Everchill 12V refrigerator problem

[Rickytop]

New to IRV2, just bought a 2019 K-Z Sportsmen 231RK, two weeks ago. Fifth wheel has an Everchill 10 cubic ft., 12V only refrigerator. Everything worked fine when we picked up the camper from the dealer, of course it was brand new, but that night, while camping the refrigerator quit working. Sometime while driving the next day, it started working again. The second night, fridge worked fine, but again quit working during the drive home. Both nights we were plugged into a 30 amp service at KOAs. After getting home, I plugged the camper back in and 3 days later, it started working again. Called K-Z, and made arraignments to take to a K-Z dealer for warranty work which we did yesterday. Before taking in for the warranty work, I tried unplugging for a day to see if it would quit, and it ran fine, no problems. Never saw it pull over 6 amps. Refrigerator is an Everchill model WD-282FWDC, camper has a WFCO 8955 converter, and a Interstate group 27 battery. Has anyone had any experience with these fridges? Any ideas what could be going? Hopefully the service center will find the problem, and fix it, no problem, but I know how hard it is to troubleshoot a problem that is intermittent. By the way, the slide stopped working after our first night also. Thanks in advance.

[MSHappyCampers]

Hi ! Welcome to IRV2! We're sure glad you joined the gang!

Congrats on the new rig! I'm not familiar with the fridge but noticed you are new on IRV2 and wanted to say hello! Have fun and keep her between the ditches!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[Old-Biscuit]

12V DC compressor fridge

My guess
You are loosing GROUND intermittently

[F14 Mech]

New to the forum. I have the same fridge and all of a sudden I have the same issue. It is parked and plugged into shore power. Rickytop, what did they find out when you took your rig in?

[Rickytop]

Service center told me that the battery wasn’t fully charged. They never saw the fridge quit working while there, and put the battery on a charger to charge it. That could be since I could only assume it was fully charged from the dealer. To me that would mean the converter was having a hard time maintaining the charge on the battery. After the visit to the service center last year, we took two week long trips, and I made sure before we left the battery was charged and we had no problems with the fridge. Since then I have gotten a solar panel and plan to get two 6 volt batteries to increase the capacity of the battery to maybe alleviate any chance of a future problem if we camp somewhere without hook ups. I haven’t even summerized the camper this year with the virus and all going around, camping hasn’t been a high enough priority but will be getting her ready soon. Hope this helps.

[F14 Mech]

Rickytop Thank you for the information You received from the dealer. I got troubleshooting guides from the manufacturer. I started the process and went to get tools. When I returned it was working. I proceeded to reinstall the fridge and found the+ and - wires loose. Tightened them up and so far so good. Thanks again. Thanks to the moderators for allowing me to join the group.

[ladderman22]

I just bought a new 2021 wildwood by forest river my 2nd forest river travel trailer and have had problems with my everchill fridge also going to look into your fixes I don't trust the service center where I purchased it besides it being 60 miles away the booklet that comes with the unit is very vague

[F14 Mech]

Ladderman22, did you find the problem with the fridge? I believe I saved the email with the trouble shooting steps. Let me know.

[richard5933]

We have a similar fridge in our coach. I have a couple of suggestions...

1) A single 12v battery doesn't have lots of capacity. The fridge quite likely has a low-voltage protection build in, so if you are not using the converter/charger you might just be hitting the low-voltage point. Adding a second battery in parallel would help.

2) Are you charging the trailer battery while towing the TT? Having a charge line in your harness will mean keeping the battery charged while towing and keeping your fridge going.

3) Some of the harnesses use cheaper imported spade connectors. No good way to keep them tight and making a good connection - the metal is simply too weak and will loosen soon after you tighten them with pliers. If the connectors look like they are made of too-thin metal, get some high quality connectors like Pico brand. They cost a few bucks, but they won't let loose.

[Rickytop]

Just wanted to post an update about our fridge and this summers camping. Only upgrades I got to this year was replacing the converter in our fifth wheel with a Progress Dynamics PD9260CV. This seemed to do wonders for our batteries charge. We only did a few trips this summer because of COVID, one trip to Colorado and a couple to the mountains here in Wyoming but we didn’t have any trouble with the fridge whatsoever. Converter kept battery fully charged while traveling and the solar panel did great while camped along with short runs of our generator. Still plan to add another battery next year when things are back to normal. Hope our troubles are just a memory.

[ladderman22]

Originally Posted by F14 Mech

Ladderman22, did you find the problem with the fridge? I believe I saved the email with the trouble shooting steps. Let me know.

not yet so far I put charger on the battery made sure it was fully charged and tried to operate again but same thing happens lights on fan works but after a while the light for refrig goes to flashing and fridge is not even trying to get cold

[Rickytop]

New Update:
Refrigerator is dead. Going to pull it out this weekend and see if there is anything obvious wrong with the wiring or anything else I can see. Not happy at all with Everchill.

[Cedjudy]

Have the same Everchill, works intermittently, disconnect the negative or positive on the compressor board, starts back up, runs for a day or so, then same scenario. On shore power, batteries fully charged.

[Rickytop]

Had to get a new Compressor Board from Everchill. Installed and seemed to work fine. We will see what happens this year when we get here ready for summer.