Is power converter going bad

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butchiiii

butchiiii

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Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Posts
347
Location
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Hi folks. I think that my brother in law's converter is going bad. While plugged in to shore power
it will shut of power randomly. Symptoms are about every  30 minutes or so you can hear the fan
start up then the power goes off. Is this a bad converter or could it be something else.
Model # is WFCO  WF-8914. Unit is in a 2006 TT  I should clarify and say that the lights go very
dim. Not that the power goes off.
Thanks for the help.
 
Well the fan is temperature (Thermostat) controlled so

In very bright sun it runs. period. Plugged in or not (12 volt fan)
on a very cold day it may well never run
In between it cycles. Just like air conditioning for it is doing the same job (cooling the electronics in the converter)

It may also run faster or slower depending on how hot it is.

Now you said power is lost.. 12 volt 120 volt, or both.

120 volt it is NOT the converter but may be loose wires in the power distribution box.. (I had that problem) UNPLUG and tighten every connection then plug back in

If 12 volt.. You have other issues not just the WFCO. Likely a shorted battery 

To test for this lift the NEGATIVE lead off the battery terminal and lay it aside (no need to insulate just keep it away from the POSITIVE lead) if lights work 100% no cut out then what is happening is the battery is sucking so much current a self-resetting circuit breaker is tripping

When the breaker trips you have lights.. When it resets the battery sucks everything

IF NOTHING works with the battery disconnected. .THEN the converter becomes suspect. But still not confirmed.

 
A converter can act strange like that if the batteries are bad. It will either overheat trying to charge, or shut down because it thinks the battery is shorted (amps too high).  If the lights go very dim when the converter shuts down, obviously the batteries are near-dead.
 
Thanks John and Gary. We will pull the battery and go have it tested.
Will let you know the results.
Thanks
 
Here is what we found out. We tested the battery first and it was DEAD. Voltage reading was on 4.65v never
have seen 1 so low. Got a new battery and installed it. Hook TT up to shore power and tested the voltage at the
battery which showed about 14.0v so I assumed that the converter was working. Sat around inside the trailer
for a couple of hours to see if the symptoms from yesterday would re-appear. They did not. Unhooked from
shore power and turned on some DC loads for about a 1/2 hour than check battery voltage which was reading about 12.5v.
So I guess the problem was the battery.
Thanks for the help.
 
Well it was at least part of the problem.. With shore power on the battery voltage should not drop below 13  unless you are running a whole LOT of 12 volt stuff.. However ... it can happen. If it gets any lwoer you need to meter the output of the converter. It should be 13.6 or higher depending on mode.
 
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