Using the Fridge Inverter while on AC power

farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

The other day someone posted that they use their inverter as a backup for the refrigerator in case the AC power ever turns off. We left this weekend for a couple of days and I thought that I would turn on the inverter just in case the park lost power. I hit and held the switch and it wouldn't turn on. What is the reason it wouldn't turn on? Ideas?

Oregon_Camper · Jun 27, 2017

Many things it could be. What have you done so far to trouble shoot the problem?

Is your cutoff switch (one between battery and inverter) in the "on" position?

Is the 100 Amp Fuse still good?

Have you tested for DC power at the back of the inverter?

What is your battery voltage?

farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

The inverter works fine...when I am not plugged in. Are you supposed to be able to have the green inverter output light on when connected to shore power? That's what I cannot do. Will the transfer switch prevent this from happening?

justafordguy · Jun 27, 2017

I leave mine turned on (green light on) all the time while camping in-case the power at the park goes out.

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn · Jun 27, 2017

Our green light will come on anytime plugged in or not. You can leave it on and when shore power is lost the transfer switch will atomatily switch over to operate the invertor on battery power.

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farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

Then something is different with mine. I will check a few things when I get home.

If it is working on battery only, what could cause it to not turn on when power is connected?

esscobra · Jun 27, 2017

I leave mine on as well- but have to hold it in for a few seconds until light comes on- mine was last of 2017 built in feb

Alan_B · Jun 27, 2017

esscobra said:
I leave mine on as well- but have to hold it in for a few seconds until light comes on-...

Ditto

farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

Okay I'm home now and I checked the batteries the batteries are showing 4 volts when the battery is full of water should the output of the converter be charging showing a charge voltage or if the batteries are bad could it pull down the output of the charger

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I disconnected the positive from the top of the battery box and checked both positive cables with a multimeter to ground and I'm still showing the Four volts it doesn't appear that the converter is out putting a charge voltage

danemayer · Jun 27, 2017

4V is a dead battery, or one with bad cells.

When on shore power, if everything is working correctly, the refrigerator will not draw power from the inverter because the refrigerator transfer switch will pull from a 120V circuit breaker.

On shore power, you should see the Power Converter output of 13.2-13.6V DC at the batteries.

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farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

With the red cables disconnected from the battery box and the positive lead of the multimeter on those cables and the negative lead on the ground of the battery box what should I read

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And I just checked the output of the converter I got 13 and a half volts coming out of the converter on the red and white cables so maybe the batteries are bad if they're bad pretty sucky their two-year-old energizer's from Sam's

danemayer · Jun 27, 2017

farside291 said:
With the red cables disconnected from the battery box and the positive lead of the multimeter on those cables and the negative lead on the ground of the battery box what should I read

Red cable to ground you'll be reading converter output 13.2 - 13.6. If not, either the manual reset 12V circuit breaker near the batteries has tripped, or the converter is unplugged/has blown on board fuses/is broken.

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farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

Dan where's that manual reset circuit breaker located at, is it one of the six small ones on the wall

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Fixed it small mini circuit breaker popped thank you Dan now how long do you think it'll take for my battery to charge back up from 4 volts

mlpeloquin · Jun 27, 2017

With the batteries drawn down to 4V, you may be needing to replace them soon. If you are lucky maybe not. Don't be surprised about that. The drawing down of lead acid batteries to that level has to have caused a lot of Sulphates and Sulphites to form, and you could also get the weakest cell to reverse polarity state. You cannot fix this by charging the battery. Just watch the batteries closely.

