DC fridge issue?

[Ranga]

I think my Novakool R3800 might have a bit of a cooling issue.

I've just fitted a bluetooth battery monitor (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-Vehicle-...2749.l2649) which seems to work well in monitoring voltage. Up the Burrum Coast over Australia Day weekend (admittedly it was low to mid 30s, but a nice breeze blowing), and during the nights the history showed the battery voltage (brand new Ritar 120Ah AGM) plateauing most of the time, and intermittent drops in voltage. This is the opposite of what I would normally expect to see, the voltage high most of the time, and dropping for a few minutes when the fridge kicks in.

This became very noticeable when the full battery would struggle to last overnight, with little more than the fridge and small LED lighting drawing from it.

Is this performance normal?

[loanrangie]

Any solar connected to keep it topped up , ideally need to monitor the amps usage to get a better picture of whats going on.

[drivesafe]

Hi Ranga, as above, we need a lot more info before we can get any idea of what might be happening.

Need to know how you maintained the battery before your trip.

If it is in your vehicle all the time, then how is it set up and what sort of driving times did you do in the weeks before your trip.

[Blknight.aus]

Ive had this issue with a fridge, it turned out to be a small wire dry jointed on the switch mode supply that was leaving the board half way active when the fridge was idle so it was always drawing about 2 amps, The annoying thing was it didnt always do it, so took an age to find.

my voltage pattern tended to be a nominal voltage, if the thing wasnt doing it
about a volt under if it was and
about 1.5 volts under while running.

it wasnt until I plugged in a monitoring amps gauge and volts gauge that I found it.

I also reworked the tiny wiring inside the frige for the 12V side and the delivery from the power suplly to the motor (all one multi cable) while I was at it and got the ams draw down about an amp when running.