Fisherguy
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Joined 22 years ago
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Norcold 10DC door tabs breaking off
Has anyone else had the little tabs break off on the doors that hold the trays onto the door? The previous owner put this fridge in, I don't think he took the trailer into places like we do. On our second trip with it we had the tray on the 2nd position to fit bottled water and it broke off after about 60 kms of logging road. The third trip we had the tray in the top position with 6 cans of pop/beer in it and it broke again this time on 15 kms of gravel. Pretty frustrating these things are built to hold what fits into them. I wasn't driving fast, no more than 30 or 40 KPH. If you had this problem what did you do about it? (I had Ssimilar problem with the Norcold 2 way fridge in our old trailer but in that case it was the tabs for the bottom tray. I think I used Gorilla glue that time, never fell off again but was unable to remove the tray for cleaning after that)474Views0likes3CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
StirCrazy wrote: ya renogy, victron there all made in china now. I know several people with renogy onely one person had an issue and he was treated good. remember on the internet you only hear about the bad, happy people don't complain haha.. I will not buy Victron as I think they are very over priced for what you get. there are a few companies making componants that fit togeather but I think for a simple rv setup a lot of that is a waist of space and overkill. if you look at quality vs cost, I would probably put renogy at the top of the list. if your looking at just quality then there is victron and a nother one I cant remember off the top of my head but for cost vs quality I would put victron way down the list. plus victron is usaly big and bulky. you also have to look at what stuff is designed for, victron is designed for whole home type setups where you usaly have lots of space and they can make things larger because it has to run 365 days a year 24/7. for rv use how often are we realy running our inverters if we are not full timing it. not very often. In my 40 foot 5th wheel I use it maybe 1/2 to 1 hour a day and I shut it off when not using it so it isn't drawing a standby power so over the course of a year say maybe 40 to 60 hours of use which I think is a fair bit for the average camper.. but you compare this to some one who full times and has a victron which is used up to 61320 hours a year in the extream fulltime off grid user. so ya if I was full timing on solar I would probably consider making the space and paying the extra money (over 1600 bucks by the time it would get to me from amazon) but I don't so the 360 buck renogy will work just fine, and if I have to replace it two more times it will still be cheeper than the victron. My renogy mppt solar controler has been working great for 3 years now in my camper. I think they are better quality that the OLD go power (when they were high quality and based in victoria, bc. when they sold it is rumored the quality went down) now peopla are probably going to start posting saying your crazy victron isn't bad.. no they are not, they are very good, I just don't think for camping we need to pay that inflated price for the small bit of extra quality. if you have money to burn by all means get the victron if not, renogy has turned out to be a deicent option. If I am building a solar powered off grid cabin in the mountians then ya I'm installing victron as it has to run 365 days a year, if the go power inverter dies in my 5th wheel, guess I have to use the percolater instead of the kurieg, or cook my popcorn on the stove instead of in the microwave...the only thing from victron I would spen the money on for my rv is the smart shunt, that wants realy out yet when I bought the stuff for my camper and the renogy bluethooth ap does pretty much the same thing well not quite I guess.. it is a little over priced but its cheep enough it is worth it and gives you a cleaner instalation if you don't mind looking at your power stuff on your phone. PD9180ALV Yes some people seem to have lotsa money to pour into the RV's electrical systems. You go to the FB groups and in most cases everything is from Victron with 1000 Ah or more worth of Lithium batteries. (The trailer we just bought has 3 - 100Ah Relion batteries, was thinking of adding a 4th but they're over $2100 Cdn!) We use our inverter probly 4-5 hours a day when we're camping but we only use our RV at most 8-10 weeks a year so I hear what you're saying. Ya the Smart Shunt would be handy, might get the GX-50 too just so I'm not depending on my phone to monitor the battery when we're camping, or maybe the 712 display. Have a Trimetric in the old trailer. Thx Will1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
StirCrazy wrote: personaly I stay away with "all in one" setups. only because if somthing brakes your replacing the whole thing so its a big price tag. also they are usaly bigger than just an inverter or converter so you have to find a place they fit in some situations and run new wiring. so just looking at amazon (can probably find better pricing through dealers, but who knows) anyways that is 500. you can also get a 2000watt renogy pure sign wave inverter for 360. so if you bought thoes from amazon you at just over 1/2 the price, and if something ***** out down the road it is cheeper to replace. I use renogy for my solar controler and I love it.. a good north american company thats putting out a decient product. I have my 2000 watt inverter wired directly to my power center so when I am dry camping and turn on the inverter it can power the whole 5th wheel, but if you do that you need to put the converter on a breaker if it isnt already so it can be shut off when you don't have power. I do mine