Never Off Refrigerator

[JackInAZ]

Just purchased a new RV (our 13th one), a Bounder 33C. It has a Samsung residential refrigerator, model RF197 ACRS. It has a lot of bells and whistles, but what it doesn't have is an off button, for when I want to temporarily store the RF without food but with other things still working, which would not be possible if I have to use the battery cut-off switches as Samsung suggests. Their other suggestion is to never take food out of the fridge and leave it on all the time, which is just as ridiculous as building a refrigerator without an off switch.

The refrigerator is run through a 2000 W inverter when not on shore power. I could, of course, turn off the inverter, but the fridge would then continue to run until it depleted the batteries, not a desirable outcome.

Anyone suggest a work-around to this engineering marvel?

[DSDP_Don]

Yeah....I figured from your responses....you were at least new to electricity!!!!

[2oldman]

ScottG wrote:
LOL, I think a little coffee went through my nose on that one.

🙂

[ScottG]

2oldman wrote:
Yeah thank's. I'm kinda new at this.

LOL, I think a little coffee went through my nose on that one.

[2oldman]

DSDP Don wrote:
"2oldman" read up on how inverter's work.....most inverter's in new coaches are hardwired in.

Yeah thank's. I'm kinda new at this.

[Tvov]

lol, I just went to see if my home's refrig can be shut off... It can, sort of. Freezer control just goes down to minimum, control in main refrig goes down to "0", which I would assume is "off".

Also... to the original poster - 13 RVs? Everyone does everything differently, but... how long do you keep an RV? Just curious.

[dougrainer]

1. Most residential refers that have electronic controls CAN be turned OFF. BUT, some, you turn the complete refer OFF including the interior light control. Some you can turn the COOLING section OFF but this will leave the interior lights active when the doors are opened.
2. The REASON there are no real ON/OFF buttons are because unlike older mechanical controlled refers, if there is a power interruption, you WANT the refer to come back on at the preset control level. NOT have to be turned on again.
3. Unlike the Samsung, the other residential refers in some of the RV's you CAN turn them off. You must read the instruction manual and it will show how to push a combination of buttons or 1 button for a preset time to turn the refer completely OFF. Doug

[DSDP_Don]

"msmith1199".....I did the same thing as "CA Traveler", but for a different reason, because my coach had outlets that were not on the inverter.

On my previous coach, I added two additional outlets. I ran Romex from the power cord bay through pvc conduit to the bathroom and then over to the living room. I added a junction box in the power cord bay containing the Romex and a 20' 20 amp power cord. Whenever we camped at 30 amp campgrounds, I plugged the 20 amp power cord into the 20 amp plug in the shore power box. The 30 amp and 20 amp inside the box are typically on two different circuits. This effectively gave me 50 amps. When at 30 amp campgrounds, my wife knew to plug into the added outlet when using her blow dryer. At night we connected our electric heater to the 20 amp outlet and another heater in the bedroom to a non inverted outlet. So one heater was on the 30 amp side and the other was on the 20 amp side.

[CA_Traveler]

msmith1199 wrote:

DSDP Don wrote:
"2oldman" read up on how inverter's work.....most inverter's in new coaches are hardwired in. Even when off, power is bypassed through them. This is also a reason that you should never plug electric heaters into outlets powered by inverters when connected to shore power. It's hard on the by pass system.

All of my outlets (with the exception of the refer outlet) get power from the Inverter when not on shore power. I have electric heaters and have no choice but to plug them into outlets powered through the inverter.

I have plugs in the bedroom that don't go through the inverter so that was one choice for me but the plug locations were not convenient.

The second option was to add a new 20A circuit for the heaters. In that circuit I added a male/female plug in a locker so that I could plug that circuit into a outside pedestal when we had 30A power.

Anything that draws a lot of power created heat, pitted contacts, etc and inverter repairs can be expensive which was one reason I added the additional circuit.

[msmith1199]

DSDP Don wrote:
"2oldman" read up on how inverter's work.....most inverter's in new coaches are hardwired in. Even when off, power is bypassed through them. This is also a reason that you should never plug electric heaters into outlets powered by inverters when connected to shore power. It's hard on the by pass system.

All of my outlets (with the exception of the refer outlet) get power from the Inverter when not on shore power. I have electric heaters and have no choice but to plug them into outlets powered through the inverter.

[Executive45]

AllegroD wrote:

BINGO!!!

Less than $20 !.....Dennis

[DSDP_Don]

"2oldman" read up on how inverter's work.....most inverter's in new coaches are hardwired in. Even when off, power is bypassed through them. This is also a reason that you should never plug electric heaters into outlets powered by inverters when connected to shore power. It's hard on the by pass system.

[AllegroD]

[MrWizard]

our fridge {not samsung} has ONE knob, the temp control
all the way to ZERO, you hear a click and the fridge is off

turn off the inverter, the fridge will be OFF , unless you are on shore power
if you have shore power..why worry about off on

you can also turn off the circuit breaker that powers the inverter circuit,
that way NO power..even on shore power

of course inverter off means no TV etc..

just unplug the fridge or install a switch to that outlet

[2oldman]

DSDP Don wrote:
If you have power 24/7 while stored, just leave it on.

He doesn't.

DSDP Don wrote:
You can't just turn off the inverter. The inverter has an A/C bypass built in. Even with it off, the refer will still get A/C if the coach is plugged in.

He can't turn THAT off either?