I have learned to always flip the breakers on only after unplugging and off before unplugging. It seems to be the major cause of that pesky breaker tripping. I always check it each time anyway.

farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

Are you talking about the breakers inside or the breakers at the pedestal, because that was going to be my next question. What causes that little mini circuit breaker to pop. The funny thing is a couple of weeks ago I posted how long it took for the batteries to run down running off of inverter without being plugged in, then I posted that the batteries did not charge back up off the truck when I arrived at my destination 300 miles later. I'll bet that breaker was propped then and the batteries have been in a discharged state for the past 3 weeks. I will check them Thursday when I leave. Thank you everyone for your help. Glad I caught it now and not at 6 AM Thursday when the level up would not work.

danemayer · Jun 27, 2017

farside291 said:
Dan where's that manual reset circuit breaker located at, is it one of the six small ones on the wall

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Fixed it small mini circuit breaker popped thank you Dan now how long do you think it'll take for my battery to charge back up from 4 volts

According to the Progressive Converter manual, 4 hours to get to 90%, 32 hours to get to a full charge. That's if the battery is ok.

farside291 · Jun 27, 2017

Thanks, I will wait. Good thing is, they are under warranty

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And I can turn the inverter on now with AC power applied

Smitty325 · Jun 29, 2017

Re: Using the Fridge Inverter while on AC power,

Folks, I find your conversation very interesting and most of it over my head. We took delivery of our Road Warrior 427 just a couple weeks ago and the technician that we worked with during delivery informed us that our Hisense refrigerator runs only on battery power, through the inverter. In fact, with exception of the heater, stove and oven, he told us EVERYTHING in the coach runs off the inverter. Furthermore, when on shore power, that energy is channeled to recharge the batteries.

While i think some of that is true, I don't know enough about it to consider turning anything off, especially as a we are new to the RV world. I suppose I need some RV power for dummies training.

LBR · Jun 29, 2017

Re: Using the Fridge Inverter while on AC power,

Smitty325 said:
Folks, I find your conversation very interesting and most of it over my head. We took delivery of our Road Warrior 427 just a couple weeks ago and the technician that we worked with during delivery informed us that our Hisense refrigerator runs only on battery power, through the inverter. In fact, with exception of the heater, stove and oven, he told us EVERYTHING in the coach runs off the inverter. Furthermore, when on shore power, that energy is channeled to recharge the batteries.

While i think some of that is true, I don't know enough about it to consider turning anything off, especially as a we are new to the RV world. I suppose I need some RV power for dummies training.

Plenty of reading on that to do here, and you will probably figure out that you were misinformed.

The Hisense runs off of 120 shore power from a breaker in the panel and also from the 1000W inverter. You can shut the 120 frig breaker off from shore power and the inverter will still power the frig.... priority is 120 shore power, if it isn't available then the inverter 12V to 120 will take over.

That inverter is dedicated to the refrigerator only unless factory has shifted gears just recently.

danemayer · Jun 29, 2017

Re: Using the Fridge Inverter while on AC power,

Smitty325 said:
Folks, I find your conversation very interesting and most of it over my head. We took delivery of our Road Warrior 427 just a couple weeks ago and the technician that we worked with during delivery informed us that our Hisense refrigerator runs only on battery power, through the inverter. In fact, with exception of the heater, stove and oven, he told us EVERYTHING in the coach runs off the inverter. Furthermore, when on shore power, that energy is channeled to recharge the batteries.

While i think some of that is true, I don't know enough about it to consider turning anything off, especially as a we are new to the RV world. I suppose I need some RV power for dummies training.

I'm about 99.99999% sure your technician is 100% wrong.

The residential refrigerators (run on 120V AC only) are powered through an automatic transfer switch. One input to the switch is from shore power (through a circuit breaker), and the other input is from an inverter powered by the batteries. Heartland did build some toy haulers where the inverter also powered an additional outlet near the refrigerator; maybe you have that.

Your batteries will not produce enough power to run things like the air conditioners, or a toaster, or microwave convection oven, or coffee pot, for more than a few minutes. if at all. The inverter supplied with the refrigerator is probably only 1,000 watts. Most 120V appliances draw more than that and will cause the inverter to shut down with an error code.

Using the Fridge Inverter while on AC power

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