Residential Refrigerator circuit breaker location

Husky10101 · 05-24-2020, 05:12 PM

I have a 2019 RKFB and I can't find the breaker for the residential refrigerator. It is not located in the breaker panel in the bedroom and neither is the powered recliners, and both TV's. Today I opened the refrigerator doors which I could see that it was on by the interior lights and switched off all the breakers and even the main and the power stayed on to the residential refrigerator, the powered recliners and the tv's. So it appears that all the devices that are powered by the inverter, their breakers are not in the breaker box in the bedroom. Same as when I plug into shore power and the power that passes through the inverter none of the breakers in the bedroom kill the power to these items. I looked in every cabinet and in every exterior compartment and can't find another breaker panel. Also looked in the basement area and inside the sliding doors on each wall of the basement. Does anybody know where these breakers are? I am concerned if I have an issue with any of these items and I need to kill power in a hurry, if on shore power, run outside and kill the main on the pedestal. But then the inverter would automatically switch from shore power to batteries and power these items. So I would also have to power down the inverter and isolate the batteries.

brad2388 · 05-24-2020, 09:36 PM

On our 2021 rkfb its in the main panel. But its labeled inverter.

Are you sure you inverter isnt turned on?

I turn my breaker off for the fridge when i get everything out and am ready to turn everything off.

dalford · 05-24-2020, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brad2388

On our 2021 rkfb its in the main panel. But its labeled inverter.

Are you sure you inverter isnt turned on?

I turn my breaker off for the fridge when i get everything out and am ready to turn everything off.

The op said he turned off every breaker in the panel. I agree, mine say inverter/refrigerator but it sounds like op is missing this breaker. I would be concerned also...

Husky10101 · 05-24-2020, 11:12 PM

I have a breaker that says Inverter but with this one off and even with the main breaker to the whole panel off, the ref. stayed on. I assumed that the inverter breaker has to be on for the Ref. to be on but in my case, this is not the case. I do have the 3rd air conditioner with the Forest River Power Management System which may have something to do with it. I wish the owners manual for the 39RKFB was more unit specific rather than being so generic. After reading the above posts I have a couple of ideas so will do some more investigating and let you know. The RV is in storage so no shore power, just the batteries and inverter. When I lined up the batteries and inverter so it was producing 110V from the inverter, I removed the breaker panel cover and tested all the breakers for power and none of them had 110V. So that is why I started looking for breakers for the inverter appliances. Also when I do plug into shore power the Inverter display lights change from battery to shore power, so I know it is working like it should and is passing the shore power through the inverter to the RV. Sorry I get kind of wordy, but I appreciate your help.

dalford · 05-24-2020, 11:27 PM

Ok, your issue is that the inverter breaker only breaks the shore power to your inverter. If the inverter is on it does not matter if the inverter breaker is on or off. The inverter itself does not know if you are not connected to shore power or if you turned the inverter breaker off or the campground lost power. It just senses no ac power and switches from standby to active mode and supplies ac to your rv. You need to turn the inverter Itself off.

Some RVs have a remote on/off switch for the inverter which would normally be in the same panel as your light switches, etc. you mentioned you had a power mgt system. Maybe it has the on/off for the inverter.

My unit does not have the remote switch connected so I turn my inverter on/off with the switch on the front of the inverter.

Do you know where your inverter is located? It should have an on/off switch on the front panel.

dalford · 05-24-2020, 11:34 PM

I’ve attached a drawing that indicates all the power states of shore power and inverter breaker position and status of inverter.

Hopefully it is readable. The resolution on this site can be poor..

Husky10101 · 05-24-2020, 11:40 PM

Yes I do have the inverter remote panel and according to the inverter manual, it says to have the remote panel button in the on position and the inverter button in the off position. Also yes I can read your drawing and thanks.

CincyGus · 05-24-2020, 11:46 PM

My resi fridge runs off an inverter and it has a battery shut off switch for it. Might check to see if thats how it's wired in yours. I have two battery cutoff switches. One for the battery and one for the inverter.

dalford · 05-24-2020, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Husky10101

Yes I do have the inverter remote panel and according to the inverter manual, it says to have the remote panel button in the on position and the inverter button in the off position. Also yes I can read your drawing and thanks.

That’s right the button on the front of the inverter must be in the off position or out for the remote to work. So you should be able to turn the inverter breaker off and Put your remote panel button in the off position and the inverter should turn off. Make sure the button on the inverter is off (out).

Let me know if this works for you..

Husky10101 · 05-25-2020, 09:19 AM

Yes I agree with you this is how it must be, but it seems crazy to me that there are not any separate breakers for the refrigerator, the recliners that are heated, that are powered reclining, and that have built in massage, or the outlets that power the living room and bedroom TV's. So what breaker or fuse protects these items? The fuse on the back of the inverter? While replacing the converter-charger I couldn't understand why there are several white outlet sized junction boxes that split the 110V output from the inverter to several lines. This must be how they ran the power to those items. I replaced the OEM converter because it was not designed to charge lithium batteries. Also what a rats nest of wires in some areas of the RV basement. I appreciate all your help.

