Need help in some ideas...

[Fishbrain]

So I came home today to a high pitch note coming from the fridge. Couldn't determine what the cause was and then looked at my amp meter and it was running at 7.4, so I turned the fridge off and high pitch note went away. First problem solved, but the van usually is charged at 12.3 -13.4 on a daily basis and I leave the van on shore power when it's parked in the driveway. I've never had any issues till today. The auxiliary battery is about 5 years old.

I went to go start the van, and it fired right up. No hesitation at all.
Any ideas?? Thanks in advance for your help...

[BroncoHauler]

That amount of current sounds very high, at least for a standard sized Norcold if that's what you have.

Was the fridge cold inside?


Herb

[larrie]

Originally Posted by Fishbrain

So I came home today to a high pitch note coming from the fridge.

Did the noise come back when you turned the fridge again? If so it could be a fridge problem.

[Fishbrain]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

That amount of current sounds very high, at least for a standard sized Norcold if that's what you have.

Was the fridge cold inside?


Herb

That reading was for the entire van...not just the fridge. From what I read, it's a fairly normal output when hooked to shore power.

[Fishbrain]

Originally Posted by larrie

Did the noise come back when you turned the fridge again? If so it could be a fridge problem.

Would that have drained the battery to such a low level...even when hooked to shore? Yes...noise came back when I turned it back on...just ran outside to try.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by Fishbrain

That reading was for the entire van...not just the fridge. From what I read, it's a fairly normal output when hooked to shore power.

Originally Posted by Fishbrain

Would that have drained the battery to such a low level...even when hooked to shore? Yes...noise came back when I turned it back on...just ran outside to try.

A little more info would help.

What kind of inverter/charger do you have?

What is the voltage level of the house system with the shore power/charger off? 12.4?
--------------------------------------------with the shore power/charger on? 13.4?


When you say the entire van is pulling 7+ amps are you saying DC out the back of the inverter/charger/battery system or AC power coming in?

While on shore power most vans have refrigerators that switch to AC so there should be no increase in DC amperage because of the fridge. So maybe you have the AC breaker off that feeds the fridge or maybe you have a refrigerator that only runs off DC only. What do you have?

My refrigerator pulls about 3 amps when it cycles on. If the inverter is on (a 2000 watt) total will be about 5-6 amps with nothing else on when disconnected from shore power. Plugging into shore power will actually lower the DC amperage when the refrigerator switches over as mentioned. But if the batteries are low and the charger is activated, the amperage will vary depending on how low their state of charge happens to be. If the batteries are sitting at a low voltage, about say 12.4, I can see a DC charge amperage of over 30 amps but it will taper off until the batteries are fully charged. Once that happens I normally see no more than an amp or two provided nothing DC is on including the inverter in the invert mode.
The charger output should taper off by morning with a moderately sized inverter/charger after taking the batteries to 12.2 the night before.

I can understand the fridge making noise (provided the AC is off to it) if the batteries are low and are overwhelming the chargers full load output.

There is plenty more that can be wrong or it can be as simple as a bad refrigerator or battery.

[larrie]

Originally Posted by Fishbrain

Would that have drained the battery to such a low level...even when hooked to shore? Yes...noise came back when I turned it back on...just ran outside to try.

It is possible that you something on the fridge is going bad. If the compressor or fan are starting to have betting problems they would start drawing more amps and making noises. You may want to pull the fridge to see exactly what part is making the noise.

[jage]

Also your house and starter batteries should be separate, in the sense that with an isolator (older than 2003ish) or a separator (newerish) the starters will not be drained regardless of what you do to the house. The house is what the fridge is on. There is not really ever an "whole van" reading.

If you're not SMB built, the details may vary but it would be rare I think in any build to skip either an isolator or separator and just tie it all into one set of batteries.

[Fishbrain]

Looks like it was just a bad fuse.....pretty lucky considering what it could have been.

Thanks everyone for your help. Much appreciated.