Residential fridge only running on inverter

[The Newsoms]

2016 3825fl Cardinal 5th wheel with fridgidare gallery residential fridge. We leave it plugged in and fridge running. Ice maker turned off. Couple months ago discovered it wasn’t running, turned breaker off, then on and fridge came on and has run fine since. We have an EMS system but I chalked it up to an electrical glitch. Today I just decided to check it because I had left some food in it and it was off. Flipping breaker does nothing but I decided to see if I would run on the inverter and it does. Don’t know where to go from here.

[Flybob]

In most setups like yours the inverter contains a transfer switch that when shore power is available switches to it and when shore power is not available, it switches to battery provided power through the inverter. If the shore power went out for a reason ( possibly EMS disconnected it ) the inverter would kick in and run the fridge. If shore power was not restored for a while the battery voltage would drop and the inverter would shut off. This is one explanation of what you are seeing there may be others.

[The Newsoms]

It will not run directly from electricity. Camper is plugged up but fridge will not come on unless I turn the inverter on.

[dalford]

Originally Posted by The Newsoms

It will not run directly from electricity. Camper is plugged up but fridge will not come on unless I turn the inverter on.

Are other 120 volt appliances working, ie microwave?

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by dalford

Are other 120 volt appliances working, ie microwave?

I checked some outlets but hadn’t looked at microwave. Went out and looked and it’s not on either. The breakers for both are in a compartment together and they both are in a slide.

[formerFR]

you got a 50amp coach, plugged into 50amp Shore Power?

[formerFR]

and, what is the 'EMS system' you are referring to? A power protector plugged into the shore power?

[Flybob]

Originally Posted by The Newsoms

I checked some outlets but hadn’t looked at microwave. Went out and looked and it’s not on either. The breakers for both are in a compartment together and they both are in a slide.

Appears you have an issue with shore power and not fridge or inverter. As I said if you have no shore power the inverter powered the fridge until the battery got low then shut itself off. After resting the battery voltage can raise enough to run the inverter but not for long. I would focus on your 120VAC 50A service. If you have a reset on inverter try resetting it.

[formerFR]

losing one 'side' of your 50amp power supply can lead to these symptoms:

- if you lose the side of the power that supplies the 'thru power' to your Inverter, and therefore to your outlets powered by the Inverter breaker sub-panel, you would NOT have power when you are 'plugged in', but WOULD when the Inverter is ON and providing power to those same breakers/circuits/outlets...typically the fridge and microwave and outlets are on a 'whole house' type inverter.

- the Inverter, though, would also NOT be charged by Shore Power, but would still be charged by any Solar power you have.

- sometimes, as you alluded to originally when you 'flipped' or reset the breaker and the fridge 'came back on', the power supply can available, at times, and sometimes not, when loose wires are the culprit.

I would trip the breakers at the Shore Power, and check the connection/tightness of the red and black wires going out of the breakers - you may find one that has lost it's connection, or is no longer 'tight' as it should be.

Also, check your own Main Panel breakers, and your ATS(auto transfer switch), for the same reasons...

[The Newsoms]

[QUOTE=formerFR;2062816]and, what is the 'EMS system' you are referring to? A power protector plugged into the shore power?[/QUOTE

I believe it’s a Progressive 50 amp ems. It’s plugged into 30 amp service. Shows no errors or issues.

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by formerFR

losing one 'side' of your 50amp power supply can lead to these symptoms:

- if you lose the side of the power that supplies the 'thru power' to your Inverter, and therefore to your outlets powered by the Inverter breaker sub-panel, you would NOT have power when you are 'plugged in', but WOULD when the Inverter is ON and providing power to those same breakers/circuits/outlets...typically the fridge and microwave and outlets are on a 'whole house' type inverter.

- the Inverter, though, would also NOT be charged by Shore Power, but would still be charged by any Solar power you have.

- sometimes, as you alluded to originally when you 'flipped' or reset the breaker and the fridge 'came back on', the power supply can available, at times, and sometimes not, when loose wires are the culprit.

I would trip the breakers at the Shore Power, and check the connection/tightness of the red and black wires going out of the breakers - you may find one that has lost it's connection, or is no longer 'tight' as it should be.

Also, check your own Main Panel breakers, and your ATS(auto transfer switch), for the same reasons...

It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow so may be Friday before I can get back out there but I’ll check this.

[formerFR]

it could also be the EMS dropping one side - remove the EMS from the equation and see

[dalford]

Check the breakers that supply the shore power...

[Chascin]

Being plugged in to 30 amp service with a 50 amp trailer wouldn’t the trailer only be receiving 30 amp to one of the 50 amp breakers?

[Flybob]

Originally Posted by Chascin

Being plugged in to 30 amp service with a 50 amp trailer wouldn’t the trailer only be receiving 30 amp to one of the 50 amp breakers?

Not if he is using the proper 30A to 50A adapter. It essentially splits the 30A between the two 50A legs, however he will only have a total of 30A.

[CHICKDOE]

there's no guarantee that your 2016 is the same as our 2015. the fact that the microwave does not have power seems to indicate a problem with one leg of the incoming power rather than the inverter. our power panel is split into two sections with each section being fed by one of the two incoming power legs. check to see if the refrigerator and microwave are in the same section. if so then identify the other devices that are in that section of the power panel and check each of them to see if they have power. then go to the devices in the other section and check to see if they all have power. if you can confirm that the devices on one section do not have power and the one in the other section do have power that would indicate a power loss on one incoming leg.

also you say you have a 50 amp ems in the shore power path. does it have the little display window that shows voltage and amps being used by each leg? if so do both legs show 120 volt power present. if they do power is at least getting into the input side of the ems.

if yours is like ours we have a progressive dynamics prowatt inverter. it does not have an internal transfer switch. there is a small external transfer switch that the refrigerator cord is plugged into and this little external transfer switch switches the refrigerator between shore and inverter power.

if your converter is working you could use it to charge the batteries and run the refrigerator on the inverter using battery power while you resolve this.

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

if your converter is working you could use it to charge the batteries and run the refrigerator on the inverter using battery power while you resolve this.

Converter is working and I’m running the refrigerator on the inverter. I have limited access to it under our storage but will pull it out tomorrow and get a definite idea of what’s working and what’s not. Right now, it seems just the microwave and refrigerator but I need to check other items on that leg.

[Sealyn]

Does your inverter power things other than the refer? There are some RV's that use an inverter just for the refer and nothing else.

[The Newsoms]

Originally Posted by Sealyn

Does your inverter power things other than the refer? There are some RV's that use an inverter just for the refer and nothing else.

Just the refrigerator.

[Sealyn]

Originally Posted by The Newsoms

Just the refrigerator.

The inverter probably needs to be on at all times for the refer to work, even when plugged into shore your refer is really operating off your batteries through the inverter, so the converter must also be operating to keep the batteries charged.