Climate Control Switch ?
I noticed yesterday on the 5er I just bought while I had the fridge door open that there is a climate control black switch in the top right hand corner of the door frame, any idea what its for ? Right now it is off
Forum Discussion
MainerBob wrote:
Larry:
I always assumed the truck was charging the house batteries as we went down the road so why should he turn off the heater while towing? Just how much charging does go on?
Bob
The typical 12 gauge wire used in the wiring harness is only good for about 5 amps assuming maybe 40 ft from the alternator to the 7 pin plug and back to chassis ground. Then with contact resistance at the plug and maybe another 15-20 ft of trailer wiring to the battery, you may be lucky to get a few amps to charge the trailer battery. Which is fine for maintaining a fully charged battery plus a few hundred milliamps for things like the frig. control board, stereo clock, smoke and gas detectors, etc. I don't know for sure what the Climate Control heater cable draws, but somewhere around 1 to 1.5 amps.MainerBob wrote:
Larry:
I always assumed the truck was charging the house batteries as we went down the road so why should he turn off the heater while towing? Just how much charging does go on?
Bob
The 'draw' on batteries can easily be higher than the 'charge' rate of tow vehicle system.
The problem is in the size of charge wire from tow vehicle to trailer.
Usually not much more than maintaining current state of charge will occur.- Larry:
I always assumed the truck was charging the house batteries as we went down the road so why should he turn off the heater while towing? Just how much charging does go on?
Bob - Just be careful and keep the switch off while towing and/or dry camped, it will drain the battery very quickly. On some models the heater will still draw 12v power even if the frig. is turned off. Quick way to a dead battery with zero benefit.
VoodooMedicineMan wrote:
I believe its a switch for a heater to keep the fridge from sweating around the door seal in humid climates
This is correct. If you are not on shore power be sure to turn the switch off as it will drain the batteries a surprising amount.- Thanks guys we were humid this weekend and I did have sweat there I will try that this coming weekend
- Agree with VoodooMedicineMan, I had a 1992 RoadRanger 5er with a Dometic Fridge that had a switch to turn the door frame heater on and off to stop the sweating.
- I believe its a switch for a heater to keep the fridge from sweating around the door seal in humid climates
