Just got the conversion compressor put on our Norcold 2118 refrigerator

[Crystal]

We just picked up our rv after having the JC refrigerator compressor unit installed on it. After bringing it home it keeps popping the breaker they installed on the unit before the battery when we have it plugged into a 110 plug. It is closed up right now we are not running anything but the refrigerator and the fan in the kitchen..... any help will be appreciated..... any suggestions on what to look for?

[ncitro]

We just picked up our rv after having the JC refrigerator compressor unit installed on it. After bringing it home it keeps popping the breaker they installed on the unit before the battery when we have it plugged into a 110 plug. It is closed up right now we are not running anything but the refrigerator and the fan in the kitchen..... any help will be appreciated..... any suggestions on what to look for?

I would start by unplugging the fridge and seeing if the breaker still trips. If so then you have either a bad breaker or an issue with the wiring from the breaker to the outlet. If it does not trip with nothing plugged into it then there is an issue in the fridge and I would reach out to JC.

[Crystal]

Hi Nitro,
we unplugged the rig last night from shore power and the refrigerator run on battery. It did not trip the breaker. I will note that my husband when he plugged it in had taken the power all the way down to a 110 plug so I’m thinking that the refrigerator compressor could be drawing more current then the way my husband has it plugged in?

[ncitro]

Oh I misunderstood, I thought you meant a 110v fridge tripping the 110v breaker in the rig. Yes if you are tripping the breaker the trailer is plugged into then you are overdrawing that breaker. Try to reduce the things turned on in the camper when plugged into 15A, or find an outlet with nothing else on the breaker to plug it into. Maybe your water heater was on or something, or the outlet you were plugged into had other things on it?

[Craig Carter]

I'm considering one of those as well. One installation item (page 3) is the need to run a heavier gauge wire (10 ga) to the refrigerator than what is originally installed by the manufacturer and adding a 30A fuse/breaker before the battery. Is it a 30A fuse/breaker? There are two Norcold 2118 options (12V and 110V). If you purchased the 12V option, it sounds like they upgraded the wire and added that fuse/breaker.

[Jlawles2]

I would start by checking the battery state of charge with a volt meter and shore power un-plugged. You should see north of 12.5 VDC with a charged battery. Then plug in the unit and observe the voltage again. If when plugged in voltage is more than 13.4 bolts, it's in charge mode. Hold off starting the fridge until the charger drops to float mode.

Once the charger drops to float mode, the try turning on the fridge.

A fully operational charger at 65 amps output is drawing close to 7 amps at 120VAC and over 7.5 amps at 105VAC. These number may seem low if you are on a 15 amp breaker, however breakers can get weak and the converter may be able to pull more amps based on it's max output capacity.



The above values are based on a typical liquid acid battery.

[Crystal]

So I am continuing to have issues. The refrigerator was running fine keeping cold and staying on while on shore power running on the 12 g 110 plug. Today I put food in it and just doing that caused the temperature of the fridge to go up to 65 degrees so it once again tripped the 30 amp breaker that is by the battery. So we once again have unplugged the shore power and it is staying on running off of the batteries. Could the system be wired wrong ? Also it is not drawing down to temp very quickly. I’m at a loss…….

[Crystal]

Craig Carter yes you are right we have a 30 amp fuse/breaker that was installed above our batteries. My husband took our power cord that attaches to the Rv and then used a pigtail 50 amp to 30 amp then a pigtail 30 amp to 110 and plugged in a 12 g extension cord into the end and ran it to a regular 110 outlet. When the refrigerator is trying to drop down to temp it trips the breaker installed above the battery. Why? Is the batteries drawing to much current for the way he has it plugged in? Because when the fridge is to temp I can plug it to the shore power and it is fine. Just trying to understand it. This is just temporary the way it is plugged in. Normally it will either be plugged in to 30 amp service or 50 amp service depending on the Rv park.

[ncitro]

As voltage goes down, current goes up, so as your batteries drain the fridge will draw more current, but the converter should be charging your batteries if you're plugged in. Is your battery disconnect set so the key cannot be removed? If so you'll need a meter to diagnose your converter and see if it's keeping up with the fridge draw. Otherwise I'd urge you to teach out to the company that did the conversion and ask why that breaker would be tripping. Even with the voltage dropping 30A is a lot for the fridge to be drawing.

[Jack]

I did that conversion on my 337RLS a while back on a smaller refrigerator. I didn't have your problem, but my compressor wouldn't reliably start up because of the voltage drop at startup. I ran 10 gage wires directly from the fuse panel to the refrigerator to solve my problem. Since your problem is at the breaker, I would start by changing the breaker for a different style/brand.