Fridge is trying my patients

JD, just shoot it!! & get an ice box.

This seems awfully strange. Are you running ANY other accessories? I am wondering if something else is running, and maybe pulsing, giving you an error light. Normally the light would only come on if there is not enough voltage. Sometimes, I have seen this, and it can be what is termed a dry joint inside of the female plug socket.

Try this....

Connect your power pack to the battery terminals, with the battery disconnected of course, and quickly see if it works or not. Process of elimination. If it doesn't, then you've got a voltage drop problem inline somewhere.

Wolfie

goodday jd
what sort of plug are you running
in the back of the patrol i have my fridge fed by a 6mm twin wire (red & black inside a sheath)it has a fuse at the battery end and a T plug at the fridge end cut the manufacturers plug off
the T plug is a 32v rated and i have more trouble unpluging due to very tight i have pulled the wires out
i keep finding the cigarette lighter type plugs are just a pita
steve

Hi JD

Suggest you try two things.

1. If you have a blade fuse it may have gone high resistance due to metal incompatibility. This has happened a number of times to me.

2. Make sure the earth on the battery and other connections are correct and not insulated by body paint. This also has embarrassed me.

Three
do NOT use cigarette lighter sockets. Bad Bad Bad

Redeye

we had same sort of problem - found out it that it was the little switch that we could put it on to say how much drainage we wanted from the battery - sorry for the non-intelligent terms! - forgot to change the switch when we put the deap cycle battery in....now she's working good....

hope this helps..

Laura B

G,day JD
As I said to you at the Show & Shine Sunday, that I sometimes have the same problem. I shut the fridge down for a few mins. and re start it and the problem dissapears for some time, but i will be interested to see what comes of this thread. For those that did not hear our coveration Sunday. I have a 60lr Waeco and i have installed a curcuit breaker with 2 merit plugs and 1 Cig lighter plug, it also has a volt meter built in and all showes well there and getting 12-13volts unloaded and 12.5 loaded (with compressor on) but that error light still sometimes comes on????.

JD,

Are you running the earth through the vehicle body, or do you use 2 core cable, as mentioned in one of the other replies? Seems there can be plenty of problems with vehicle earth return.

Merit and Arrid are 2 types of reliable plugs, as well as others made by Hella, and Narva.

Hooroo...

I suspect that you are getting a voltage drop under load at the frig.
The only way to check it is to use a good quality multimeter connected across the frig side of the power plug, usually you can pull the cover off the plug and just watch it as the frig first starts, you will probably find that it dips momentarily.
A normal 12v voltmeter (as fitted in vehicles) won't pick it up usually.

lets start from scratch..
what is make and model?

I have the same problem with my Waeco 50 L The problem is with the plug in to the side of the fridge. If you wiggle it the error light will come on. I have a replacement plug, that I can take apart, so I squeeze the terminals and put it back toether and it is ok for a few months. I have heard of this problem a number of time on this Forum now.

Cheers

Mickey

Why are your patients being tried ? Did they commit crimes ? :))))))))

Chuck it and buy a real good esky.
We survived really well on our 3 1/2 month camping holiday just with an esky and during that time we only had to buy 3 bags of ice. We just lined the top after filling with a good thick newspaper. Every time we were going to go bush for 5-6 days we would ask store managers, caravan park managers even butchers if we could freeze our bottles of salted water and our goods before we took off bush. Never had a knock back. Drysdale River Station was the only place we paid for the service and it was only a couple of dollars to freeze bottles and we bought meat which was already frozen. Then if we still had a day or two swinging we got stuck into the Tin Muck or pasta and jars of sauce. No problems. Only caught enough fish to eat on the day etc.
Everyone is different.

Hi JD
Havent read all of the threads but if its a Waeco then check the socket on the fridge and clean the prongs(?) where the cord plugs into it. They get very dirty and corrosive. Been caught a few times with it and now its a normal part of my maintenance routine. The tiniest speck of dirt will interrupt the 12V supply.

Howard.

Hi, I had a similar problem, would run on the 240v supply but sometimes not on 12v. Problem got worse until it would not run at all. Contacted fridge manufacturer and they knew the problem instantly (over the phone). Their explanation was; Turned out that some years ago (3,4 or 5 years now, have had fridge for long time)," Danfos had a bad batch of motors that had a wiring short problem in the windings. The bad batch could not be identified by serial or batch numbers. Just had to wait and see which went bad." My fridge was fixed free of charge by replacing the motor, electrics and dryer. Electrics and dryer because the latest and greatest motor was supplied and installed.

Not bad service really as I bought the fridge second hand from a private sale. I delivered the fridge to the manufacturer (I was heading that way) and they shipped it back to me free of charge.

So a secondhand fridge was made new again!

Not saying that this is your problem but just maybe...

Good luck

JD, just a note on cabling. Earlier in this thread it was mentioned that someone was using 6mm red and black cables incorporated in a black sheath. This is automotive cabling and the actual 6mm size is more relevant to what size hole the cable will fit through. Typically this cable will actially be around 4mm squared (the correct measurement of the conductors actual cross sectional area - used for 240 volt mains cabling measurements etc)
With my fridge in the back of the car I use an automotive cable where each conductor is close to 16mm squared. Both positive and negative are run back to the battery via a DC circuit breaker. I ran the cables through the chassis rails which simplified the installation.
Cheers Tony, A Grade electrician.

For the 5 amp startup surge, you need really high contact pressure. The pressure for the centre Cig Lighter contact is provided only by the friction on the outside of the Cig Lighter - UNLESS you have the Cig Lighter Socket that has the retaining springs.

These springs are visible inside this socket here.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b356/MikeAus/Auto/PICT2566DCConnectors100k.jpg

If your socket in the Power Supply has these springs but the one in the car doesn't, it could explain your problems.

SOLUTION - DON'T use Cig Lighter Sockets.

Mike