Furrion 12 volt refrigerator not staying on

[Equilady]

We've only had our 5th wheel for less than a month. When we did the walk through at the dealership the refrigerator worked fine as they explained the panel. We hooked up and took it home and since it goes off at random times. We dropped it off at the dealers after our first camping trip. When it was there it worked fine. We brought it home and it went off again. The service department suggested that the RV might not be level so that might be causing it. We'd had another RV with a 12 volt refrigerator for about 5 years running constantly regardless of the camper being level. When I put levels around the unit and on the fridge they looked near perfect. So suddenly the refrigerator started working again and we went camping this past weekend. It went off a couple times during the day and they came back on. However, on Friday and Saturday nights after we went to bed it went off for the night apparently since the ice was melted. We left the campground with it off and drove home. When we parked at home without leveling or unhitching the refrigerator was working again and has continued to work. We're taking it back to the dealer again and hopefully they can persuade it to behave.
The service department said if they can't get it to work that we should call Grand Design to have them send us a new one. I was a little surprised because I thought that would be their job.
Any ideas will be appreciated.
Take care,
Susan Davis

Well the dealer finally found what was wrong. After our last camping trip with it going off intermittently we took it back to the dealer and this time the looked closer and found out that the grounding wire wasn't attached. They said this could have caused a fire. Glad they looked harder and found it.

[MikeZ]

We've only had our 5th wheel for less than a month. When we did the walk through at the dealership the refrigerator worked fine as they explained the panel. We hooked up and took it home and since it goes off at random times. We dropped it off at the dealers after our first camping trip. When it was there it worked fine. We brought it home and it went off again. The service department suggested that the RV might not be level so that might be causing it. We'd had another RV with a 12 volt refrigerator for about 5 years running constantly regardless of the camper being level. When I put levels around the unit and on the fridge they looked near perfect. So suddenly the refrigerator started working again and we went camping this past weekend. It went off a couple times during the day and they came back on. However, on Friday and Saturday nights after we went to bed it went off for the night apparently since the ice was melted. We left the campground with it off and drove home. When we parked at home without leveling or unhitching the refrigerator was working again and has continued to work. We're taking it back to the dealer again and hopefully they can persuade it to behave.
The service department said if they can't get it to work that we should call Grand Design to have them send us a new one. I was a little surprised because I thought that would be their job.
Any ideas will be appreciated.
Take care,
Susan Davis

Hi Susan. I am new to RVing but not to diagnosing problems with systems. I would check the voltage on your battery under load then reference your owner's manual for the minimum voltage required to run the fridge. When you say it goes off, do you mean there is no power to the unit at all? For instance, the light comes on when you open the door but the unit is not cooling? If that is the case, it may be a thermostat/temp sensor that is defective or failing. I am unsure of the prices of sensors today, but they were super cheap and are almost always serviceable by the consumer. Remove a few screws, access the thermostat, plug in or connect the new sensor. Some refrigerators rely on lubricant that is present in the refrigerant. As a safety measure, to protect the compressor, some may not operate when unlevel; but that sounds like you have checked that. If your unit has that sensor, it too could be the culprit if failed. Of course, it could be an number of things but hoping to give you a starting point.

[TucsonJim]

I would suspect low battery conditions causing the shut downs. Furrion refrigerators appear to be susceptible to low voltage conditions.


Jim

[Country Campers]

I would check the battery connections and if this is a travel trailer check the connections on the frame, follow the battery cables and you will find these connections. Also may be a bad self resetting breaker, located in line from the battery.

Brian

[Jomani]

It sounds like a poor connection somewhere. Like Country Campers said, if you can follow the cables from the battery you should be able to see where the negative connects to the frame, and the positive most likely feeds a bus bar with resettable breakers. More info about your rig and refrigerator would certainly be helpful.

On my Reflection 303RLS, I found a poorly crimped wire at the bus bar. By simply tugging on the wire (not very hard) it pulled out of the crimped connector.

When you say it quits working, is it completely dead? No light, no power? That would be a sign that you lost the 12v supply somewhere (bad connection, bad circuit breaker, etc.). If you have power to the refrigerator (light works), it could still be a bad connection that is preventing the compressor from working correctly.

And yes, the dealership should open a claim with Grand Design. In my opinion, they are just being lazy. Because the clock is ticking on your warranty, I would go ahead and contact Grand Design myself. Be sure to let them know that the dealership suggested that you contact them yourself.