Bad weekend- lost power and fridge!

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tnt4him

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Jul 21, 2014
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Hi, I have 98 pop up trailer and last weekend I went to connect the recharged battery. One would think that black means negative and white positive. Not so on this one. It sparked a little and I groaned. The battery fuse was blown on the converter so I replaced it but the power failed to come back on so we spent the evenings operating flashlights. Did the fuse fail to protect the converter?
The other problem is the fridge. It worked fine until day 3 when I returned to the campsite. I adjusted it a little lower and then it stopped working. The pilot light remained on and the burner was still hot but the cooling tubes were cool to the touch. I tried adjusting the level of the trailer but I suspect the sediment has settled and blocked the passage of the ammonia somehow. Anyone know any techniques to free blocked sediment?
 
..... The battery fuse was blown on the converter so I replaced it but the power failed to come back on so we spent the evenings operating flashlights. Did the fuse fail to protect the converter?

Maybe but.... There are often two fuses (battery + side and Ground - side) in the charging side of some converters. There may also be a circuit breaker that popped as well protecting the 120V input  side. If no 12Volts (Lights etc) came on with just the battery in place, there may be another fuse somewhere that protects the 12V wiring further down the line and before the individual 12V distribution fuses.

Knowing the make and model of the converter may help as diagrams etc can often be found on line.
 
A word of caution.. In most of the electronics and automotoive world your assumptions on colors should work well (MOST not ALL) however HOUSE wiring is different, In a house 120/240 vac system the BLACK is the HOT wire, White is neutral and neutral is bonded to ground...  RVs are usually wired by ELECTRICIANS, not by Electronic Technicians such as my self.  Thankfully I have a bit of cross training so I do not screw up very often.

It is very possible your Fridge, Water heater and such have been damaged by the reverse polarity..  Now that damage may be just a fuse, in addition to the panel fuse there are several fuses outside (Two different circuit boards both have fuses on them) IF I were designing the control boards I would have designed in protection.. But alas, I did not design them.

IF you have toasted a control board or 3,, May I suggest Dinosaur Boards.. .I did not check for reverse polarity protection on my furnace board.. But I did notice they put other protections on it the original (Atwood) board did not have.

But one can hope it is a blown fuse.. ONE type of reverse polarity protection just blows fuses.
 

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