3 way fridge - 12v not working - HELP!
Submitted: Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 09:42
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Marko
Hello again,
While you were all in Wandin Marko was finishing off his dual battery system on the 80series. Ran extra ciggy plugs down the back and a big power cable for the fridge. Installed the 90ah GSM battery hooked everything up excellent.
Plugged in the fridge the night before on 240v worked a treat. My plan was to plug it into the 12v all day to see how long the battery would last me. All day and the temp just kept rising. The fridge was 'supposedly' working. Heat coming out of the exhaust flue. My two new 12v fans working, but no cooling to be had. Oh fridge is RC1180.
So with Flinders Trip just 9 sleeps away I would love to have the fridge running on 12v!!! (at night i'll run it on gas but would expect it to cool whilst driving and maybe stopping for lunch etc)
If suggestions are take it to a fridge man - any suggetions around
Melbourne?
Thanks in advance!
Reply By: AT4WD ADVENTURES - Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 10:43
Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 10:43
Hey Marko,
I am not familar with these units but have a basic understanding of how a 3 way works. So here is my two bobs worth.
I would assume that on 240volt and gas the thermostat works and on 12volt it doesn't. Make sure that the selection of 12volt via the appropriate switch is indeed in the right position. Remember that on 12volt the fridge will probably be not that efficent. Remember that these fridges use a heat source to boil a liquid and a 12volt element running off a battery with out charge is not going to last long at all.
You may
well find that the element was warm but not hot enough to bring the liquid to the boil therefore not turning to gas and rising through the fridge tubes and not going through the whole heat exchange process but rather giving the appearance of doing so.
Regards
Stuart M
AnswerID:
99290
Reply By: DeanoNSW - Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 20:40
Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 20:40
Not sure how similar these units are to the Chescold Fridge, but if they are, on 12 volt they will do little more than hold the temp for a few hours.
I have an older Chescold, and we had to run ice blocks in the bottom of the fridge and each night they would freeze on gas. I also ended up shorting out the thermostat so that I had the fridge running flat out all the time.
On 12volt the fridge would do little more than kill the battery and barely hold the temp. From memory it would pull constant 8 amps. (not sure the specs on your fridge. ) It was (and still is) an excellent fridge for sitting in the one place running on gas. I moved to a compressor type fridge because I was sick of pulling the fridge out of the car each day, lighting
the pilot and getting it going. I also got sick of having to store all our food in tuperware containers to stop it from getting wet each day as the ice would melt (only on 12 volt).
Sorry if this is bad news. I hope your fridge is a whole lot better than my old one !
AnswerID:
99372
Follow Up By: Member - David 0- Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 at 11:08
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 at 11:08
Mine pulls 10.5 amps and will flatten the battery in no time. I did use it on 12 V all the way around SA for 5 weeks. I used it as a freezer. I stored all prefozen stuff in it and put a several prefrozen plastic bottles of milk in it. I used an esky for fridge and took prefrozen bottles out of freezer as required. Occassionally need to suplement with block ice. My freezer was on 12 V while engine running and on gas the rest of the time. it never got above -10degC.
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Reply By: muzzimbidgie - Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 20:56
Monday, Feb 21, 2005 at 20:56
One last thing, not mentioned yet, I don't think.
When you switch from 240 or gas to 12v, make sure you reset the thermostat. That is, turn it to OFF and then turn it up to where it was before.
I have been doing this for a while now and it does make a small amount of difference.
Also, on my 3way in the camper, it stopped working on 12v, it turned out to be the switch itself was was not selecting 12v properley (the 3way switch), and I had to have a seperate switch wired in, which is positioned next to the fridge.
As mentioned above, I'll put money on it being the fans.
AnswerID:
99376
Reply By: Marko - Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 at 07:46
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 at 07:46
Greetings,
Well went
home last night and turned the fans upside down. The deep cycle battery which I run it off had full charge so I plugged her in. It had been sitting in the car all day so internally it was 30deg. Within 2hrs the fridge had dropped 10deg. The deep cycle battery still had grunt left in it.
So my problem has been solved!!! A heartfelt thankyou goes out to all within this thread. All I really wanted it to do was hold it's temp, but now it is actually dropping the temp!
I'll do some further tests over the next few days just to see what performance I'll get from it whilst away but I know that I can now leave it in the car for at least 2 hours and it will continue to keep my Boags cold!!! (and isn't that what really matters)
Cheers,
Marko
AnswerID:
99442
Follow Up By: Squizzy - Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 at 14:04
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 at 14:04
Marko,
You should get 2 hours from the battery, I used to get around that when I had a 3 way.
But remember, the battery will be low and will take a while to get back to full voltage, especially if it's a deep cycle.
And what a choice of beer, BOAGS, just love it.
I used to drink it while I worked in Tassie for a while in '99.
Geoff.
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