No Power to Fridge (Haier) when not on Shore Power

cgroll

Member
Smarter people than me,

2020 Bighorn Traveler 32RS.
When I disconnect from shore power, power on the inverter ( both from the inverter or remote switch) I have no power at the wall plate for the fridge.
The inverter is also showing ZERO Amp draw with 13.2 volts

No fridge lights or display on the door.
No Power to wall outlet

Troubleshooting:
1) Plugged electric drill into inverter which worked and drew 12.5 amps on the inverter
2) Pulled cover for Inverter transfer box and confirmed voltage at input and output wires of PCB
3) Confirmed voltage at Molex connectors coming from Inverter and leading up to wall plate.

After molex connectors the wires dive into the coach undercarriage area.

Where I am confused is two fold.

1)The same feed line powers the fridge for shore power and battery power via inverter. so why does it not work when on inverter. Power is being supplied to hot line
2) Inverter showing zero amp draw from circuit when shore power is disconnected.

I do not believe it is the inverter having an issue with amp draw because it will run a 1/2 corded Craftsman drill direct from inverter and I do not believe it is a fridge amp draw problem because I pull the fridge plug and there is no power at the wall plate.

Please help, My beer is going to get warm.
 
Last edited:

LBR

Well-known member
Check the inverter itself. There is a GFCI on that dual plugin.....reset it.
 

cgroll

Member
Check the inverter itself. There is a GFCI on that dual plugin.....reset it.
Inverter is working fine, I have power all the way from the inverter down to the Molex connectors which lead to the wall outlet but nothing at the outlet. See attached pic. I have power out of inverter

One more thing I forgot to mention, I plugged a 110V extension cord direct into the Inverter switch and still nothing to the fridge but I have power coming out of switch.
 

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cgroll

Member
I think I have narrowed it down to the inverter transfer switch. I can plug in a cord from inverter direct to fridge and it works by passing transfer switch.

Not sure why I would still have 110V coming out without shore power but this is the route I am heading down now.
 

cgroll

Member
Well new switch received and installed same issue.

Further troubleshooting:
1. Ohm out wiring from Molex connector to outlet and have good continuity on all wires.
2. Run jumper power at the molex from inverter switch direct to fridge and powers fridge just fine

3. Still showing 120v when inverter, switch and all wires plugged in per OEM installation but no power to fridge.

The only way I can run fridge on 12v is to bypass the wiring that runs through the rig at the molex connector and go straight to the fridge.

This confuses me because per the Heartland wiring diagram this wire is a shared run between shore power and inverter power.

I guess I will install a new cable run next and see what happens.
 

david-steph2018

Well-known member
I think I have narrowed it down to the inverter transfer switch. I can plug in a cord from inverter direct to fridge and it works by passing transfer switch.

Not sure why I would still have 110V coming out without shore power but this is the route I am heading down now.
The inverter is made to take 12VDC (battery power) and it invert it to 110VAC. So, without shore-power supplied, you would be getting 110VAC thru inverter from the batteries, if the inverter is turned on.
 

cgroll

Member
The inverter is made to take 12VDC (battery power) and it invert it to 110VAC. So, without shore-power supplied, you would be getting 110VAC thru inverter from the batteries, if the inverter is turned on.
Correct and that is what I have 110v out of inverter it’s just not making it all the way to the fridge outlet for some reason when on the inverter power. It dies off somewhere after the switch intro the belly.
 

david-steph2018

Well-known member
You 110VAC coming out of the inverter, do you have 110VAC coming out of the transfer switch?
If so, did you check to see if there are any problems with the outlet, maybe bad connections or burnt connections in the outlet itself. Some people lately have discovered the outlet connections have been burnt or melted inside the outlet box.
 

centerline

Well-known member
if the wall outlet is wired in series with a GFCI that is eleswhere in the circuit, you can have 110 going to the line that runs to the outlet, but the outlet wont have power output if the gfci is tripped....

as long as there is 110v power in the circuit, when on shore power or inverter power, then the transfer switch and the inverter is working properly.... so all that is left is the last part of the circuit that you cant actually see..... so by process of elimination, i think we have came to the conclusion that, either, the circuit you are seeing power on is NOT actually the fridge circuit.... OR, the wall outlet circuit for the fridge is on a tripped gfci, or the wall outlet itself has either failed or a wire has come loose from it.... its highly unlikely that the circuit wire between where you are seeing power and the outlet that has no power, has been cut or damaged..... and without tripping a circuit breaker..

this leaves only 2 items to check.... make sure there is no other outlet/gfci on that circuit to make sure its not just a tripped circuit... NOT tripped at at the power panel, but at an OUTLET........then, pull the wall outlet that has no power, and see if there is a loose wire or damaged receptacle .... the problem should be found at one or the other of these places......
 

cgroll

Member
PROBLEM RESOLVED!!! What a pain

I appreciate all the feedback.

I am sure my previous post seemed all over but the troubleshooting was methodical.

I always had 120v coming out of the inverter into the inverter switch and out of the switch when disconnected from shore power. 120V was measured all the down to the set of Molex connectors in the front compartment where the wiring dove under the rig.

