EdgeStar Fridge/Freezer 43 qt

[corsair23]

Your information is greatly appreciated!!!!!! Exactly what I was looking for.

Happy to help

 

[nakman]

you know that's a good point about the lid- not only do you need to have clearance behind it, but that depth is going to be added to the height as soon as you open the door. When the door is fully open on this 63 quart Edge Star, it measures 37" to the top. I can't open this fridge all the way when it's inside my truck with the topper on, only about halfway.. my smaller Engel opens all the way though in the same space.

edit: picture with lid

 

[bigbluefj]

So i joined the Edge Star culb this morning by ordering the FP630 63qt unit, can't wait till i leave going to be like xmas at robbies when i get there..

Kevin

 

[bigbluefj]

Yeah my fridge came in today day at robbies...

 

[nakman]

Right on, Kevin! You're going to dig it..

I'll be patiently waiting for you to come up with a solution that I can blatantly copy (if you don't mind that is)

Ok this is what I came up with on Sunday. I'd remove the stock rubber feet from the fridge, and put some bolts in their place that I could use to slide into a custom foot clamp. This is modeled after now the Engel slide thing works.. then using black magic, I'd design & print some custom foot clamps.

the thread type for the feet is your standard M8, same thing that comes out of your 3rd row seat brackets.

So then I made a plywood base onto which I could bolt random things, and temporarily bolted that down. Then I lined up the fridge, marked the location for at least a couple of my new foot clamps, then pulled the whole thing out and secured all 4. I found some random things in the garage that act as guides for sliding it in. Also by adjusting the gap between the bolt head and the jam nut, I was able to dial in a pretty snug fit. what do you think..

 

[nakman]

It's not exactly easy to slide, but a lot of that has to do with the weight. I'm using one of the stock Engel fridge feet as a stopper, so it'll take a screwdriver to remove it, then I can slide this out. I think later I'll upgrade to an actual drawer slide, but for now the fridge is secure and operational...

edit: one point of caution with the new "bolt feet," is they will wreak havoc on painted surfaces, hardwood floors, etc. I wonder if I can find some of those plastic caps, like the 80 2nd row bolts have... well another day perhaps, I'm going to bed.

 

[corsair23]

Pretty slick Nakgadgetman

But I ain't got no plywood in the back of my LX...I was hoping you'd come up with some metal dealyos that would be secured under the handles that you could attach straps to

 

[DaveInDenver]

Those look awful small, I'd keep a strap on the handles the first time you take your Taco off highway. The Engel one in my truck, similar location near the back of the bed, has broken a couple of times. A lot of weight + a lot of bouncing + plastic bits = roaming fridge. The Engel uses metal slides but the base is plastic and I've had to heavily reinforce the plastic. Don't let me forget to show you the fridge mount next time I see you.

 

[MDH33]

Very cool Tim. Are the "feet" on the Engel similar? If so, I might be interested in procuring 4 of those feet mounts.

 

[nakman]

Martin the feet of the Engel are a smaller thread- but forget about replicating, I've already got an idea for a better way to do this- instead of the custom nylon pieces we'll bolt a big cutting board to the base of the fridge, then it will slide into a channel. This will get us by this weekend though for the next trip to Moab.

Jeff you should know by now I'm a plastics guy.. metal dealyos are a last resort.

Dave I've got the same Engel base in the 80. Maybe it's a coil vs. leaf spring thing, there's no question the ride is smoother and I've had no issues with the fridge base- mine is only screwed down to a piece of plywood in the 80 too. One thing that probably helps is it's shimmed in place by an adjacent drawer system, with usually a lot of junk on the other side of it, so even if the base flexed there's not much room for it to go?

 

[MDH33]

Tim, What did you do for power to the fridge in your Taco? I noticed when I used my fridge in ours that the aux 12v plugs in the dash only worked with the key in the ignition and "on".

 

[DaveInDenver]

Tim, What did you do for power to the fridge in your Taco? I noticed when I used my fridge in ours that the aux 12v plugs in the dash only worked with the key in the ignition and "on".

