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Torkmonster · 05-30-2023, 05:18 PM

Hello all. 2004 36MDDS. Until this morning, I felt that I was fairly knowledgeable about RV electrical systems. Our freezer iced up yesterday and we wanted to defrost it without water damage to the RV. So we placed towels inside the freezer and on the floor to soak up any water. We shut everything down as usual (it's in a storage yard) and left both fridge doors open. I went into the rig today to remove the soaked towels so they wouldn't damage my floor. I was a bit perplexed by what I saw. The towels were only slightly wet because the refrigerator was still running, the freezer still had some frost, the light and LED's were still on. OK, we forgot to turn the fridge off, but BOTH battery switches were off! Nothing inside the rig would work, no lighting, ignition, nothing, but the fridge was still on. I understand that the fridge can run on propane, but I didn't think that would work without electrical power to run the control panel. Why is my fridge not running through the battery switches when clearly absolutely everything else is? Thank you in advance.

twinboat · 05-30-2023, 05:24 PM

We're you on shore power ? Shutting off the batteries doesn't shut off the converter.

Some builders bypass the switchs for the fridge.

Torkmonster · 05-30-2023, 05:29 PM

I was not

Old Scout · 05-30-2023, 06:58 PM

OK--try this: On Alpines, the inverter/charger [no converter] is connected directly to the house bats [in-line fused of course]. So, the battery "kill switches" won't shut down the inverter. Unless you disconnect the house bat cables, you shut off the inverter, or you shut off the fridge breaker in the inverter sub-panel [black panel]. Accordingly, your residential fridge will run until the house bats are exhausted.
PS--this also explains why your house bats will eventually die when you unplug from shore power, even though you shut off the bat kill switches.

andy29847 · 05-31-2023, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Torkmonster

Why is my fridge not running through the battery switches when clearly absolutely everything else is? Thank you in advance.

That is a good question. Your coach is different from mine (2001/pre VANSCO). The 12v electrical power for my fridge is fused in the battery compartment and does not work through the "salesman disconnect."