Need Power to Fridge prior to our trip. Aux battery not an option right now

[lilhuffmans]

Hi! I have a 2003 Fleetwood Discovery with a Norco refrigerator. Right now we have corrosion on 1 of our 4 house/aux batteries so I cannot rely on them to power the fridge in preparation for our trip. I would like to plug the fridge into a residential outlet via an extension cord. I opened the panel, unplugged the fridge and plugged it in to the extension cord/house but I still have no power to the fridge. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Once we crank up we are good and when we are plugged in at the campsite we are good. It's the 24 hours in advance where I am stuck bc I need the fridge to get cold. Appreciate any guidance or links to instructions. Thanks!

 

[Great Horned Owl]

The refrigerator control board requires 12 vdc to operate. It does not need much current, so you could get by with something as small as two 6 volt lantern batteries in series.

Joel

 

[skydivemark]

Maybe clean the corroded battery connection.

 

[lilhuffmans]

Definitely fixing the corrosion problem, but can't get it done today and we leave tomorrow.

 

[Back2PA]

Definitely fixing the corrosion problem, but can't get it done today and we leave tomorrow.

Unfortunately as Great Horned stated, there's no way around it - to operate the fridge must have 12v (plus either propane or 120v power)

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

How is that outlet getting power - it only works when plugged to shore power or genset is running.

Run rhe fridge on propane rather than electric, but as the others have said, it still needs 12v for the circuit board regardless of how the heater is powered.

 

[John From Detroit]

Fixing the corrosion takes only about 30 minutes max.. IF it is a battery jumpered to another battery.. Forget it till you get parked.. IF you have 4 batteries and they are GC-2 6 Volt you can "Get by" with a single pair (10 minutes to disconnect the other pair. the other 20 is polishing up the terminal in case you wish to go that route.. I just did mine. I have a whole bunch)  You need basically the proper size wrench and a wire brush. OR knife for a rough job.  Make sure wrench does not touch any metal OTHER than the nut and terminal below it.. That's all there is to it.

Oh..... If you will be parking at the end of the day with shore power.. Engine will power fridge controls while driving via the isolator and converter when parked only tiem fridge MIGHT shut down is a fuel (Vehicle or driver) or other "pit stop" and it can go several hours w/o power.

 

[spdracr39]

In the time it took you to post this and read it you could have cleaned up the corrosion. No need to make a mountain out of a molehill with alternative engineering. Also when you are plugged into shore power the converter will power the 12v to the fridge regardless of the batteries.

 

[Alaskansnowbirds]

Hi! I have a 2003 Fleetwood Discovery with a Norco refrigerator. Right now we have corrosion on 1 of our 4 house/aux batteries so I cannot rely on them to power the fridge in preparation for our trip. I would like to plug the fridge into a residential outlet via an extension cord. I opened the panel, unplugged the fridge and plugged it in to the extension cord/house but I still have no power to the fridge. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Once we crank up we are good and when we are plugged in at the campsite we are good. It's the 24 hours in advance where I am stuck bc I need the fridge to get cold. Appreciate any guidance or links to instructions. Thanks!

You state in your post that you're good when plugged in at a campsite. So plug the refrigerator back in where you unplugged it and plug your RV into the extension cord. I assume you have a 50 to 30 adapter to plug into a 30 to 15 adapter. If not go to Walmart or your nearest ACE Hardware and get what you need. The refrigerator will cool just like when you're in a campsite.

 

[Drewd]

Your converter (converts 120 volts alternating current to 12 volts direct current) should power your fridge's circuit board which needs 12 V DC.  Your fridge runs on heat which is either provided by propane or by a 120 volt AC heating element.  BTW, most water heaters (dual) are also controlled by 12V DC and need propane or 120 volts AC to heat the water

Also, your heat and airconditioner's control board and your  is probably run off of 12V DC too'

Good luck.