3 way fridge confusion - please help

[KellyV]

Hello!,

I had my 3 year old 3-way Dometic fridge removed from my RV. I am now trying to sell it and when I was asked to prove it works, I plugged the electrical plug into my home garage GFI outlet. The fridge did not turn on.  I assumed it would work as a stand alone fridge with it just plugged into a wall outlet?  Or does it need to be ALSO wired into an RV fridge space to work in electric mode? Or to a battery AS WELL? The fridge was working perfectly when it was removed (I did not remove it myself, that is why I don?t know?..). Thank you!

 

[Rene T]

You'll need 12 Volt DC power to the control board.

 

[KellyV]

Thank you Rene.  So basically I?d have to go buy a 12V battery and rig it up to the fridge and plug it in to get it to work just sitting in my garage?

 

[Gizmo100]

Thank you Rene.  So basically I?d have to go buy a 12V battery and rig it up to the fridge and plug it in to get it to work just sitting in my garage?

For the purpose of selling it you could just run some wires to your car battery. The RV Fridge use very little 12 volt power to run on 120 volts.

I would use a fused line if you decide to go in this direction.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Don't try the 12v cooling mode when jury-rigged to a car or other battery - it draws a LOT of current (amps).  LP gas or 120v electric mode should work fine - neither uses much DC at all - less than one amp.

 

[NY_Dutch]

For testing purposes, I've used a small 12-volt lawn tractor battery with a battery charger connected to it.

 

[grashley]

One of those free standing car jump start batteries can provide the needed 12VDC as well.