Brand New Furrion 12V Fridge Not Cooling!

[Kirk]

While I do have an extensive electrical service background and a lot of years of RV experience, I have not worked on one of the Furrion units and have only seen a couple of them. While it is possible that the person who psted on the GD forum was right about what happened, I very much doubt that you have such a problem but I also think that you should not fool with it until you see what the dealer does. Most manufacturers consider unauthorized work on one to be a violation of the warranty because they have no way of knowing what has been done.

 

[Karen Morris]

Just an update. We were not able to attempt the battery disconnect/restart method due to this (see picture). The auxilary battery is in this compartment completely screwed down. We had to call the dealer to confirm that there was actually a battery in there! Neither one of us was comfortable taking the shroud off due to possible warranty issues so I am waiting for the tech to arrive Monday afternoon. Does anyone else have their auxiliary battery encased like this? Seems kind of strange to me but I'm new to RVs. I really appreciate the responses - thank you very much!

 

[Karen Morris]

While I do have an extensive electrical service background and a lot of years of RV experience, I have not worked on one of the Furrion units and have only seen a couple of them. While it is possible that the person who psted on the GD forum was right about what happened, I very much doubt that you have such a problem but I also think that you should not fool with it until you see what the dealer does. Most manufacturers consider unauthorized work on one to be a violation of the warranty because they have no way of knowing what has been done.

You bet! That's exactly what I'm doing I have to be patient I guess.....

 

[Kirk]

Does anyone else have their auxiliary battery encased like this? Seems kind of strange to me but I'm new to RVs. I really appreciate the responses -

Nothing strange about it and that is a pretty common battery box for RVs with the battery located in a storage area that is not open to the outside and wet cell batteries must have ventilation for safety reasons. The batteries are usually located in a space that is open to the outside and use a cheaper box because what you have costs several times what the more typical boxes have.

 

[Contributor]

You don't have to disconnect the fridge at the battery. You have a power distribution panel somewhere in the RV. There has to be a fuse or CB to the fridge, it's that simple.

Do you have a battery status meter? What is the voltage reading. Maybe you have a dead battery pulling down the converter 12V output.

 

[Contributor]

You can also try using the Battery Disconnect Switch


Battery Disconnect Switch
There is a master battery disconnect switch (see photo) located
in the large, front pass-thru compartment. When the RV is not
in use or storage, shut the battery disconnect switch off and
disconnect on of the battery cables from the auxiliary battery
terminal. Remember to reconnect the battery cable and turn
the battery disconnect switch on when you are ready to use the
RV or perform periodic maintenance checkups.

 

[Karen Morris]

You can also try using the Battery Disconnect Switch


Battery Disconnect Switch
There is a master battery disconnect switch (see photo) located
in the large, front pass-thru compartment. When the RV is not
in use or storage, shut the battery disconnect switch off and
disconnect on of the battery cables from the auxiliary battery
terminal. Remember to reconnect the battery cable and turn
the battery disconnect switch on when you are ready to use the
RV or perform periodic maintenance checkups.

Thank you I'm going to talk to the tech on Monday about the failsafe that is built into this fridge and hopefully he/she can attempt a reset to see if that works. At this point, I'm not doing anything that might jeopardize my warranty. Even though my brother in law is an industrial electrician, he wasn't at all comfortable with RV power issues. Fingers crossed! p.s. I found the disconnect switch

 

[Contributor]

Turn the disconnect switch off for a minute, you won't hurt anything. Turn it back on and see what happens.

 

[Larry N.]

We were not able to attempt the battery disconnect/restart method due to this (see picture). The auxilary battery is in this compartment completely screwed down. We had to call the dealer to confirm that there was actually a battery in there! Neither one of us was comfortable taking the shroud off due to possible warranty issues so I am waiting for the tech to arrive Monday afternoon.

If it's a typical OEM battery*, you'll need to get in there periodically to add (distilled) water to the cells, since letting them go dry will destroy the battery, and even just letting the water get too low can do some damage -- at best reduce capacity -- so you should be less shy about opening that. It's normal maintenance that you need to do.

