Older Engel portable fridges in USA are Norcoldsd

[maki2]

The Engel fridge freezers have a great reputation for reliability as well as low power consumption. I know that a 16 quart sized one would fit into my cabinet on a pull out drawer slide so for the last 2 years I have been drooling over them while realizing I was not going to be likely to own one.

In the meantime I have been watching my local craigslist hoping for a used fridge freezer that might fit into that space. Yesterday something showed up. It is an older Engel but there is a twist to this story. Engels are not made in the USA and it was only a few years ago they opening an outlet in Florida selling their units under the Engel brand name. However Engel portable fridge freezers have actually have been sold in this country for quite a few years before that. The Thetford company was importing them and selling them rebranded with their in-house trade name of "Norcold".  Not all of the Norcold fridges were Engels so you need a reference list which I have posted below with the model numbers of the Norcold units that match up to the Engel units. These Engel/Norcold models use the Japanese Sawafugi swing motor compressor units that Engel has been using from the beginning.   Here is the website link with the chart of matching models of Norcold/Engel. https://www.engelcoolers.com/norcold

The link above will help out those of you who like myself need to look for lightly used equipment but of course want reliable equipment to get the best value out of our dollars. To find these units on craigslist be sure you search in the boat parts category as well as the RV category. A lot of boaters use them, especially the marine quality versions which is the one I found

So the happy ending to my story is the person who posted in the boat parts section on craigslist the Engel/Norcold portable 16 quart unit that was the perfect size for me did not put the word fridge in the title, he just put freezer. So it sat with no offers to buy it. I noticed it was listed in the neighborhood I am in so I inquired about availability and taking a look at it. Turns out it was only a 15 second walk away from my trailer, a neighbor in this building was at the person selling it so I got the good neighbor discount of $100.00 lower than his asking price.  It is in perfect condition, the guy whose boat it had come out of only used it when he went fishing and had only been out fishing a half dozen times since he bought it.  Last spring another neighbor in the building gave me for free a 50 quart Waeco fridge which was too large to fit in the space I wanted but better than having nothing so I took it. Now I will sell that larger one for the price I paid for the Engel/ Norcold and still have a free to me fridge.  Patience coupled with perseverance did pay off in the end and just when I really needed it to. This week I was working on installing the face frame of the cabinet the fridge will be housed in. See image below for the trail check fit for clearance. The new fridge is sitting on top of the wheel well, the sliding drawer is right over the wheel well since that is where that weight is best located for balance in my little travel trailer.  My cabinet framing is made from aluminum angle. Now that I have the fridge on hand I can finish designing the drawer it sits in

 

[maki2]

I did forget to mention that having the fridge over the wheel well means I don't have to bend down to the floor and it is a great height to see down into the fridge. That fridge can be unbolted from the drawer and then go along with me in my Honda Element if I don't want to take the trailer along on some of my trips.

 

[highdesertranger]

congrats. Engels are very reliable my oldest unit has been running 24/7/365 for almost 10 years. they also sip power. you will be happy. highdesertranger

 

[maki2]

I just came across another useful piece of information for the older Engle/Norcold units. It is a troubleshooting guide for these swingmotor units. Now that is a sweet find and it will go onto the USB stick I have with all of my equipment manuals. Of course I also have it backed up elsewhere on the internet and on my PC.
Here is the link to th .pdf about troubleshooting the portable Norcold/Engel fridges. You don't always get that kind of useful how to troubleshoot documentation with a fridge, especially the newer models.
http://www.bdub.net/manuals/norcold.pdf

 

[maki2]

Just an update on the performance of my used Norcold (a rebranded Engel) fridge. I have been using it full time now for coming up on 3 months and it has performed perfectly even in hot weather. As it just has a dial versus a digital control it took me a few dsys to find the sweet spot, not too cold, not too earm. That was just past the number 1
which is at the warm end of the dial. At 1.5 it starts to freeze things that are close to the compressor end of the fridge.

As it is small when I get foods from the store such as veggies I go ahead and cut them into the size of pieces I want for cooking and store them in ziplock bags. For fruit I cut it up as well puttung lemon juice on apple wefges. Doing this prep work allows me to store a lot more food in that small volume of space. It also saves energy to have very little wasted space in the fridge. Not much room to keep a lot of beverages in there though so I just put in a few at a time and buy the small sizes of condiments.

Overall it has beeen the perfect size for my solo travel needs. However I do shop once a week or so and I am not a beer drinker. We are all a little different in our needs for food storage.