Refrigerator failure...

[brucemc]

As we were preparing for our 2nd jaunt out in our new Sunseeker (3 day road trip - geocaching, hot springing, sight seeing - Painted hills/Alvord desert/Steens, etc), we started the fridge a couple days ago to cool it down. We had added some non-critical items (chocolate - Yum!) All was working fine until today.

The lovely N was adding some food items, and commented "this stuff doesn't feel as cold as it should be". Hmmm.

I checked the breakers and found all was ok. I toggled them off, then back on just to be sure.
Note: A "popped" breaker may appear to be in the on position - the handle moves slightly toward center when it has interrupted the circuit. Make a note of it!

Testing found we didn't have 12 volts at the fridge even though the unit was plugged into shore power. 110 showed it was working by the plug-in meter over the sink, and my additional panel-mount 12V meter in the control panel showed 13+ volts.
Note: Even if plugged into 110VAC, the refer still requires 12V for the control board. Make a note of it!

Back tracing, I found the bundle of wires under the fridge, but they looked ok though there was several crimped connections there. I've already found a number of bad crimps in other circuits, so suspected that might be the issue.

Next, I decided to check for blown fuses. I walked down the line of 15A fuses in the panel, pulling each one by one, checking for a fried element. I then re-inserted the fuses. No red "fuse blown" leds were on.

No luck. So, I walked back down the line pulling all 15A fuses as I suspected a non-visual break, and shorting out each set of terminals while the lovely N watched the refer. The switch was on, so it should have lit up when I hit the right fuse sockets. Oddly, the 12V circuit for the refer is not marked.

No luck. Sigh.. what the heck is wrong with the fridge, a day before a trip?

I walked around the corner to the side door, and noted the house power was off. Why, that should be on! I turned it on... and guess what? The fridge came on! But - it the check light was on, in addition to the power light. I still had all the 15A fuses out and several red "fuse blown" indicators were glowing brightly... hee hee. I re-inserted all fuses, but didn't pay attention to the one that turned off the check light... oh well. Problem solved.

Why was the switch off? I had turned it off earlier in the day because that's a convenient way to shut down all the lights in the coach when I'm doing projects. The main shut-off doesn't disconnect the charger part of the charger/converter, so the batteries continue to be maintained (along with the chassis battery). Even though we were setting up for a trip, I turned it off purely by habit.

Note: The refrigerator control board is "controlled" with the main shut-off. Make a note of it!

[benagi]

Been there done that, but only once so far . Have a safe trip.

[RamblerGuy]

On our 2011 model 3100 Sunseeker, the refrigerator gets its 12 volt supply from the same fuse as the furnace. It was only marked "Furnace".

[brucemc]

Thanks - I'll test the furnace fuse on ours. The furnace is under the refer but it could be wired to another fuse as well.