Power off Magic Chef 12V Fridge

[kirkpacc]

The Magic Chef 12V fridge in my Rockwood Minilite (2022, 2516S) goes from standby to cooling mode whenever the power to the trailer is cycled. The result is that the fridge could be running for long periods of time when I want it to be off or in standby. I can force it off my pulling the 12V fuse, but would prefer to have a convenient switch. I can't find a manual switch, and the dealer is not helpful. Does anyone know of an existing manual switch that I have not found? If no, has anyone installed one?

My goal is to keep the fridge from accumulating lots of not-needed running hours and shorten its life.

[Rhumblefish]

There is no manual switch. You need to pull the fuse, or manually turn the fridge off when cycling power to the rig. It's easy enough to build an in-line switch, also relatively easy to be mindful and make sure that either (1) the fridge is off or (2) power to the rig is off.

If you are mindful to leave the fridge door open when your trailer is off, you should be in good shape for powering the fridge or not.

It might be important to be mindful of owners of PREVIOUS incarnations of our 12v Magic-Chef-branded Way Interglobal fridge... who cannot power their fridge off like the owners of the most recent versions can.

[Michael in Georgetown]

Wow.
I had the same question. Since my 2518 comes with a solar panel, it could potentially run the fridge forever, outside; but since it'll be stored in a "barn" (metal building) it could also kill my lead acid batteries in a week. Amazing that there's no off-mode -- I can only find settings for the temp: 1-5.