Refrigerator - Montana Owners Club

BandJ · 01-22-2005, 01:59 PM

I am parked in a campground in Florida. I have a 30 AMP hookup. Last night the power to the refrigerator and the gas sensor/alarm went out. I have no power to the refrig or alarm.

I was able to get a RV repair man to come and look at the problem. He said that my battery was dead. I told him it was brand new. Three weeks old. He said that the battery was not being charged when hooked up at the RV site. He said the the invertor was not doing it's job of charging the battery.

He is ordering some part for the invertor????? In the mean time he connected my dead battery to a battery charger and I have the refrigerator and alarm back.

Has this happen to anyone out there........????

lightningjack11 · 01-22-2005, 02:12 PM

I have had some weird problems but not exactly like that.

It depends how your wired. On my converter I have three DC outputs that come directly from the battery. If the battery charger is working alright then everything should be ok.

Put a voltmeter accross the battery and you should get about 13.5 volts when charging.

What happened to me was similar. My heater stopped in the middle of the night because the fan was hooked up to one of the battery slots on the converter. It draws a lot of current and the charger will never keep up with it so the battery will die.

So I re-wired my heater fan to a regular converter output and have never again had a problem.

Those three battery positions in the converter are when filterd dc is required.

Montana_35 · 01-23-2005, 11:38 AM

Better check out the service guy if he said the INVERTER was at fault...it is the CONVERTER that charges the battery.

paparonsr · 01-23-2005, 02:40 PM

I know this is a stupid question, but please tell me the difference in the "inverter" and "converter". Thanks a bunch.

Mrs. Paparonsr

ols1932 · 01-23-2005, 03:21 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by paparonsr

I know this is a stupid question, but please tell me the difference in the "inverter" and "converter". Thanks a bunch.

Mrs. Paparonsr

No question is stupid. They are all real to most of us. A converter takes ac voltage from whatever ac source (park voltage panel) and "converts" it to dc voltage for your 12 volt dc circuits as well as trickle charges your RV batteries. An inverter takes 12 volt dc voltage and "inverts" or changes it to an ac voltage for use by your RVs appliances. That's how a lot of RVers are able to "dry camp." They can park anywhere allowed with out being connected to an AC panel. They make their own ac. Most of these RVers have solar panels with which to charge their batteries, from which the inverter gets its input dc voltage to change to ac.

Hope this isn't too hard to understand.

paparonsr · 01-23-2005, 03:56 PM

Thank you very much for you quick response. Yes, I do understand the explanation and it makes me understand the system much better--just never did know the difference in "converting" the power and "inverting" the power---thought it was all the same. Thanks again.

Mrs. Paparonsr

sreigle · 01-24-2005, 08:59 AM

BandJ, your fridge doesn't run on 12v, it runs on 110v when on shore power. The battery should not even be involved. Our refrigerator is on the GFCI circuit. That circuit also services the bathroom vanity area and possibly the kitchen outlets and patio outlet, depending on the model. On the outlet by the bathroom sink there should be a small button, probably between the two outlets. That's a circuit breaker for the GFCI circuit. Check to see if it's popped out. Some models have another of these on an outlet in the kitchen (ours doesn't) so check there, too. Also, have you checked the breaker panel on the converter?

If none of the above, if your refrigerator is in a slide, check the connections under the slide. Somewhere there the electrical harness plugs into the harness for the slide. It may be in a junction box so you may have to remove a cover. It will be a small metal box most likely. You might have to remove a screw or two to see in the box. Last, and least likely, the fridge is plugged into an ordinary outlet that's accessible by removing the cover on the outside of your Montana. It's directly behind the fridge. Usually there's an extra outlet there you could use for something else, too, if you want. At least ours has a double outlet there.

It is possible your battery is bad if the converter really isn't keeping it charged but I'd be surprised if that had anything to do with the fridge electrical problem.

If you're still having problems after all the posts, let us know and we'll see if we can come up with anything else to check.

sreigle · 01-24-2005, 09:02 AM

Well, I just re-read your post, BandJ, and you say with the charger on the battery your fridge and alarm are back. So, I'm stumped.

Jeff Heiser · 01-24-2005, 09:44 AM

Food for thought...I have a 2005 327RKS. Over the weekend I was doing some maintenance on it and I had the battery disconnected and out of the unit. I was plugged into shore power and my refrig continued working with no problem. I know this because we kept food and drinks in it to keep them cold. The gas was not on and the light indicating the refrig was working was on. I would be surprised if it was the battery but stranger things have happened. Now you have my two cents.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

Montana_2785 · 01-24-2005, 11:48 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

BandJ, your fridge doesn't run on 12v, it runs on 110v when on shore power. The battery should not even be involved.

Steve, Actually, you are using 12V and 110V at the same time.

The control boards are 12V. They will only use 12V. An RV is ALWAYS supposed to have 12V available. It is the 110V that is designed to be part time.

The heat source for the boiler can be either flame or 110V heater element.

So, even if you are plugged in and have 110V available, if your converter konks out and the battery runs dry, you will not have an active 'fridge.

Eric

Montana_657 · 01-24-2005, 02:38 PM

By the way... Magnatek says 13.8 volts is nominal across a fully charged battery... not 13.5

sreigle · 01-24-2005, 05:11 PM

Eric, you are correct. I forgot all about the control board being 12v.

Virgil, good to see you back and posting again! It's been a long time.

BandJ · 01-29-2005, 01:31 AM

My mistake. I ment to say Converter, not inverter....

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions which were considered. It appears that the wiring board was fried. The guess is that a power surge or something. Not sure what fried the board...

A new Converter was installed and all is working....

Montana_2785 · 01-29-2005, 06:40 AM

I once had the alternator on a TV go open field with the result that I had an unregulated alternator feeding 17+ volts to everything in the TV and RV. I had a few dash lights burn out and had damage to the control board in the 'fridge.

However, if that had been your problem, you would have noticed...

Eric

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