What does it mean when my cf 50, stops and shows; err 2?
Recently purchased a second hand Waeco chest fridge/freezer CF50 as a second/backup fridge on the boat. All was working fine until the fridge refused to start and showed "Err2".
According to the user manual (page 23) "Err2" (or any other error message e.g.: "Err1" means that "The device has switched off due to an internal fault." Suggested remedy "This can only be repaired by an authorised repair centre." To be honest that's about as useful as a bicycle to a fish, in the middle of nowhere.
So, with the beer getting warmer, the circumstances required a set of screwdrivers, a multimeter and band-aids. I have heard that the thermistor on older units can often be the point of failure. In this case, it also turns out to be the situation.
The Thermistor is connected to the upper circuit board located under the buttons to operate the fridge. Not hard to access, 2 Philips heads under the fridge lid, either side of the internal light, then 3 Phillips heads to remove the circuit board from the buttons. The thermistor (only 2 wires) is connected to the circuit board by a small white connected (in my case) to the right of the multi-wire connector.
I disconnect the thermistor from the board, hoping an open circuit would at least get the fridge to start without the thermistor (ie 100% resistance), but no. What it did was change the error code from "Err2" to "Err1" (might be useful for anyone tracking down an Err1 problem). So, take the reverse, I shorted the 2 thermistor wires at the circuit board (i.e. no resistance) to see if that would get the fridge to start, but also no, just "Err2" message.
Finally, I connected a 10k ohm carbon resistor (cost about $0.85 for a pack of 10) to the thermistor wires and the error code was removed and the fridge started working. The display read 22c, being the perceived temperature at that resistance. Turns out the lower the resistance the higher the perceived temperature.
This was not a final solution, because the fridge would run all the time freezing everything. But, by turning the fridge on manually, a couple of hours at a time got us out of a warm beer situation.
Hope this helps someone else.
