Refrigerator problem

[Eddie in vt]

Hi,
First of all, thank you all for the great information shared in this forum. As a first time tt owner I have had many questions answered here.

I am having a problem with the refrigerator in my 1905 rock wood minilite. It runs on propane or electric. It runs fine on electric but I experienced a problem when running it on propane. It started out ok but by the third day it was not cooling probably. My partner thought it was because we did not have the 12 volt battery on the entire time. We would turn the battery off at night because the co detector kept draining the batteries and the darn thing would start beeping early in the morning. So my question is does the battery need to be on in order for the refrigerator to run properly while using propane?

Thanks for all you help. I love camping.

Eddie

[andymil]

Yes, the refrigerator needs 12 volts for the control circuit even when on gas.

[bikendan]

Sounds like you didn't have shore power.
Yes, the fridge needs 12v power for circuit board and to ignite the propane.

If you plan on dry camping for 3 days or more, you need to have dual batteries and a generator or solar to keep the batteries charged.

[bikendan]

Eddie, in your post you say "battery" and later you say "batteries".

Which is it? If it's a single battery, no wonder the battery was drained.

You need at least two deep cycle batteries to dry camp for more than two nights.
If you used the furnace for any amount of time, then the battery would've drained even faster. The furnace is the biggest power drain of all.

[aeblank]

You shouldn't need a generator or solar to dry camp for a long weekend. You *do* need multiple batteries (2-4) though.
You also need to track down your parasitic drains.

If disconnecting the CO detector makes your batteries last......well.........time for another CO detector solution. a 9V battery operated one, or smash it with a hammer, or something. IMO, a "spot check" of CO is adequate, but everyone has their own opinions. I say that because the only source you really have is your furnace. So run the furnace in the evening and check before you go to bed. If it's running properly, no concern. My parents camper doesn't even have a CO detector (oh the humanity).

Point being, be thorough about what's draining your battery, and address them one-by-one as required...also adding more capacity, probably.

Another common one is the radios. the "new fangled" radios these days always have some draw. It shouldn't be much (the one in your car won't drain the battery after 2+ weeks), but it's something. perhaps a well-positioned toggle switch solves that (made up) problem.