2015 Northstar Liberty inverter or refrigerator issues

OK, firstly, be aware that there are two separate "things" people confuse often because they are spelled similarly: "inverter" and "converter." And it is critical you know the difference.

Every rig has a "converter." It's function is to take 120 volt shore power and make 12 volt DC power for the lights, recharge the battery, etc. It also distributes 120 volt power to the AC, microwave, and 120 v outlets inside and outside the rig.

An "inverter" takes 12 volt DC power from the battery and turns it into 120 volt AC power. There may or may not be one on your rig, in fact, probably there isn't one. But there could be.

This is important, because if you power the same outlet with both a converter and an inverter, the latter will explode in flames. Really. And if you ask for help on one but mean the other, the answers will be useless.

If your GFCI breaker pops every time you plug in, the most likely cause is that the outlet into which you are plugging your RV is wired improperly. The hot and neutral wires are switched. Amazingly, this happens a lot. For reasons nobody knows, the guys who wire houses are very lazy about making sure those connections are right. And the problem could be at the outlet, or it could be at the main breaker box in the house. If the box is backwards, and the outlets are right, every outlet will be backwards. Isn't that hilarious?

It is also possible that the GFCI in the RV is wired backwards.

The test is simple, but does require a VOM, a volt-ohm meter. While there are fancy/expensive ones, there are also cheap ones (like, $10) that will do what you need to do: find out which wire is hot, which neutral. There are also very simple "circuit testers" that you simply plug into the socket, and the display of lights on the tester will tell you whether it is wire right. You would be well served buying one and using it on your house, as well as on your rig, and absolutely on the hookups at campgrounds before you plug in. You'd be astonished how many of THOSE get wired backwards for exactly the same reason houses get wired backwards.

Excellent response above.

Please clarify which GFI is tripping, the one in the house circuit or the one actually in the camper.

Typically the microwave, the hot water heater, the fridg, and possibly the converter will have a three prong AC connector plugged into the camper AC system and or have individual circuit breakers. You could try unplugging each or turning off the AC main breaker in the camper and see what happens and go from there turning each breaker on one at a time.

There is no GFCI on refrigerator circuit in the camper, so I assume the issue is GFCI on the house, where the cord is plug in?
If the camper is powered fine with refrigerator off and trips GFCI when you start the fridge, it is clear indicator that the fridge has small AC leak and GFCI is protecting you from being "link in AC leak".
I would pull the panel on the back and plug the fridge directly to the cord to confirm, but full testing would be a case for good electrician.
Still what you can do is check for wires on fridge rubbing against the frame and other suspicious elements.
Garage circuits in CA should be GFCI as well. No harm plugging into 20 or 15 amps as camper has its own breakers.

The electric heating element on the fridge may be faulty. Locate the two wires that go from the circuit board to the heating element in the stack. They may be damaged right where they go into the stack.

Odds are you will need new heating element.

Moved to Tech Issues Forum.

Wayne
Moderator

Kayteg1 wrote:
There is no GFCI on refrigerator circuit in the camper, so I assume the issue is GFCI on the house, where the cord is plug in?
If the camper is powered fine with refrigerator off and trips GFCI when you start the fridge, it is clear indicator that the fridge has small AC leak and GFCI is protecting you from being "link in AC leak".
I would pull the panel on the back and plug the fridge directly to the cord to confirm, but full testing would be a case for good electrician.
Still what you can do is check for wires on fridge rubbing against the frame and other suspicious elements.
Garage circuits in CA should be GFCI as well. No harm plugging into 20 or 15 amps as camper has its own breakers.

"There is no GFCI on refrigerator circuit in the camper, so I assume the issue is GFCI on the house, where the cord is plug in?"

HOW to you know this? Lots of RV's have the refer connected to a GFCI outlet/breaker. If he determines the GFCI (where ever it is) ONLY trips when he starts the refer on 120, the odds are the Refer 120 element is defective. NOT to shock or electrocute you, but has a imbalance between the White(neutral) and Hot(Black). THAT is what a GFCI senses and trips for. There is NO ground circuit on the refer 120 Heat element. Doug

Your Liberty does NOT have a Inverter. It has a CONVERTER. Doug

Tell us EXACTLY where the GFCI you are referring to is located. Is it in the garage or in the camper? After knowing this we can advise you on diagnostics.

"My issue is whenever plugged into shore power and starting the reefer, the gfci pops and all power is shut down"

You make it sound like you have a 120 volt refrigerator. The freon type, with motor and compressor.

My advice is to go back to the top and point by point either determine if an error exists and if it does, go to the next point. Gas refrigerators do not cause a ground fault UNLESS something in the 120 vac has gone wacky. Like the heating element.

TRY plugging in with the AC plug on the refrigerator yanked. Does the GCFI trip? Then plug the refrigerator in. Did it pop the GCFI?

Usually the fridge 120v plugs into a receptacle at the back of the fridge near the outside of the rig which you get at by removing the outside vent cover. This is below the fridge vent cover on the roof.

Water into the receptacle there can cause a GFCI to pop, but usually water doesn't get there. That receptacle the fridge is plugged into might be part of a receptacle string that includes an "outside" receptacle, which is more likely to get wet.

You can unplug the fridge 120v at the back and use a separate long 120v extension cord to a stick house GFCI receptacle like the bathroom's and see if the bathroom GFCI pops when the fridge 120v is turned on. Yes? Now use the same bathroom GFCI to plug the rig shore power cord into using that same extension cord but with the fridge unplugged from its rig receptacle. No pop? Ok the fridge is guilty.