Thread: Problem with Battery/Fridge/DBS

OK, so fridge was checked at 12.00pm, battery is at 12.26, fridge temp is 10c and erroring out (turned off) seems like the fridge is cutting out too early and looking at the temp it has been off for a while.

So looks like we have found the problem, now we just got to get Waeco to except the warrenty claim, might be a bit hard, according to Waeco when the fridge errors it has a red light that flashes, the time of the flashes determins what the problem is, the fridge is flashing once every 5 seconds, this indicates low battery, now I don't consider 12.30 low and as the cut off is set to 11.40, neither should the fridge, that would be my assumption.

OK Kerry has spoken to Waeco, they have suggested we check the cable and the volts at the plug, if these are OK and reading is the same volts as the battery, then it can only be two things, a bad connection inside the fridge at the plug or a faulty cut out causing it to cut out too early.

The fun begins, the service agent wants the car and fridge to check it all.

Baz.

Hi Baz, make sure you have a load on the battery.

Running the fridge for a few minutes before you test will be enough to give you a more accurate reading, tset while the fridge is still running.

Keep the feedback coming.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Baz, make sure you have a load on the battery.

Running the fridge for a few minutes before you test will be enough to give you a more accurate reading, tset while the fridge is still running.

Keep the feedback coming.

Thanks Tim, the fridge is still in the car, Waeco have given us a proceedure to do before we check it, it's basically restarting the fridge and re-setting things to get it to stop erroring.

Baz.

OK the fridge is re-set and low battery is now set to LOW 10.8V (accoring to Waeco) fridge was running uplugged the plug from the fridge, put the multimeter on it, 12.15v, went around to the battery did the same 12.15v.

I could go on about the twirp at the sevice place, waffling on about it's your wiring, never replaced one of those, you know blah blah blah but I won't

Baz.

Hi Baz, try plugging in the fridge and testing the voltage as close to the fridge while it’s running.

It’s quite common for the wiring in a vehicle to cause a fridge, especially a Waeco fridge, to go to LOW VOLTAGE cut-out but in your case, your fridge use to work OK.

So have you changed something or is your fridge just getting temperamental with age?

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Baz, try plugging in the fridge and testing the voltage as close to the fridge while it’s running.

It’s quite common for the wiring in a vehicle to cause a fridge, especially a Waeco fridge, to go to LOW VOLTAGE cut-out but in your case, your fridge use to work OK.

So have you changed something or is your fridge just getting temperamental with age?

The only thing that's changed is the battery, which we replaced in January this year, I'll check it tomorrow, thanks.

Curiousity got the better of me, broke into the wires as close to the plug as possible, about 4" from the plug, 11.80 at the fridge and 11.71 at the battery, it took me a minute or two to get to the battery, I think it's safe to say the battery is not the problem.

Baz.

Checked again this morning, 11.6, decided that was low enough and reconnected everything back up, I wasn't comfortable taking the voltage down any further, we are going to take the fridge to a service agent and have it checked.

Before we do I might charge the battery again and set the cut out to high (12.0v) and see what happens.

Baz.

Hi Baz and at 11.6v, your battery is down to 20% SoC.

Thats a tad low but as long as you have it back on a charger straight away, that shouldn’t be a problem.

My personal choice is to try not to let an auxiliary battery get below 30% SoC, 11.75v, but some of the Calcium/Calcium battery manufacturers are now saying 20% SoC is fine.

Anyway, see what happens with the 12v setting.