Bounder: Inverter/converter Freedom 458

[Buddy W.]

2005 37U Bounder Diesel:
I bit the bullet after replacing 2 cooling units on Norcold and had a residential installed. Looks fine and runs good on inverter. Was just playing with it to see how long it could go without plugging in or running generator. Plugged in and let batteries get fully charged. Up on control panel, Main Battery 13.57 and Aux Battery 13.47. Unplugged, checked 4 hours later Main @ 12.46, Aux @ 12.36, 2 hours later everything off! Main @ 12.75 Aux @ 12.36. I checked inverter and had red light on "Low Battery/Gel #2" also Red light on "Over Temp/Overload" Plugged back in everything back to normal. Left plugged in about an hour then repeated. same results after about 4 hours. Did check and could hear fan running on inverter. Last time Aux @ 12.3. supposed to kick off at 10.0. Is inverter bad or is that all I should expect to run about 4 hours?
Note Without frig plugged in and coach plugged into shore power. Control panel shows about a 1 amp draw. with frig plugged in showing about 2-3 amps draw.
Also on control panel Main Battery? chassis?? Aux? house batteries??
Thanks to the Guru's

[Tha_Rooster]

Originally Posted by Buddy W.

2005 37U Bounder Diesel:
I bit the bullet after replacing 2 cooling units on Norcold and had a residential installed. Looks fine and runs good on inverter. Was just playing with it to see how long it could go without plugging in or running generator. Plugged in and let batteries get fully charged. Up on control panel, Main Battery 13.57 and Aux Battery 13.47. Unplugged, checked 4 hours later Main @ 12.46, Aux @ 12.36, 2 hours later everything off! Main @ 12.75 Aux @ 12.36. I checked inverter and had red light on "Low Battery/Gel #2" also Red light on "Over Temp/Overload" Plugged back in everything back to normal. Left plugged in about an hour then repeated. same results after about 4 hours. Did check and could hear fan running on inverter. Last time Aux @ 12.3. supposed to kick off at 10.0. Is inverter bad or is that all I should expect to run about 4 hours?
Note Without frig plugged in and coach plugged into shore power. Control panel shows about a 1 amp draw. with frig plugged in showing about 2-3 amps draw.
Also on control panel Main Battery? chassis?? Aux? house batteries??
Thanks to the Guru's

How old and how many house batteries do you have?

[Buddy W.]

Unit has 4, 6 volt batteries and 2 chasis batteries. They are about 3-4 years old

[Fridge Defend]

Originally Posted by Buddy W.

2005 37U Bounder Diesel:
I bit the bullet after replacing 2 cooling units on Norcold and had a residential installed. Looks fine and runs good on inverter. Was just playing with it to see how long it could go without plugging in or running generator. Plugged in and let batteries get fully charged. Up on control panel, Main Battery 13.57 and Aux Battery 13.47. Unplugged, checked 4 hours later Main @ 12.46, Aux @ 12.36, 2 hours later everything off! Main @ 12.75 Aux @ 12.36. I checked inverter and had red light on "Low Battery/Gel #2" also Red light on "Over Temp/Overload" Plugged back in everything back to normal. Left plugged in about an hour then repeated. same results after about 4 hours. Did check and could hear fan running on inverter. Last time Aux @ 12.3. supposed to kick off at 10.0. Is inverter bad or is that all I should expect to run about 4 hours?
Note Without frig plugged in and coach plugged into shore power. Control panel shows about a 1 amp draw. with frig plugged in showing about 2-3 amps draw.
Also on control panel Main Battery? chassis?? Aux? house batteries??
Thanks to the Guru's

Just as a rule of thumb, you do not want to run batteries below 12.2VDC.

You mentioned 4 jell batteries lasted about 4 hours before your controller gave you a low voltage reading.

Can you give us the battery type and amp hour?

Also, the current your read (2-3 amps), it sounds like it was read from the 120VAC inverter?

Thanks for your help!

[Persistent]

...Plugged in and let batteries get fully charged. Up on control panel, Main Battery 13.57 and Aux Battery 13.47. Unplugged, checked 4 hours later Main @ 12.46, Aux @ 12.36, 2 hours later everything off! Main @ 12.75 Aux @ 12.36.

These numbers show batteries are in good condition. You may have in excess of 400 amp hours available. That should provide 3 amps for 130 hours. 65 hours if you draw down to 50%. 400 ah / 3 a = 133 hours

I checked inverter and had red light on "Low Battery/Gel #2" also Red light on "Over Temp/Overload" Plugged back in everything back to normal. Left plugged in about an hour then repeated. same results after about 4 hours. Did check and could hear fan running on inverter. Last time Aux @ 12.3. supposed to kick off at 10.0. Is inverter bad or is that all I should expect to run about 4 hours?
Note Without frig plugged in and coach plugged into shore power. Control panel shows about a 1 amp draw. with frig plugged in showing about 2-3 amps draw.
Also on control panel Main Battery? chassis?? Aux? house batteries??

A compressor refrigerator draws more current when the compressor is running and less when it is not. Was the compressor running when you read the 2-3 amp draw?

After eliminating other possible reasons for low voltage or high temp, then the inverter is probably at fault.

Did any other high current appliance run during the 4 hour period? Perhaps a microwave ran?

[Fridge Defend]

Originally Posted by Buddy W.

Did check and could hear fan running on inverter. Last time Aux @ 12.3. supposed to kick off at 10.0. Is inverter bad or is that all I should expect to run about 4 hours?

The inverter may just be doing its job. Here is the why that suggest this hypothesis:

As your battery voltage went down, the amperage going through the inverter went up. This in turn causes more heat in the inverter, thus the fans kick on.

This is due to the power equation: P=V*I,
In order for a constant power (P) on the left side of the equation, as the voltage (V) goes down the current (I) has to go up.

Hope this helps