throught the auto transfer switch so I don't have to worry about that step. Steve Hi Steve, So you're saying the PD9180ALV lithium converter is $500 on Amazon? I couldn't find it on there. I asked about Renogy in a FB group and heard mostly negative comments. They rebrand a lot of their products with China built stuff they say, spend more on marketing and advertising than product development etc. Have also heard their customer support is terrible but I have no first hand experience myself. I've heard nothing but good things about Victron, they seem to be the latest craze no matter where you look, all bluetooth compatible etc etc but when we boondock I really don't want to be tied to my phone to see what's going on. The trailer we bought came with a Renogy 40amp DC to DC converter that I also need to look into and wire up my truck etc. On our old trailer I used a PD9280 and a Xantrex inverter wired through an Iota transfer switch to the power center so I could do that again in the new one.> Hmmmmm.....? :h :h Thx Will1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
waexplorer wrote: Make sure you check the actual watts on Victron Multiplus inverter. They list a 2000 and a 3000. The 3000 is 3000VA which is not 3000 watts but 2400 watt inverter. I think (not sure) the 2000VA is 1600 watt. So double check the specs on Victron's site. Yes good point, but we've managed fine with our little 600 watt Xantrex for over 10 years so 1600 would be fine for us. Thx1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
StirCrazy wrote: did they offer a deicent price. personaly if it was me there wouldn't be a WFCO in there as soon as I bought it but thats just cuz every trailer I have had that has had one has failed in the first year, some times killing batteries some times not. so the last two I have bought new part of the sale was they swap in a PD converter and havn't had an issue. that way you can also get the exact model you want and just replace the converter section of the panel. Interesting you asay that. I put the PD9280 up close to the batteries in the old trailer and kept the WFCO in place as a back up which now does nothing when I turn the breaker on. Price was $54 shipped here (near Wms Lake) Right now I'm trying to decide between the newer PD9180ALV lithium converter paired with a small inverter or a Victon all in one job with 2000 watt inverter and a 80 amp charger ($1550 Cdn on Amazon) Whats your thoughts? (We only have a 600 watt inverter in the old trailer) Thx1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
waexplorer wrote: I suppose now it's up to you to decide your best solution. If you want a converter go with Progressive Dynamics. If you want charger/converter/inverter go with Victron. The choice is yours. At this point with your current charger your lithiums are charging to about 80% with non lithium charger. Of course MY opinions are worth what you paid for them. ;) Thanks for the help. I put a PD 9280 in our old trailer and if I go that route it would be the PD 9180 ALV. Victron Smart Shunt is on my list for sure and on the fence weather to go separate charger and inverter or an 'all in one' Victron. The PD and a smaller inverter would be cheaper.1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
waexplorer wrote: Ok Fisherguy, from an earlier post I saw you have volt/amp guage. If you can run your batteries down 30-50% SOC then you can monitor recharge amps and volts. IF your charger is charging at 14.4-14.6 volts with 50-60 amps, more than likely that's a lithium profile. IF your readings are more like 13.6-13.8 with lower amps, that's a FLA curve. Some Flooded curves will start over 14 volts and drop after an hour or so. Lithium will hold over 14 volts for as long as it takes to recover SOC. Depending on how many amp hours it needs to put back in the batteries. Most lithium battery makers use prismatic cells @3.2 volts. 3.2x4=12.8 volts. MAX charge per cell is 3.65 and 3.65x4=14.6. Lithium charge curves stay flat for most of the charge cycly then ramp up voltage sharply at the end. This is not charging voltage, this is state of charge voltage. The BMS is should be a 50 or 100 amp which is what charge/discharge current you can run through it. I wouldn't replace anything until you have an idea of your WFCO charge curves/amps etc. Run through a few charge/discharge cycles and see if you actually need more than what's there. And you can also do this using the Honda generator as well. Also as the batteries get closer to 100% SOC the charging amps will drop. Aso, the batteries BMS will stop the charge cycle when the batteries are full and cell balancing will begin. Lithium battery cells don't like too much variation between cells. Thanks. Plugged it in with batteries at 46%, got 27.5 amps at 13.6 volts. I've since heard back from WFCO who told me the previous owner didn't install the 12V circuit board that has the 'lithium switch' on it so I won't get 14.6V. They offered to sell me the DC board.462Views0likes0CommentsRe: Are the new WFCO's as bad as the old ones?
theoldwizard1 wrote: Buy a GOOD quality inverter/charger/automatic transfer switch. Remove the converter and wire the DC fuse panel directly to the house battery bank (using a large fuse close the the battery bank). Wire the shore power cable directly to the inlet of the inverter. Wire the outlet of the inverter to your AC breaker panel. DONE ! Ya I'm looking into them. We only have a 600 watt inverter in our old trailer for TV sat dish etc and it's worked well. It seems the "all in ones" have 2000 watts as a minimum on the inverter side and only have about 1 amp no-load draw so that's not too bad. Can you adjust the charging rate of the Victrons? Last thing I'd want is to put one in that was more than our Honda 2000 genny can power.462Views0likes0Comments
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