its 12 VDC loads etc, I was curious as to its 240 VAC load. I have a test power lead I made and used the clamp ammeter.

It showed a load of 0.3 amps (warm) and once at temp dropped to 0.22 amps when the compressor was on and in economy setting. = 53 W. I don't have power recording, but if I use my 12 volt data, at 25 C it cycles approx 1/3 of the time and on hotter days more often. So approx 18 WH or 422 W/day = roughly 38 kW per quarter.

At 30 cents per kWh = $46 per year or a bit less than $1 per week to run from mains.

Edit - Also noted the load on Max power setting was exactly the same, so I can only assume the difference is that the thermostat has a tighter on/off bandwidth on max power and broader on eco. Or, as mentioned in the manual, fast cooling.

condor22 said:

FYI - Coincidentally, I fired mine up (15 lt single zone) inside the house yesterday as a :beer: fridge. (primarily to keep SWMBO happier re the food fridge, lol).

Although I know its 12 VDC loads etc, I was curious as to its 240 VAC load. I have a test power lead I made and used the clamp ammeter.

It showed a load of 0.3 amps (warm) and once at temp dropped to 0.22 amps when the compressor was on and in economy setting. = 53 W. I don't have power recording, but if I use my 12 volt data, at 25 C it cycles approx 1/3 of the time and on hotter days more often. So approx 18 WH or 422 W/day = roughly 38 kW per quarter.

At 30 cents per kWh = $46 per year or a bit less than $1 per week to run from mains.

Edit - Also noted the load on Max power setting was exactly the same, so I can only assume the difference is that the thermostat has a tighter on/off bandwidth on max power and broader on eco. Or, as mentioned in the manual, fast cooling.

Click to expand...

If that is set to around 2*c It's watts per day seem a little high @ 25*c, Are these the first days figures because once a fridge settles down the daily figures are normally a lot lower ??

How long is a piece of string

I don't have 240 VAC data logging capability. Which means my approximation of cycle rate is subjective and the assumption of power use is approximate only. I would be reasonably confident that my guess is at the upper limit and therefore it's consumption is likely lower.

My only method of gauging its actual cycle rate is to sit there for at least an hour staring at the LED that changes from green when not cycling to red when it is and logging the times. I'm not that interested and at my age every minute is precious, lmao.

If I got really keen I could set up my vid cam and record an hour of footage. At least I can then fast fwd using the time stamp and quickly work out the result, lol.....

condor22 said:

How long is a piece of string

I don't have 240 VAC data logging capability. Which means my approximation of cycle rate is subjective and the assumption of power use is approximate only. I would be reasonably confident that my guess is at the upper limit and therefore it's consumption is likely lower.

My only method of gauging its actual cycle rate is to sit there for at least an hour staring at the LED that changes from green when not cycling to red when it is and logging the times. I'm not that interested and at my age every minute is precious, lmao.

If I got really keen I could set up my vid cam and record an hour of footage. At least I can then fast fwd using the time stamp and quickly work out the result, lol.....

Click to expand...

I think your fridge will be using between 120w to about 144w on AC set to 2*c in an ambient temp of around 25*c, hope that helps,

Here ya go mate, for 230/240v I use one of these it will show you the running watts and the running "Amps" and the total Kwh used and they have a timer which also logs the days as well as the Hi watts peak and the Lo watts peak, They are well worth having, I have tested everything in the house and every thing I use in the camper, they really help when you are trying to fine tune you DC power setup or lower your AC running costs,

Just be warned that some fridges don't use much power when they are in the off cycle including fridges with power adapters so the meter might not record the full 24hrs on the timer but if you check it with your watch and check the watts used 24 hours later you will get the full pictures

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nevsetpo-M...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

RR

First, I got the LED colours the wrong way round. Red = not cycling, Green = cycling.
My last post got me thinking, so I got the tripod and vidcam out and set it up. The fridge was cycling, so I waited for it to stop and set the cam going. I was going to check it in an hour or so, but have since realised the cams HD will store over 18 hours of footage as it is set, so I'll let it run for 2 hours then check it.