I ended up putting a 12V receptacle in my bed that runs straight to the battery with 8AWG wire and a 20A fuse. I can then use this to run something else if I want, like a compressor or blender.

But FWIW on our old 4Runner there was a relay in the fusebox under the dash that controlled this. I pulled the relay and made a jumper that made it so the aux outlets all stayed on all the time. In my pickup I have never done this, though, since I use the cigarette lighter wire as the ignition-on indicator to other relays. A few minutes with the FSM wiring diagrams and you'll find the relay that controls this. Then two spade terminals and a 2 inch piece of wire (I would use 16AWG at least)...

 

[nakman]

I've got a Painless harness screwed under the dash, above where the clutch pedal would have been (probably using one of those threaded holes). So far it's just the driving light relay on the switched on side, and this new fridge cord on the always hot side. The wire runs behind the kick panel, under the plastic thing you step over at the door opening, then pokes down through the grommet under the driver's seat, same grommet as the factory harness. Then along the same frame rail, then up and into one of those big grommets on the inside of the bed.

I'm using my newly patented vehicle wiring method- extension cord.

 

[satchel]

I just got the 63 qt Edgestar in last week. Plugged it in to my house A/C wiring and it went from 87 degrees to 35 degrees in about 50 minutes on fast freeze mode. I was quite happy with those results. I set the fridge to 35 and left it like that for a week and noticed a little variation in the temp from about 38 to 31, which isn’t that bad I guess. Well, last night when I got home it was showing 39 and within about 30 or so minutes it went up to 41 which seems really high for this thing.

I decided to put it on fast freeze mode to see what would happen and it just kept slowly increasing in temperature. I figured maybe I had left it on for too long so I decided to unplug it for an hour or so and when I plugged it back in the temp was around the 60 degree range. I then put it on fast freeze and it finally started coming down, but it took several hours to get it down to only 41 degrees. Looked more like 1 degree drop per ten minutes as opposed to the 1 degree drop per 1 minute that I initially saw.

I hadn’t had the thing plugged into my truck yet, so I figured I would plug it in to the truck overnight and see what happens. With the fridge on regular mode, not fast freeze, when I checked it in the morning it was at 39 and my setting is 35. I decided to leave it powered on while I was at work, and when I went to see what it was doing at lunch, the thermostat read 54 degrees! I’ve left it unplugged since then and figure I will turn it on again tonight or tomorrow and see what it does.

So my question now is, have any of you guys had an issue like this or do you all remove power after a day or two? Anyone left theirs on for weeks at a time and notice anything strange like this? I’m curious if I need to just let the compressor cool and it will be ok, or if it is fried and I need to get a new one.

 

[nakman]

So my question now is, have any of you guys had an issue like this or do you all remove power after a day or two? Anyone left theirs on for weeks at a time and notice anything strange like this? I’m curious if I need to just let the compressor cool and it will be ok, or if it is fried and I need to get a new one.

Yes I have.. and I am ready to rescind all of my former recommendations towards this fridge.. I too have seen wide temperatures, particularly when hooked to the truck, much like you describe. Also much more current draw than the Engel.. more than I expected.

Also the 12v cigarette lighter plug is very cheap- mine would get very hot meaning I was getting a ton of voltage loss, it was all the flaky connection with that little fuse inside and the tip that connects to the positive terminal at the center of the outlet. It ended up melting and rendering that plug useless. So I replaced it with a trailer harness, which works much better. The voltage sensor inside the fridge doesn't appear to work, as mine will run my truck battery into the ground.. takes about 5 hours in hot weather to go from 12.7 volts to needing a jump start..

The last day my fridge worked was the rally. I had it loaded up with drinks for my ham radio demonstration, it was cold but never made it below 42 or so.. granted I put them in warm in the morning. When I got home I was too tired to unload it, so I just hooked it up to the extension cord and let it run on 120vac. Later that night the readout just said "HH." Later, the readout said "oc" and while the fan was whirring away it was obvious it is no longer cooling. So I grabbed a warm beer and unplugged the damn thing.

