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

[dillpunk]

Hello! I have a 2021 Transcend 247bh with the Furrion 12V fridge. We spent the last week camping with full hook ups and when I went to pack up at the end of the trip, I realized my dad had disconnected the battery disconnect when we set up the trailer and my battery was dead. I got hooked up to my truck and started pulling and when we stopped realized that the fridge was no longer cooling (although the fridge light was still on). I figured that the battery had gotten low enough to not provide sufficient voltage to the fridge so when I got home, I plugged in the trailer and charged the battery. Now, the light is on and the compressor is running, however the fridge is not getting cold. Any ideas? I have tried googling but can't find anyone with the same issue. Really hoping this is something I can fix myself as I don't want the trailer to be at a dealer for however long it takes to get fixed.

[Country Campers]

These 12 v fridges are pretty new so there will not be much info on trouble shooting or issues found. I have not heard of this issue yet and I hope not to hear about it going forward because I have one also. The only thing I can think of is try to change the dial setting to the highest, coldest setting to see if that helps.

Brian

[howson]

dillpunk -- please do the forum the favor of posting again once this issue is resolved so we learn from your experience. (Thanks in advance!)

Howard

[dillpunk]

Yay I am back. I did not find an answer but inadvertantly trial and errored my way into a fix. I believe that when the battery was disconnected it drained down to empty and tripped some kind of failsafe on the fridge to prevent it from damaging the battery. When I plugged it back in the compressor was running but not cooling, but it may have still been stuck on that failsafe trigger. After the battery was fully charged, I disconnected pole power, disconnected the battery, waited 30 seconds and hooked the battery back up. An hour later the fridge was cold. Unglamorous but sometimes "have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?" is the simplest fix.

[howson]

Yay I am back. I did not find an answer but inadvertantly trial and errored my way into a fix. I believe that when the battery was disconnected it drained down to empty and tripped some kind of failsafe on the fridge to prevent it from damaging the battery. When I plugged it back in the compressor was running but not cooling, but it may have still been stuck on that failsafe trigger. After the battery was fully charged, I disconnected pole power, disconnected the battery, waited 30 seconds and hooked the battery back up. An hour later the fridge was cold. Unglamorous but sometimes "have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?" is the simplest fix.

Excellent--thanks for the follow-up! I'll be adding a copy of this post to the Reference Material section for future owners to find.

Howard

[ThePowells]

dillpunk Welcome to the family and the forum! I'm glad that you found a solution.

[realr1960]

I'm sitting in a State Park campground with very similar issue. Fridge light was on, but not cooling.
I unplugged from shore power, turned off and pulled the main battery switch, ( the big red key by the wet bay) and disconnected battery terminals from the battery.
I checked the circuit breakers and the fuse panel. All was good. I then reversed what I disconnected previously. When I put the key to turn on the power, I came into the kitchen, and the compressor is now running. We are still very new to the camper life, do now I know what to listen for.

[Tcraw09]

I littearly can not tell you how grateful I am for this post. I was about to pull the entire fridge out and start diagnosing. I undid the battery for about a minute and hooked back up and it kicked on. Really makes 0 sense to me as the battery disconnect switch was off but thankful it was an easy fix. Thank you again for posting a huge time saving solution

[TucsonJim]

I littearly can not tell you how grateful I am for this post. I was about to pull the entire fridge out and start diagnosing. I undid the battery for about a minute and hooked back up and it kicked on. Really makes 0 sense to me as the battery disconnect switch was off but thankful it was an easy fix. Thank you again for posting a huge time saving solution

That's great news Tcraw09. Unless something has changed, the refrigerator is not wired through the battery disconnect. It's on it's own circuit.

Jim

[Jlawles2]

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

[mobilewebdev]

For anyone else who may come across this, there's a similar thread at https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...0-series-280rs that included a number of solutions, including the one to my own variation of this issue (in my case, the battery disconnect switch needed to be switched to the "ON" position)

[Suprheat]

I went the easier route when my battery went low and the fridge wouldn't run. I simply firmed the temp control to off and waited a minute and turned it back on and it worked.

[William Trainor]

We bought our 2400BH in May of 2022, just a couple of weeks before it would have been a 2023, but the deal was too good to wait. I pulled the battery switch rod for the trip home, but the refrigerator was still running even though the temp control was "off". Turns out the Fridge is hot wired directly to the battery, so Fridge, emergency brakes, and the Tongue Jack still work when the battery disconnect switch is pulled. This is intentional so you can run the fridge while traveling with the battery disconnected. Great! Only the Fridge fan runs 24/7. Had my dealer go around and check others with the Furrion 10CF fridge. All of them run with the battery switch pulled! Grand Design confirmed this. Not sure if it is still this way, but that didn't work for me. I wired in a switch and put it just above the Fridge so I can shut the thing off without disconnecting the battery. And my e-brakes and Tongue Jack still work, as they should. Hopefully Lippert/Furrion will change it so Off is OFF, maybe even for the light!

[Country Campers]

We bought our 2400BH in May of 2022, just a couple of weeks before it would have been a 2023, but the deal was too good to wait. I pulled the battery switch rod for the trip home, but the refrigerator was still running even though the temp control was "off". Turns out the Fridge is hot wired directly to the battery, so Fridge, emergency brakes, and the Tongue Jack still work when the battery disconnect switch is pulled. This is intentional so you can run the fridge while traveling with the battery disconnected. Great! Only the Fridge fan runs 24/7. Had my dealer go around and check others with the Furrion 10CF fridge. All of them run with the battery switch pulled! Grand Design confirmed this. Not sure if it is still this way, but that didn't work for me. I wired in a switch and put it just above the Fridge so I can shut the thing off without disconnecting the battery. And my e-brakes and Tongue Jack still work, as they should. Hopefully Lippert/Furrion will change it so Off is OFF, maybe even for the light!

So recently, and your unit falls in to this, GD has started to wire the fridge directly to the battery, actually thru a fuse, to stop the issue of the battery disconnect from being turned off, either on purpose or accidentally, and turning the fridge off. The light in the fridge will stay on for a period but the compressor should not be on when the switch inside the fridge is turned off. This is noticeable when we leave the door open after we come home and the fridge switch is in the off position. If your compressor is running with the switch in the fridge is off, make sure it clicks when turning off, then I would guess that you have a faulty fridge.

Brian

[William Trainor]

So recently, and your unit falls in to this, GD has started to wire the fridge directly to the battery, actually thru a fuse, to stop the issue of the battery disconnect from being turned off, either on purpose or accidentally, and turning the fridge off. The light in the fridge will stay on for a period but the compressor should not be on when the switch inside the fridge is turned off. This is noticeable when we leave the door open after we come home and the fridge switch is in the off position. If your compressor is running with the switch in the fridge is off, make sure it clicks when turning off, then I would guess that you have a faulty fridge.

Brian

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.