Community Forums

dshogman · 03-27-2007, 03:58 PM

My new coach (2005MDTS) which used to be Sully's is at the dealers and they're going through some items found during the intial walk through a week ago. Sully had warned me to be sure that they had fixed the refer that had been wired to run through the inverter when the AC was off and had burned up a couple of inverters for him.
Guaranty checked with Mike Grazier (I think that's the name) at WRV and were told that that is the way it is supposed to be wired.
So what say you all? Guaranty is trying to make me happy and will probably fix it as I want it, but I'm interested in what this esteemed group has to say.

Thanks in advance.

dshogman · 03-27-2007, 03:58 PM

My new coach (2005MDTS) which used to be Sully's is at the dealers and they're going through some items found during the intial walk through a week ago. Sully had warned me to be sure that they had fixed the refer that had been wired to run through the inverter when the AC was off and had burned up a couple of inverters for him.
Guaranty checked with Mike Grazier (I think that's the name) at WRV and were told that that is the way it is supposed to be wired.
So what say you all? Guaranty is trying to make me happy and will probably fix it as I want it, but I'm interested in what this esteemed group has to say.

Thanks in advance.

hrhuggie · 03-27-2007, 04:50 PM

David,
mine has the residential refrigerator wired to run off of the inverter. I have the Xantrex RS2000 inverter and other than drawing a lot of power (off the batteries) I have had no problems. I believe that all of them are wired that way

dshogman · 03-27-2007, 05:04 PM

This is the Dometic AC/propane unit. I think I've read elsewhere that the residential units run through the inverter.

Wayne R · 03-27-2007, 05:13 PM

The advantage to wiring it to the inverter is that the ice maker will work when dry camping. You still run it on propane but with inverter power it will dump the ice as it is made. On my 2000 I had to manually select gas when dry camping with it wired this way.

dshogman · 03-27-2007, 05:45 PM

OK, I understand. On my 2001, the unit automatically switches to gas when the AC shuts off. No inverter involvement at all.

Cruzer · 03-28-2007, 04:45 AM

On my previous coach there were two receptacle behind the Norcold fridge. One was a standard receptacle to power the AC element and the other was an inverter fed receptacle where the ice maker was plugged into. WE just left the fridge on "auto" most of the time and it would automatically cycle between AC power and LP. Yet the icemaker still worked when driving because it was on a separate cord which plugged into the inverter. The icemaker doesn't draw that much so you can easily mod your setup if you want to make ice while runing the fridge on LP.

Wayne R · 03-28-2007, 06:32 AM

Cruzer,
Did the Norcold come with 2 110 cords? It seems the Dometic in my 2000 Alpine only had one plug and the ice maker was integrated into the refer wiring.

OldForester · 03-28-2007, 02:51 PM

dshogman,

For what it's worth, I tried to get our 2006 Alpine with Dometic gas/electric refer wired through the inverter like the residential refers. WRV refused to do that for me last summer, saying that the gas/electric combo will drain the batteries too fast; much faster than the residential refer.

So I am not wired through the inverter and have to use gas when dry camping, and have learned it works well and I don't have a problem with it. I have no problem making ice in the ice maker when dry camping if I leave the water pump on.

Wayne R · 03-28-2007, 03:46 PM

The newer RV refers may not need 110 to operate the ice maker. I always thought it was a stupid design. The Dometic in my 2000 would not eject the ice unless it had 110.

Cruzer · 03-28-2007, 05:14 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Wayne Routhier:
Cruzer,
Did the Norcold come with 2 110 cords? It seems the Dometic in my 2000 Alpine only had one plug and the ice maker was integrated into the refer wiring. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, the Norcold 4 door came with two cords. The ice maker had it's own cord so it was easy to plug it into an inverter fed outlet while keeping the heavier current load of the reefer itself on a non-inverter outlet.

I have no clue how the Dometic is set up but that's how my 2004 Norcold was. I now have a residential fridge on the 2007 but when I looked at a 2007 42QRP with a Norcold it did still have separate plugs.

Sully · 03-29-2007, 09:05 AM

dshogman,

Mike Glazier probably thinks you are referring to a residential model refer which is wired through the inverter.

I was unaware that the coach was wired incorrectly, and nobody at either WRV, Onan or Cummins picked up on it when replacing 5 inverters. When I traded in that coach and found that the new refer did not work on inverter I asked and was told that it wasn't supposed to.
At the Rally in Nashville I asked the gentleman from Onan and he said that the heat caused by the inverter working that hard while parked was probably the reason I burned up so many inverters. They did fix the problem with a software update and I didn't have the problem again, but it still is wrong and not good for the batteries.

Sully