Last night I pulled the fridge out and started tracing the wiring backwards from the outlet, behind the stove, under the cabinets and found that it ended behind the fireplace somewhere. Pulled the fireplace and found 4 more Molex connections behind it. I immediately saw a supply line coming up from the floor with a white label where none of the others had a label. I immediately suspected this may be the correct supply line for the refrigerator from the inverter side but it was plugged into the outlet for the fireplace. Started doing voltage checks, shore power on/off, inverter power on/off. Voila, Heartland wired the rig wrong. They had the inverter supply voltage wired to the fireplace Swapped that line with the line I traced back to the fridge and we now have proper power source when on shore power and when on inverter power.

What a pain in the rear.

Below pic is after i swapped connectors and corrected.

2020 Heartland correct wiring.png
 
GCRoll - I am glad I found this post, because on my new 35BK, I have the same problem. I already found bad wiring on my leveling system, and now I'm trying to trace the exact same problem you have. I'm going to study this post and see what I can find.

Seems Heartland needs some QA somewhere along their installation line.
 
Well, I came home, all hopeful that I'd see the exact same thing as CGRoll (sorry for the earlier GCRoll call out) and have it fixed just like THAT - but no... no such luck. I think Heartland does this stuff just to give us stuff to do on the weekends.

So - I guess I can continue this thread, because it's the exact same problem as CGRoll, but on a different coach.

Symptoms are EXACTLY the same: input power fine, output power on the inverter is fine, no load indications on the LED Readout. Haier Refrigerator works fine on shore power, dies when disconnected. Battery is fine (brand new), connections to the tow vehicle is fine. no breakers popped. I am firmly convinced it is a wiring issue (no QA at the installation plant, I'm sure) - and I was hoping to find the bank shown in CGRoll's picture. My fireplace is on the other side of the coach as his 32RS (I looked there anyway - no luck) and I traced the power from the refrigerator aft underneath some drawers and found 3 of these... could these be the similar connectors as CGRolls? Anyone think a mis-wiring is in one of these?
 

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I thought I had a bead on this problem. The symptoms are exactly the same as CGRoll's, (residential refrigerator without power when disconnected from shore power) and I metered out all of the Molex connectors to see if I had 110v coming in from the inverter when separated from shore power. But no... it couldn't be that simple. The wiring seems to be a mess.

I'm attaching a simple wiring diagram of what I found. And a picture of the wire nut kludge, which is a little disconcerting.

So - with shore power disconnected, I went through and checked every outlet - just about everything I could find to see if I had 110v somewhere... anywhere, but I cannot find any. I know I have 110v coming out of the inverter -into the transfer switch. I just don't know where it's going. And I don't know (at least I cannot find) whether there is a fuse or breaker anywhere between the transfer switch and its destination.

So - would anyone have any ideas on where I can check next? All ideas welcome!
 

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david-steph2018

Well-known member
I thought I had a bead on this problem. The symptoms are exactly the same as CGRoll's, (residential refrigerator without power when disconnected from shore power) and I metered out all of the Molex connectors to see if I had 110v coming in from the inverter when separated from shore power. But no... it couldn't be that simple. The wiring seems to be a mess.

I'm attaching a simple wiring diagram of what I found. And a picture of the wire nut kludge, which is a little disconcerting.

So - with shore power disconnected, I went through and checked every outlet - just about everything I could find to see if I had 110v somewhere... anywhere, but I cannot find any. I know I have 110v coming out of the inverter -into the transfer switch. I just don't know where it's going. And I don't know (at least I cannot find) whether there is a fuse or breaker anywhere between the transfer switch and its destination.

So - would anyone have any ideas on where I can check next? All ideas welcome!
Is there 110VAC coming out of the transfer switch?
If there is power from the inverter to the transfer switch then none out of the transfer switch, it could be bad.
 
david-steph2018 - thanks for the reply. Yes - I have 110v coming out of the transfer switch. I haven't done much to trace the wiring out of the transfer switch (it one output (load) and it goes into a Molex connector. That's where I verified there is in fact 110v coming out. I didn't really try tracing the wire too much (it goes behind a bunch of stuff and into the coach. I was hoping I'd find the 110v somewhere else with a meter.

Thanks for thinking of my problem!!
 

david-steph2018

Well-known member
david-steph2018 - thanks for the reply. Yes - I have 110v coming out of the transfer switch. I haven't done much to trace the wiring out of the transfer switch (it one output (load) and it goes into a Molex connector. That's where I verified there is in fact 110v coming out. I didn't really try tracing the wire too much (it goes behind a bunch of stuff and into the coach. I was hoping I'd find the 110v somewhere else with a meter.

Thanks for thinking of my problem!!
Then that wire should go straight to the fridge outlet. It does on our Road Warrior. On our rig there are 2 outlets side-by-side at the fridge. I would suggest shutting down 110VAC power, going to inverter power and see if either of these are still on 110VAC, if you have not done so yet.
When you tested the transfer switch, where you on shore power or inverter?
 
Then that wire should go straight to the fridge outlet. It does on our Road Warrior. On our rig there are 2 outlets side-by-side at the fridge. I would suggest shutting down 110VAC power, going to inverter power and see if either of these are still on 110VAC, if you have not done so yet.
When you tested the transfer switch, where you on shore power or inverter?
I've checked this disconnected from shore power - and the power is still coming out of the inverter/transfer switch. My refrigerator only has a single outlet to it. But let me ask this (because I really don't know) ... where is the logic built in that says "once shore power is disconnected, stop with the power from shore and start pumping in from the 110v inverter." Is the inverter power always there, but is the only power that remains when shore power is disconnected? Is there some kind of fuse/logic mechanism that I need to check?
 
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