Residential Frig w/ Inverter

[DSBATCHELDER]

Just bought new TT and it has what I think is a basic small residential refrigerator. The TT is a wildwood 28 DBUD. It came with an inverter specifically for the refrigerator. The sales guy said the refrigerator would cool as i dove down the road. Went on first trip and it appears that the refrigerator did not come on until shore power was connected. It was turned on and the light inside did not work, until i plugged in. It appears that the inverter is turned on. Any ideas what i can do to determine if there is an issue? I would like to verify there is a real issue before taking back to the dealer which is a big pain. Thanks!

[Kimber45]

I don't know if I can help much other then saying my inverter has an on off button on the front with a digital display and if its on you know it. My fridge does have a temp dial that when turned all the way down will turn fridge off- but that doesn't explain why it came on when plugged in.

Were the batteries charged? If the battery was completely dead I could maybe see the Tow vehicle not giving the camper enough juice to run fridge? If the battery was charged yes the inverter would cool down the fridge while driving.

I always try to plug my camper in 24 hours before leaving to charge battery and cool fridge down.

[mikakuja]

Congrats on the new trailer. My sister and brother in law have the same trailer with a standard propane/electric fridge... Not entirely sure how the inverter is wired up on your unit, but if it does in fact have a residential fridge it should also have some sort of transfer switch to run it off of ether shore or inverter power as both power sources can't be used at the same time.
Aside from that, I hope you have a large battery bank, large solar system and a secondary charging source, if you plan to camp without hookups... The residential fridges will kill the batteries quiet quickly...

[tomkatb]

Owning an rv one has to be a pretty good mechanic/electrician! On new rigs all kinds of stupid things can be done. Salesmen sell rv's, and are not electricians.

Get out your voltmeter. Answer first question. Is there power to the correct wire of the tv plug. Sometimes the manufacturer do not install the fuse!

Unconnected with the battery's turned off, if you have a switch what is the battery voltage. Should be 12.6 volts. Full charge. Inverters do not like low voltage. If not close to the battery it may not work. Wires should be large. And connected.

When plugged into the tv and plug connected voltage while the tv is running should be over 13 volts. If not, no charging.

Some vehicle manufacturers put too small wires from the fuse panel to the plug that there is so much resistance it will not charge your batteries.

Be sure everything is turned on.

A fully charged 12 volt battery will not run a residental fridge 5 hours(worst case, traveling thru Texas on a sunny summer day). Fully charged does not happen quickly.

[CHICKDOE]

for residential refrigerator to work while travelling you must have the following:
- fully charged batteries when you leave
- inverter must be turned on (there is probably a switch inside the trailer to turn it on / off.
- refrigerator turned on


this assumes that all cables are connected and plugged in properly.


as far as the tow vehicle being able to power the refrigerator while on the road that is an open question. in actuality it is the batteries that are powering the inverter which powers the refrigerator. the number and type of batteries that you have will be the biggest factor in running the refrigerator. most tow vehicles will provide some charge to recharge the batteries, though it is hotly debated on the forum just how effective this is. bottom line, it is the batteries that will run the refrigerator while on the road. make sure they are in good condition and fully charged. for what it is worth, we have two group 27 batteries and they (plus some recharge for the truck) have run the refrigerator just fine while travelling. but each situation will be different depending upon the power needs of the refrigerator, the battery condition and charge, and the amount of recharge coming from the truck.


one other thing. if you have already run the refrigerator so that it is cool you don't need a lot of power to keep it cool while you are travelling. you are not opening the refrigerator door while travelling. this by itself will allow most refrigerators to keep things cool for many hours while traveling even with no power to them.

[Coolharts]

My trailer was improperly wired at the batteries on our first trip, the inverter worked but the battery never charged. The dealer hooked it up wrong. Check your battery connections. I also had to have a warranty replacement inverter, your inverter could be bad.

[rdolan5]

I have a full size SS three door residential refrigerator running a inverter in the trailer. What I did was mount a winch quick connect receptacle on the bumper, I ran a 6 ga wire from the tow vehicle battery to this connector on the bumper, note: there is a 50A automatic circuit breaker in series near the TV battery to protect this wire. I used 6 ga wire on the trailer end going from the other half of the winch quick connect to the trailer battery positive. I also added another automatic 50A automatic breaker mounted in series near the trailer battery. Both circuit breakers protect the batteries should a short occur at any location on the 6 ga wire. I do have a 160 A alternator on my diesel ram and never had an issue with the trailer battery getting low on the road or the refrigerator shutting down. We travel every year from Arkansas to Washington State. A real test for this setup! I can't see why this same setup wouldn't work for any tow setup! You will keep your TT battery fully charged when traveling! The factory wiring is too small to run or fully charge a RV battery with any kind of load!

[tone100]

I have a Heritage Glen 5th wheel with the residential fridge. My inverter is in the front storage compartment. Shore power goes into the inverter and then the fridge is wired directly to the output of the inverter. This way it will switch to bypass mode when shore power is connected. You can also turn it off manually.The fridge has a plug that goes into the outlet on the inveter. Maybe that's not plugged in.

When I'm at my house loading up I unplug it from the inveter and run an extension cord to it to get let the fridge run to cool it down. I just plug it back into the inverter when I leave.

[Jeff from Burlington Ont]

Being a new unit I would have it checked.. I have a 2017 heritage glen with the residential fridge and the inverter. While I am driving, my truck power charges the batteries and the batteries provide power to the inverter and then to the fridge.

We have driven for 10 to 12 hours at a stretch, opened the fridge to get drinks and food etc and the fridge & freezer has stayed cold and the lights came on inside. The battery level indicator was always full

[jeepin1]

Not sure if this will help?
But mine didn't work at first and the tech looked at the back of the inverter button and removed it and there was a switch on the back side that was turned off. .
flipped it on and all's well.