GWJohnson · 05-25-2020, 03:57 PM

I have the same questions as the OP. We have a 2020 39RKFB Riverstone. Although when I store the rig I do turn off the inverter as well as the 12V shut-off switch in the battery compartment so that everything is off,..... there SHOULD be a breaker switch for the residential refrigerator (as well as the powered recliners & TVs) for the reasons the OP cited. If for some reason the power to the refer had to be shut off quickly, it doesn't make sense that it doesn't have a separate circuit breaker. I can't find one on ours either! Doesn't make any logical sense.

Has anyone asked Forest River Riverstone customer service or tech assistance this question? Thanks.

Husky10101 · 05-25-2020, 04:15 PM

GWJohnson when you switch off the factory 12V switch, it doesn't isolate all the phantom power users like Co and smoke detectors, etc. When I installed my solar system I installed a on-off switch from the batteries to the RV which positively isolates everything. In my 39RKFB, the factory switch is located in the compartment where all the fresh water valves, dump valves etc. are located which is to the right of the battery compartment. It is a flat red handle switch. Maybe your is newer and things have changed. I bring this up because I made the mistake when I first bought the RV and turned off the factory switch and after a few cold months my batteries were dead. Is yours's this way? After recharging the batteries I was able to measure a current draw even with the factory switch off, but now with my new switch off, there is no current draw. After this and before I installed my isolation switch, I disconnected the negative side of the batteries when storing the RV and before I installed my lithium batteries.

GWJohnson · 05-25-2020, 04:44 PM

THANKS for the suggestion to add another switch from the batteries to the RV to ensure that ALL power is shut off. I'll add that to my project list.

Yes, my 12 volt OFF switch is the red handle in the wet bay, just like yours. I misspoke when I referenced the battery compartment for that switch. Fortunately, I store our rig in inside storage with 120 v electricity access. I keep the four 6 volt batteries on a trickle charger when the rig is stored, so even though I am aware that the smoke & CO2 detectors (and perhaps other parasitic current draws) still draw some power, the trickle charger keeps the batteries charged. I also have a solar panel on the roof. Good idea to install an additional battery isolation shut-off switch for those times when I may not have trickle charge power available. It may be a tight fit though, because the 4 6 volt batteries on 2 battery trays take up a lot of room. Thanks.

dalford · 05-25-2020, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GWJohnson

I have the same questions as the OP. We have a 2020 39RKFB Riverstone. Although when I store the rig I do turn off the inverter as well as the 12V shut-off switch in the battery compartment so that everything is off,..... there SHOULD be a breaker switch for the residential refrigerator (as well as the powered recliners & TVs) for the reasons the OP cited. If for some reason the power to the refer had to be shut off quickly, it doesn't make sense that it doesn't have a separate circuit breaker. I can't find one on ours either! Doesn't make any logical sense.

Has anyone asked Forest River Riverstone customer service or tech assistance this question? Thanks.

There is no need to leave your inverter on if you are connected to shore power therefore if you needed to turn off fridge you just need to switch off the inverter breaker. Fridge, chairs, whatever else is connected to inverter will power off since the inverter is “off”.

If you are boondocking and using the inverter it does not matter what position the inverter breaker is in. The inverter “don’t know” if you turned off the inverter breaker, the shore power or the campground lost power. It just senses no ac. In this case if you had to turn off anything due to an “emergency” you would have to turn the inverter off.

formerFR · 05-25-2020, 06:01 PM

also, to clarify, since the Inverter DOES have it's own 'pass thru' breaker, on the Inverter itself, this IS the breaker for all the items that run thru the Inverter.

typically, the inverter's 'breaker' is a round 'button' style... if it's OUT, it's tripped. Push it in to reset it.

While many larger coaches with 'whole house' inverters will have a separate or integrate 'sub-panel' of breakers for the different outlet circuits that the Inverter powers, smaller coaches with 'limited' items run thru the inverter simply use the Inverter's own breaker as it's circuit protection. No worries.

Husky10101 · 05-30-2020, 06:59 PM

So I ended up installing a sub panel for the devices the inverter runs. Not that the inverter push button doesn't protect everything, but if it trips I have no idea what tripped it. So if something does trip it I want to know what tripped. Also if an outlet ground faults or the recliner has a problem and it trips the inverter push button breaker, the Ref also goes dead and if you are not there to fix the issue, all your food will go bad. I discovered that the Ref is on one circuit, the bedroom TV outlet is on one circuit, and the recliner and living room tv outlets are on one circuit. So I installed a main 20A breaker from the inverter. The 20A breaker matches the Inverter push button breaker, and I installed 3 - 15A breakers for the other 3 circuits. I also boondock and this way I can turn off everything but the ref if needed.

dalford · 05-30-2020, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Husky10101

So I ended up installing a sub panel for the devices the inverter runs. Not that the inverter push button doesn't protect everything, but if it trips I have no idea what tripped it. So if something does trip it I want to know what tripped. Also if an outlet ground faults or the recliner has a problem and it trips the inverter push button breaker, the Ref also goes dead and if you are not there to fix the issue, all your food will go bad. I discovered that the Ref is on one circuit, the bedroom TV outlet is on one circuit, and the recliner and living room tv outlets are on one circuit. So I installed a main 20A breaker from the inverter. The 20A breaker matches the Inverter push button breaker, and I installed 3 - 15A breakers for the other 3 circuits. I also boondock and this way I can turn off everything but the ref if needed.

Sounds like an excellent mod...

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