Refrigerator Settings

Dennis_W wrote:
Sorry I didn't explain that very well. Neither fridge seems working with the camper plugged into a normal house outlet. The camper has a 30amp cord that I have an adapter so it can be plugged into a standard outlet. Is that enough power to run them?

I do the same thing. Plenty of power to cool down the fridge. I even run the AC fan (not the ac itself, but just the fan) for air circulation.

You said its new, im sure you've checked to make sure the outside fridge is plugged in and that no breakers are blown. The way these things are built, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they didn't plug in the fridge.

wa8yxm wrote:

Now.. If you have any kind of extension cord between the "Hole in the wall" (Wall outlet) and the RV.... Extension cords come in assorted sizes

12GA. up to 100 foot, but half that is better,, Should be OK.

14GA 100 foot you will loose too much voltage in "Transit" 50 foot is iffy 25 foot should be OK
16 Ga,, forget it,, Don't even try

I suspect this is the problem,, Too much wire between RV and house, not big enough.

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Use a 3-light tester on the outlets (you really should have one) to make sure they have power.. A NEON night light (Little reddish bulb if you look at the bulb you see two wires, no filiment, it glows) will go out if voltage drops too low, that said, the standard NE-2 lamp fires at 90 volts PEAK.. that's around 65-70 RMS.. which is very very low.. but if the voltage drops you should notice it (Dimms)

5A through a 16 gauge wire 100 feet long (and back) results in about a 4V drop. While more than ideal, it shouldn't be enough to keep the fridges from running at all--particularly the RV fridge, which is just a heating element. The voltage drop does of course go up with power consumption. There would be a moderate voltage dip when the dorm fridge is starting, but it should still start and run without trouble. I suspect the extension cord is not a problem in this particular case.

I am assuming the converter would be loafing along since this RV has apparently been plugged in for awhile.

Open the big inside fridge door - did the light come on ? If yes, you have power. These absorption fridges take about 24 hours to cool down.

Also, they need 12 volt power. You may need to have the battery installed and the master cutoff switch set to 'On'.

The small outside fridge is probably a commercial Dorm fridge that runs on 120V power.

I would test them one at a time.

There are two possible issues. A Dorm type fridge is likely about 100 watts running and around 500 starting.. Note the starting power, that's the kicker, may even be more.. I know a 450 watt inverter won't kick start 'em.

The RV fridge 300-400 watts Running, and for that matter "Starting"

Note that the RV fridge DOES need battery power, and the converter is going to suck some power as well,, If the batteries are full up less than 100 watts. if they are "Hungry" Sizes vary but mine sucks a thousand.

Now.. If you have any kind of extension cord between the "Hole in the wall" (Wall outlet) and the RV.... Extension cords come in assorted sizes

12GA. up to 100 foot, but half that is better,, Should be OK.

14GA 100 foot you will loose too much voltage in "Transit" 50 foot is iffy 25 foot should be OK
16 Ga,, forget it,, Don't even try

I suspect this is the problem,, Too much wire between RV and house, not big enough.

Page 2.....

Use a 3-light tester on the outlets (you really should have one) to make sure they have power.. A NEON night light (Little reddish bulb if you look at the bulb you see two wires, no filiment, it glows) will go out if voltage drops too low, that said, the standard NE-2 lamp fires at 90 volts PEAK.. that's around 65-70 RMS.. which is very very low.. but if the voltage drops you should notice it (Dimms)

Are your batteries good? Even though you are plugged into 110, they both still need battery power for their controls. If no DC they won't work. It will also take them a long time to cool down - 24 hrs. Freezer gets cold first, then frig part.

Yes, 30A is enough to run 2 RV fridges (based on every RV fridge I've ever seen).

An interesting thing that we have found about the one in RVs might apply in your case from looking at the weather. As the thermostat for cooling is located inside the refrigerator, if the temperature is below about 30 degrees, it will not run and cool the freezer. Just the way it is. If your current temps are below, just turn the heat on inside the RV, leave the refrig door open until it warms up. Then it will probably run OK. To get ours going this year with the temps down around 30 or so, I actually left the door open, and let my electric heater blow into the fridge for a while. Inside temp got up to 50, freezer was beginning to cool OK, so I turned off heater and shut the door. It was back down to about 35 shortly and freezer was below zero.

I would bet that a gfi is tripped, and neither outlet is getting power.
For a 30 amp rig it will usually (but not always)be in the bathroom.
A 20 amp household outlet should run both easily.

The inside fridge will be totally automatic although you can manually force it to run off propane or electric and a 15 amp outlet isn't even closed to being taxed by both of the fridges running.

Not sure, but does the inside fridge have a switch to tell it what "fuel" to use? I have an old slide in camper with a Dometic fridge in it. It is a 3 way fridge (12 vlt, propane, 120vlt). I have to manually turn a knob to select which one it will run on...Just a thought.

Also, Something that I had read in one of the camping forums, If you have a Thermometer with a remote sensor...Example below.

typical thermometer with sensor...there are others to choose from.

you can put the sensor in the fridge and have the readout portion in the truck (or house).

Just another suggestion...use at your discretion.