"I think your fridge will be using between 120w to about 144w on AC set to 2*c in an ambient temp of around 25*c, hope that helps," Are you stating its actual draw in Watts (W) or it's Watt Hours (Wh)? If Wh over what period or if W, then.........

As I mentioned in the above post #47, when cycling the fridge draws about 53 W not 120-144 W and that is measured not assumption. As an aside;

The interesting figures are that after initial cooldown, the BM fridge uses 0.22 Amps (52 W) when on 240 VAC, but when on battery (starting fully charged at about 12.9 VDC no load) it draws up to 4.7 amps. However, since my first measurements (much earlier in this thread) I note that on full or eco it seems to draw an average of 3.6 amps in roughly the same climate conditions.

During this test, the fridge is in the house, temp is roughly 25 C, fridge is about 80% full of tinnies and is set to 4 C on Eco mode.

(I set it to 4 C in the house as I noted it can go down to 2 C when set to 4 and then cycles on again at about 5 C. If I set it lower at 2 C it will likely go down to zero when cycling. Notwithstanding, I find set to 4 C my beer is cold enough to enjoy and using my remote temp sensor the fridge is between 1 & 2 lower than the digital fridge display.
For a $200 fridge, that's good enough.)

Thanks for the Amazon link, will see if there is an Ozzie equiv. as the big pin plug used in the UK is no good here.

EDIT

Found one at Jaycar for any interested parties

https://www.jaycar.com.au/mains-power-meter/p/MS6115

For the price of $19.95 gonna get one.

condor22 said:

RR

First, I got the LED colours the wrong way round. Red = not cycling, Green = cycling.
My last post got me thinking, so I got the tripod and vidcam out and set it up. The fridge was cycling, so I waited for it to stop and set the cam going. I was going to check it in an hour or so, but have since realised the cams HD will store over 18 hours of footage as it is set, so I'll let it run for 2 hours then check it.

"I think your fridge will be using between 120w to about 144w on AC set to 2*c in an ambient temp of around 25*c, hope that helps," Are you stating its actual draw in Watts (W) or it's Watt Hours (Wh)? If Wh over what period or if W, then.........

As I mentioned in the above post #47, when cycling the fridge draws about 53 W not 120-144 W and that is measured not assumption. As an aside;

The interesting figures are that after initial cooldown, the BM fridge uses 0.22 Amps (52 W) when on 240 VAC, but when on battery (starting fully charged at about 12.9 VDC no load) it draws up to 4.7 amps. However, since my first measurements (much earlier in this thread) I note that on full or eco it seems to draw an average of 3.6 amps in roughly the same climate conditions.

During this test, the fridge is in the house, temp is roughly 25 C, fridge is about 80% full of tinnies and is set to 4 C on Eco mode.

(I set it to 4 C in the house as I noted it can go down to 2 C when set to 4 and then cycles on again at about 5 C. If I set it lower at 2 C it will likely go down to zero when cycling. Notwithstanding, I find set to 4 C my beer is cold enough to enjoy and using my remote temp sensor the fridge is between 1 & 2 lower than the digital fridge display.
For a $200 fridge, that's good enough.)

Click to expand...

The figures I quoted are for a 24 hour period, IE mine will/is cycle for 12m 27s and will have used a total of 9 to 10w then it switches off for about 2h 17m and during the off time it will consume another 2w So including it's run time power and the off time the power used being 12w for a total time of 2h 29m,

Convert that 2h 29m to minutes is 149m, 12w divided by 149 = 0.0805w per minute X the minutes in a day which is 1440, So 0.0805 X 1440 = 115.92w per 24 hours, As you know the Ambient temp will drive up the watts used But your figures should be within 100w of my 115watts used in a 24 hour period because your BM is one of the best fridges on the market when it comes to power draw when running on DC so I would expect it to be close to mine if not better, I have seen mine use between 39 to 46w while running and I think the Ah draw was around 0.24 to 0.3+/- ?? while running on AC according to that meter,