The manual is useless, they don't list these codes or any way to diagnose or correct them. A call to Compact Appliance the next week revealed the HH means the unit shut itself down because ambient temperature reached 100°F. wtf, so apparently these aren't meant to run inside a car? great.. The oc code means HH was activated, and something inside needs to be reset, and no I can't do it a tech has to there may be a sensor unit that needs to get swapped out. I need to call Gotham Sales to initiate my warranty coverage.

Gotham sales gives me a membership number, and in a week (once I'm in the "system" ) I can call Repair Master to schedule the repair. So then I call Repair Master who will have a local service tech call me in 2-3 days. A week later I hear nothing, call back, find out Repair Master can't service these, I need to take it up with Edge Star. They don't seem to have a procedure for alerting you when they can't help you, hey they're just a call center. So I call Edge Star, impossible to speak to a human, but I can either leave a message or send an email either way they'll get back to me in 2-3 days... so that's where I am today, waiting for Edge Star to return my email, and going on 3 weeks.

 

[satchel]

I think I'm just going to try and get my money back for this thing then and get something else. The problems is I'm sure compactappliance.com won't give me my money back as they're just a middle man and I bet edgestar is only going to tell me they will repair it. If it's doing this stuff already then I don't want it repaired just to break again, I want my money back. The strange thing is that I read this thread the other week and didn't notice any negative feedback on this fridge at all.

 

[nakman]

I think I'm just going to try and get my money back for this thing then and get something else. The problems is I'm sure compactappliance.com won't give me my money back as they're just a middle man and I bet edgestar is only going to tell me they will repair it. If it's doing this stuff already then I don't want it repaired just to break again, I want my money back. The strange thing is that I read this thread the other week and didn't notice any negative feedback on this fridge at all.

That's a good move, I don't blame you one bit for just returning the thing if they'll take it back- put that money towards an ARB or Engel.. or National Luna . And I regret not posting my drama up earlier, I was waiting until I had a resolution and maybe it will still turn out ok.. and to that end remain optimistic.

edit: Edge Star just called me (2 hour response time!) and they can't help me. They only warranty parts, not labor, I need to get back with the warranty company and demand someone look at this, then once it's diagnosed they'll gladly send out the parts for them to install. It's either the control unit or the temp sensor, but they can't just send them without a tech first diagnosing it. So tomorrow I call the warranty company back..

 

[corsair23]

Bummer Tim

I haven't had any problems with my fridge other than it is power hungry...Not the fridge for people plan to be out in the wilderness for days without running the truck.

Until recently we had the fridge plugged in 24x7 for over a year and aside from the temp varying +/- 4F or so it has been fine. That sucks about the ambient temp 100F = no worky

 

[sleeoffroad]

FWIW, I know this is unrelated but just some evidence on Engel fridges. We have a Engel 35 qt at the company. I bought it used from ARB and it was a demo unit from before ARB started selling the Engel rebadged units. So I have no idea how old it was when we got it, but we have owned it for about 8 years. I then ran it for years on back the ShortBus (exposed to the elements) and currently Joe has it on the back of his buggy. It has been rolled a couple of times, rained on, abused, and mistreated, Latest was being squised at the BHCC under a rock.

After all this, it still runs like a top. Sometimes, it just makes sense to get the better product.

 

[Uncle Ben]

FWIW, I know this is unrelated but just some evidence on Engel fridges. We have a Engel 35 qt at the company. I bought it used from ARB and it was a demo unit from before ARB started selling the Engel rebadged units. So I have no idea how old it was when we got it, but we have owned it for about 8 years. I then ran it for years on back the ShortBus (exposed to the elements) and currently Joe has it on the back of his buggy. It has been rolled a couple of times, rained on, abused, and mistreated, Latest was being squised at the BHCC under a rock.

After all this, it still runs like a top. Sometimes, it just makes sense to get the better product.

My old second hand Engel thats in my 80 has been on now for close to 4 years! The seal on the door is shrinking and should be replaced but other than that it has worked flawless! I plan on moving it to the 40 soon and put the next size up one in the 80. Sorry Tim, that is really a bummer!