Furrion 12V fridge - light and compressor on but not cooling

[Country Campers]

Yes, it is wired directly to the battery. Yes, the light goes off after a short time. When I have the switch inside the refrigerator turned to off the compressor does not run. But the cooling fan continues to run. I verified through Grand Design and my dealer that this is the way things were. I then worked directly with Furrion, and they said that as long as power was supplied to the refrigerator the cooling fan would run. So unless the battery is disconnected the cooling fan runs 24/7. This is the way it was as of June 2022. Hopefully they fixed it. I can’t imagine why Furrion would design it this way. It seems to me that they should be the ones to “fix“ it. I installed a master power switch just for the refrigerator so my cooling fan would not run 24 /7. This has worked well for me, so I consider this problem solved in my case. I just wanted to make others aware of what was going on.

That is very interesting. My Furrion unit does not do this, it is a couple years old though.

Brian

[Scottb127]

I am hoping at some point in my life I have seen it all. But with the RV industry, I don't think that will ever be possible.

Wiring changes seem to be the norm. Some Refer wired partially through the disconnect, some separate circuit, some on 2 circuits (one for the control board and one for the compressor), etc

I've been wondering how to turn off the fridge. this explains it. a switch in the fridge...hmmm. I haven't seen that. I think my compressor is burned up, i can smell it when I open the fridge. I've been worried since Saturday that the RV will burn down. I'm going to back to storage this morning to see if I can find the switch in the fridge. I'll turn off the master switch

[Jlawles2]

Master probably does not disconnect the Refer. You will need to find the fuse in the panel and the fuse or circuit breaker for the refer. If you can best is to remove the battery cables, not a good idea if you have solar.

[Larry & Jackie]

I am beyond frustrated. I also am sitting at a State Park with a 12V refrigerator not cooling. The compressor I believe tries to start but after 15 seconds shuts off. I have turned it to the highest setting but that has not helped the issue. This happened the last time we were in a State Park a month ago. We thought the problem was possibly with the power at the park as when we got home it cooled perfectly and we left it plugged into shore power for the entire month. We will try to reset things as “reair1960” did and cross our fingers. I just don’t get how it can work perfectly at home and not here. Any suggestions are appreciated. We own a 2022 Reflection 268BH 5th wheel. The refrigerator is a Furrion Arctic the manual says.

Larry and Jackie
2022 Reflection 150 series 268BH 5th Wheel

[ncitro]

I am beyond frustrated. I also am sitting at a State Park with a 12V refrigerator not cooling. The compressor I believe tries to start but after 15 seconds shuts off. I have turned it to the highest setting but that has not helped the issue. This happened the last time we were in a State Park a month ago. We thought the problem was possibly with the power at the park as when we got home it cooled perfectly and we left it plugged into shore power for the entire month. We will try to reset things as “reair1960” did and cross our fingers. I just don’t get how it can work perfectly at home and not here. Any suggestions are appreciated. We own a 2022 Reflection 268BH 5th wheel. The refrigerator is a Furrion Arctic the manual says.

Larry and Jackie
2022 Reflection 150 series 268BH 5th Wheel

Are you connected to shore power or running on batteries?

[Obe]

Remember, those 12vdc Furrion Refrigerators go into an automatic power-off mode if the battery voltage drops below 9.6vdc. This is to keep the refrigerator from completely draining the battery. The refrigerator also requires a minimum of 10.5vdc to operate correctly. If you are not connected to shore power then the refrigerator should be set to the Off-Grid mode to extend operating time.

[Country Campers]

Larry & Jackie

Did you bump the battery disconnect off or is it off?

Brian

[Larry & Jackie]

ncitro
Country Campers

We are connected to shore power. We checked the battery voltage and it is at 12.5. We did turn everything off, disconnect from shore power and disconnect the battery and reversed the process - this did not help. I do not know where the battery disconnect is? The MPPT Solar Charger shows a flashing green light which indicates it is charging the battery. But the fridge continues to not cool. I can hear the compressor (at least I think that is what it is) try to start and then after 15 seconds it just turns off.

[Larry & Jackie]

ncitro


Thank you for your post. I did some further investigating and found the Battery Disconnect box. The key was out of it. We reinserted the key and the refrigerator started to run. Feel rather foolish but I had to go to the owners manual to find the battery disconnect and then I believed solved the problem.

Thanks for your help. 🙄🙄🫣

[Country Campers]

Larry & Jackie

No need to feel foolish, we all have done it at least twice. I think you have found the problem and you should be good.

Brian

[TucsonJim]

Larry & Jackie

Don't feel foolish. I'm a retired electrical engineer and it still bites me once in a while.

Jim

[Larry & Jackie]

TucsonJim

I guess I have another question since you told me you are an electrical engineer - this same problem happened to us in early June. We did not figure out what the problem was at the time and figured we would take it in for Service. We hooked up, drove home, connected to our home power and everything worked just fine. But the battery disconnect had to have occurred as we traveled to our destination in June - so how did it “fix itself”? Is there a fail safe switch that resets? And if we are running on shower power, how do the battery and DC work together?
If this is too much to explain or too difficult I understand, But just curious if there is a simple explanation.

[TucsonJim]

Larry & Jackie No problem at all.

Re: Is there a fail safe switch that resets? Yes there is. The is a resettable breaker that is connected to the positive battery wire. Sometimes these get weak, have a poor connection, or outright fail. They also may be working perfectly and tripping due to excess current draw. I have a travel trailer, so mine is mounted below the A-frame. Yours is probably on the back wall in the battery storage compartment. Here's what it looks like on mine. The breaker with the three white wires is my primary breaker.



When you are running on shore power, the converter takes 120 volt AC power and "converts" it to DC power. The converter provides enough power to run the DC items like lights. It also supplies power to the batteries to keep them charged.

This may be a little too much "electrical" information. But Watt's Law states that Power (watts) = Voltage x Current (amps). If you let your batteries get too low, it takes more current to satisfy the power demands which causes items like breakers and fuses to trip if their threshold is exceeded. So it's really important to keep your batteries at a strong state of charge to avoid low voltage problems.

Jim

[ncitro]

Larry & Jackie No problem at all I've definitely been bit by it a couple times. My guess is what happened is while driving home your truck recharged your battery (coupled with solar) enough that the fridge ran when you tried it at home.

[Squeezebox]

Fusion refers the disconnecting and reconnecting the power as a 'hard reset'