In the past 6 hours it has used 35w and it has only been running for a total of 38m 38s But it is still in the middle of doing it's Off Cycle which should take it past the 7 hour mark before it fires up again, So you can see how the figures match up but I will post the total Wh used tomorrow when it has finished its full 24hr test,

Hope that helps, :Y:

Got back from Jaycar, the above meter link it being discontinued and here is it's replacement.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/mains-power-meter-with-extendable-lcd-display/p/MS6108

Better as if using a power point, you don't need to get on your knees to read it.

Got the BM on it and will run for 24 hours.

Will also use this for the van's aircon, elec hot water and microwave amongst others. I use a Honda 2000W genny when away, but as we know that is Max, 20 minute load is 1800 W and 1600 W continuous. So this will tell me what I can run at the same time i.e. microwave + charging or what I need to briefly turn off at what times.

condor22 said:

Got back from Jaycar, the above meter link it being discontinued and here is it's replacement.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/mains-power-meter-with-extendable-lcd-display/p/MS6108

Better as if using a power point, you don't need to get on your knees to read it.

Got the BM on it and will run for 24 hours.

Will also use this for the van's aircon, elec hot water and microwave amongst others. I use a Honda 2000W genny when away, but as we know that is Max, 20 minute load is 1800 W and 1600 W continuous. So this will tell me what I can run at the same time i.e. microwave + charging or what I need to briefly turn off at what times.

Click to expand...

Yeah it's a great little gizmo to have, the ones I have also display the Voltage being used/supplied which is handy for when you are using the Genny, :Y:

RR I looked for one with an Aussie plug and got this page, which has the 12v Anderson plug ones too, so I thought I would post the whole link.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313&_nkw=power+meter&_sacat=0

Simmo said:

RR I looked for one with an Aussie plug and got this page, which has the 12v Anderson plug ones too, so I thought I would post the whole link.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313&_nkw=power+meter&_sacat=0

Click to expand...

Cool well done, :Y:

On that page on Aussie Ebay they have the Aussie Plug version of the one I am using, They display the Volts, Amps being used, Watts being used, and the Kwh along with the run time, but some Dometic's and Engels don't draw any power when they are in their Off Cycle so they only show they Actual time that it was running So a person would need to use a timer or a stopwatch or make a note of the time when the fridge powered up at the start of the first On Cycle, Where as fridges like the ARB's and bigger dometic's the meter will show the On and Off time combined,

Here it is,

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/240V-Wa...324754?hash=item421de406d2:g:pYEAAOSwXQ1fKlY0

This looks pretty good and has quite a few good reviews but I'm a simpleton when it comes to this sort of stuff. I've recently started work that will be outside for the summer and I'm taking a small esky to work daily with ice packs in it.
I've got a Waeco CoolPower Battery Pack 12V 44AH that I use to power led lights when camping.

Question is. Can I run the Waeco battery of the ciggie lighter whilst this unit is plugged into the battery. Or is there a danger of causing damage. :Y:

Simmo said:

RR I looked for one with an Aussie plug and got this page, which has the 12v Anderson plug ones too, so I thought I would post the whole link.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313&_nkw=power+meter&_sacat=0

Click to expand...

Not sure if you twigged Simmo, the ones me and RR were chatting were 240 VAC mains devices, the one you link to is the 12 VDC type.

condor22 said:

Simmo said:

RR I looked for one with an Aussie plug and got this page, which has the 12v Anderson plug ones too, so I thought I would post the whole link.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313&_nkw=power+meter&_sacat=0

Click to expand...

Not sure if you twigged Simmo, the ones me and RR were chatting were 240 VAC mains devices, the one you link to is the 12 VDC type.

Click to expand...

Yeah, if you look at the Ebay page, it had the 240 ones with Aussie socket, but I saw the 12 v ones too and thought what the hell, I'll post the whole link!!!