---

* While most car batteries these days are maintenance free, that is not true of the "aux" or "house" batteries in most new rigs- they NEED water topped off from time to time.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The obvious thing to check would be whether there is now 12v power to the fridge. There must have been originally for the control panel lights to display, and Karen says she is able to select multiple cooling functions, so it would seem 12v power is NOT the issue. The only caveat to that is that 12v is present and enough to power the controller, but not sufficient to start the compressor (low voltage). Furion doesn't seem to have a diagnostic code or warning for that or anything else.

That said, a forced reset by removing 12v power and reconnecting is easy and worth a try. If the RV has a battery disconnect switch, just cycle it off for 20 seconds and then back on. If not, find the fuse for the fridge circuit in the power center panel and remove & replace.

Karen hasn't given us any factual clues like what the display panel is showing (freezer & fridge temperatures, cooling mode, etc. A picture of what the panel shows (or doesn't show) might help.

 

[Karen Morris]

UPDATE: Tech arrived today and did exactly what I was attempting to do on Saturday. He unplugged shore power and disconnected the battery for several minutes. Voila - I have a working fridge and freezer To recap - Furrion 12v fridge goes into "failsafe mode" when voltage gets below 10.5. It is supposed to restart automatically when voltage is higher but sometimes it doesn't. Easy fix. Hopefully other folks with the same issue can find this thread or the one I found. Thank you to everyone who offered their views and solutions - much appreciated!

 

[Contributor]

Did you ask why a new battery was down to 10.5 Volts? If you don't know why it discharged (bad battery?), you may be having this issue again.

 

[Karen Morris]

Did you ask why a new battery was down to 10.5 Volts? If you don't know why it discharged (bad battery?), you may be having this issue again.

The RV was on the lot for several weeks before I took delivery. Assuming that the battery drained enough to go below the threshold. If it happens again, I will be on the phone with service Very happy with their response to this issue.

 

[SpencerPJ]

I agree, fantastic after sale support. Glad you are working, enjoy.

 

[Karen Morris]

I agree, fantastic after sale support. Glad you are working, enjoy.

Thank you. They even called me back later in the day to make sure all was well. They definitely made it right.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

What's the name of the RV place that gave you such good service?

 

[Karen Morris]

Arbutus RV in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada. It's on Vancouver Island.

 

[jscottt]

I purchased a 2022 (new) Reflection 367BHS 5th wheel and it was delivered to my site on August 3rd. It was plugged into shore power at that point. This will be stationary and my primary residence. I went to the site today (Aug 5) to become familiar with all of the appliances, etc. When the unit was delivered I noticed that the lights and display were working on the fridge but I wasn't there long enough to check for cooling. Lo and behold, not cooling. I read the manual from front to back - tried changing all of the cooling functions - tried changing it to low power mode and then back to normal but nothing worked. This is a Furrion FCR16DCASA-SS 16 cuft side x side residential style fridge and unit has been connected to 50 amp shore power for almost 3 days. This unit has not been used!!!! I'm suspecting that the fridge never worked and it wasn't caught on PDI. Does anyone have thoughts or advice on 12v refrigerator? Waiting for service tech on Monday but if there's something else I can try, I would appreciate it. Oh, I also have 165 watts solar power if that makes any difference. Help!

Hey. We have a residential that as we know kills Batteries when dry Camping. Do any of yall have a 12 volt strictly 12 volt refrigerator. Have spent hours reviewing any and all info I can find on them. Even spoke to a couple of owners and have always been positive. Just wondering if any of yall have one and what you think. This is the one we believe we are going with. unique 370l/13 cu/ft solar powered dc refrigerator.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

A 12v fridge avoids the energy loss of using an inverter, so that's a plus. And the Unique is manual defrost, which also can save some energy. You didn't mention the size/model residential you now have, so I have no opinion as to how much this Unique 370 might benefit you.

 

[garyb1st]

We have a Unique 13 cu ft 12 volt refrigerator. Not sure of the model but likely the 370. It has worked flawlessly for the 3 years we have had it. Cools quickly and ready to use in about 4 hours. Ours is wired directly to the battery. As Gary RV_Wizard mentioned, it does not have a defrost feature. However, we have been on the road for up to 3 months and have not had excessive frost build up. We have 210 Ahs of lithium which based on our camping style is more than adequate for the fridge.