Fuse Panel Basics

[pbahlin]

I had my first encounter with the Iota fuse panel and learned something that might be useful to others.....

Each fuse has a little red LED light associated with it to indicate which fuse is blown. Nice feature, right? Well the thing I learned is that the lights only 'indicate' if the circuit that is blown is showing a load to the panel.

So here's what can happen to you (it happened to me). Let's say you throw a switch somewhere and you get nothing. So you shut of the switch and go to the panel to search out a blown fuse. No lights will be lit! By prudently shutting off the switch that didn't work, you took the load off the circuit. No load equals no light.

What you need to do is either leave the switch on before going to the panel or have the spouse play with the switch while you watch the panel. I recommend the latter just to be prudent.

If you already knew this you can make fun of me. I didn't know and pulled a whole lot of fuses to find the bad one. ]

If you didn't know this, PM me with a donation for my diesel fund.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, read my recent post on 'Slide Out Failure'. You might be surprised at what fuse runs what device. Don't assume anything about your wiring. You'll be embarassed.

[awaywego]

Paul,
Thanks for the good info.
Here is another thing I found the hard way. We recently came home from a trip. I pulled the trailer in and shut off the breaker to the water heater and plugged the unit in to keep batteries charged. When I was preparing for another trip I turned the refrig. on and nothing happened so I started checking fuses inside and in back of the refrig. Half hour later I was checking the wiring and found the hot goes to the recep for the refrig and comes out of there and goes to the water heater as well as up toward the ceiling above the refrig. I have not checked that one out yet. Now I will need a sw. for the water heater inside so I won't need to open the door on the heater to cut that sw off.
So if you have a problem with the water heater and it trips the breaker you will have the refrig on gas and wonder why.
They must have wired our units on the same day of the week.

[pbahlin]

Wayne:

Good tip on the Hot Water Heater/Fridge connection. We're all used to stick house wiring where two major appliances like that would be on separate breakers. Our rigs don't necessarily follow those rules.

[scductman]

Paul that same thing cost me 125.00 for a rv tech to come to my house and ck my refrig when I replaced the colling unit. it would not come on so I cked the fuses and all good but when he cked with the fridge on it lite up. I like to lost my composure when he laughed and said its a fuse that will be 125 dollars ##%&)(*^$#@. just another day in paradice LOL.
Bobby

[pbahlin]

Bobby:

I feel for you. I've fixed so many things on my rig that it makes me wonder how people do this if they don't have a lot of repair skills. It would cost a fortune to keep this thing running if I was calling service techs all the time.

Each tow over bad roads is like a shakedown cruise. We set up camp like two detectives looking for crime scene clues. Yeah that's it .... RSI. It could be a new reality show. When you get to a new camp you ring your site with that bright yellow tape ... "Repair Scene - No Entry". Then nobody gets in or out until you've got your latest round of repairs all investigated and fixed. I could get one of those rotating blue lights from Kmart on my roof. The wife could follow me down the road with the Special Investigative Unit van. Hmmmmm......

Maybe if the van was big enough I could put my Can Am Spyder in there....

[BB_TX]

That little red LED is itself a light and needs a path to ground to illuminate. And that path it thru the load. The LED is wired in parallel to the fuse. If the fuse is good, then no current flows thru the LED since it essentially has a hot connection to both sides of it. When the fuse blows, then one side is hot and the other side is now grounded thru the load.

As for wiring, when we first got our Monte the fridge worked sporatically. Turned out it was wired from the ceiling fan switch. If the ceiling fan was on, the fridge would work on AC. If the fan was off, the fridge would operate only on gas. Since it was in the heat of summer and the ceiling fan was usually on, the fridge usually worked on AC. Took a while to figure that one out.

[berridge]

The 12V supply to my fridge also powers the light above the sink! I have no idea what else is powered by this line. I think each person doing the wiring has his/her own way of doing things. Probably this is why no circuit diagrams are provided- too many variations.

[CamillaMichael]

Thanks for the info....