Anyone who RECENTLY installed a Whirlpool residential model?

[mikestock]

I had an issue where it appears that my newly installed side-by-side Whirlpool doesn't seem to like my MSW inverter. Twice, when running off the inverter I had a burning smell coming from the inside (evaporator) side of the fridge. The fridge was replaced with a new one and the same thing happened again. The cooling in the freezer and refrigerator has not been affected.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the inverter, since it handles the microwave and electronics with no problem. The place that installed it said that they had installed many of these units with a Xantrex Freedom MSW inverter identical to mine. They also said that mine is the second one recently that has had this problem, leading me to believe that Whirlpool may have made a minor circuit modification that can be causing this. I have searched out the source and found a roasted resistor on a small circuit board. The dealer said they found the same problem in the first one.

I have since ordered a Xantrex Freedom SW2012 to replace the MSW and plan to swap out.

The installer is the one most concerned, because he has several installed and is worried that mine is just the tip of the iceberg. He is committed to replacement labor for no cost.

Whirlpool says that they don't recommend residential units in RV's, although, they are well aware that Tiffin, alone, is buying 12 units per day for new installs.

After saying all this, I am looking for anyone else who has recentlyhad a Whirlpool installed and may be experiencing a burn smell, coming from inside the unit. I'm thinking they may have made a minor circuit change that may be causing this.

[hypoxia]

I put a Frigidaire Refrigerator in. The evaporator fan circuitry burned out the first day using the 458 inverter. I replaced the fan and never had another problem. The standard replacement fan didn't have electronics in it to burn out.

[jimj]

Mikestok
I have had the same problems with my Whirlpool side by side. It burned up the circuit board twice. You say yours is working ok but I doubt that it is defrosting. Mine would go for about a week before it would quit cooling because it was iced up.
I put a switch on the defrost cycle to keep it from defrosting while on the road.
I need to replace my Xantrex 458 for a psw model. Would like to find one that would just plug in where the 458 was.

Good luck with yours

JimJ

[Bill_Satellite]

Mandalay Parr wrote:
I would not install a residential unit unless I had full hookups or a generator.

I would get out of RVing if I could not have a residential fridge. We have had the same 21 c.f. GE Profile side by side with ice and water through the door since 1994. It ran fine on a MSW inverter for most of those years but I now have a PSW "just cause I could" and it still runs great. I have not had to defrost it once in those 17 years and the food stays cool (or cold) 24/7 with no possible fire issues and storage an RV fridge could never match.
The wife is happy and that's all that matters!

[John___Angela]

Recently no, but we installed ours about 5 years ago. We had helped a neighbour with theirs before we did ours and we warned them that they should probably not use their 458 as it was modified sine wave. He chose to keep it. As soon as we turned it on it didn't sound right. Ran a cord from my inverter (sinewave) and it sounded fine. He bought a sine wave and I put it in. No problems. Our whirlpool residential has been running off our sine wave inverter for 5 years or so with no problems. Sometimes weeks at a time in inverter mode. Fridge can't tell the difference.

Cheers.

[usersmanual]

Mandalay Parr wrote:
I would not install a residential unit unless I had full hookups or a generator.

your in the minority.I went to one because I wanted more capacity and frost free ice maker area. runs fine off inverter while travelling down the road or taking a break on the side of the road for a day or 2
A bonus was my fridge plug came from factory wired to the inverter so I needed no wiring changes.I use the psw \\\\xantrex 3000 series

[mikestock]

Many people travel regularly as the house batteries are capable of keeping up with the fridge demands. I will not hesitate to run the fridge unrestricted once the PSW inverter is installed.

[Mandalay_Parr]

I would not install a residential unit unless I had full hookups or a generator.

[mikestock]

As said, the installer says that he has lots of units out there running off the Xantrex Freedom 458, which is very common to many motor homes. He is now concerned about his customers like me.

That said. I have ordered a Xantrex Freedom SW 2012 and will replace the 458 when I get through football season. When on the road I will unplug the fridge or use the generator in the mean time.

Whirlpool is sending a replacement board to my dealer for the one that smoked. It is, however, still functioning. Although this dealer sells whirlpool, almost exclusively for RV's he has told me never to mention this to Whirlpool. They (Whirlpool) has to know but they don't acknowledge that there are probably 100 (72 at Tiffin alone) or more per week going into RV's.

The purpose for this thread is to see if I can find others that are seeing the same problem as I am.

[ScottG]

You cant say that just because some other appliance is OK with MSW that another should be.
In truth, almost anything with a motor or that uses the AC for it's frequency attributes is not going to like a MSW inverter.

[Ivylog]

I went with a separate PSW inverter to power my 21 cuft Whirlpool WRT311FZDB for the greater efficiency running a motor... 8 amps at 12V or 96 watts. This summer the duty cycle was closer to 40 percent so two batteries would have been enough to power it... I installed four.

[accsys]

Do NOT use a MSW inverter on Whirlpool reefers. If you have to, use a 1000 watt PSW inverter dedicated to the reefer. In my opinion, it makes more sense to replace the big inverter with a PSW so you never have problems with any of your electronics, now or in the future. We installed a Magnum 2012 to replace the stock Xantrex 458 when we installed our Whirlpool three years ago and have been very happy with it. We also stopped burning up our B&D Infrawave counter top toaster oven (fourth one)!

[usersmanual]

what the inverter experts claim

While a modified sine wave inverter can be used for a number of electronics. A pure sine wave inverter is preferred because the majority of electronic products and appliances that need to be plugged in work well with the standard power you receive from utilities as standard utility electricity is a pure sine wave. These electronic products were designed to work on a pure sine wave! With the increasing sensitivity of modern electronics and the exponential growth in technological advancements, more and more products require a true sine wave in order to operate effectively.