Wiring Discovery 4 to AES dometic fridge

hadaknocktothehead · 3rd March 2014, 08:57 PM

Ok, so after much investigation and also some valued help from this forum I have nutted out the easiest way that I can to wire my dometic AES caravan fridge off the D4 and also using Anderson Plug.
It goes like this,
Anderson plug from car fed through redarc VSR which connects directly to dometic fridge in van. Did this as the van fridge is large and requires up to 23amps to run. Thought about charging van house batt then running fridge off that but hey don't need charge in house batt whilst on road as nothing being used and only require house batt when free camping etc so can top that up with solar panel/genny or use shore power where available to charge. Fridge is most important to me/beers,icecream etc.
New dometic AES fridge requires an ignition/supply signal from car to tell it which power source to choose. It checks in order, 240 volt/DC12volt/Gas, and then operates on whichever it sees first in that priority.
So I needed to give it a signal from the supplementary plug at the rear of the Disco. Easypeasy, just used another trailer 7 pin plug except removed the centre pin as its gender is incorrect for this plug at the car end, then wired 1 wire only to pin 6 which is actually a dedicated ignition feed for a fridge. This supply may be ok for other small fridges in the UK but is not large enough to cope with this particular fridges demands. Hence why the Anderson plug set up. This wire now goes to the +D connection at fridge which tells fridge to operate from 12DC when ignition is on. Negative/earth return is achieved through Anderson plug more than adequately.
I have also painted the new plug white to correspond with car supplementary socket to avoid any possible mismatch by helpful teenage kids or from my chief advisor.
When car is stopped the fridge is off and does not care and will not try to draw from the DC supply, in fact it will now try to fire up on gas until some sort of supply is reinstated. If we stop for extended periods I will simply turn gas cock on.
Hope this helps someone else, any questions or comments please feel free.
Cheers for now......

**ADMIRAL** · 3rd March 2014, 09:18 PM

Don't know much about the AES Dometic, but I have found it is best not to be too optimistic about running the caravan fridge on 12volt. Regardless of of the set up, I have found the 12 volt will at best maintain the temperature already set by your 240volt or gas. The 12volt element is just not up to it. Try running the 12 volt circuit from a 240/12volt transformer, and you will see what I mean. Maybe the AES is better, but if I had the opportunity ( and funds ) i would switch to a compressor type caravan fridge and go battery with full solar charging when 12volt is unavailable from the vehicle.

A hint on the plug. I you purchase a 7 pin plug and socket of the same type, the centre pin is generally switchable, then you have a matching plug for your socket. Then you cannot plug it into the wrong socket.

**drivesafe** · 3rd March 2014, 10:02 PM

Hi had and you can do away with the VSR as the D+ does the same thing.

hadaknocktothehead · 6th March 2014, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by ADMIRAL

Don't know much about the AES Dometic, but I have found it is best not to be too optimistic about running the caravan fridge on 12volt. Regardless of of the set up, I have found the 12 volt will at best maintain the temperature already set by your 240volt or gas. The 12volt element is just not up to it. Try running the 12 volt circuit from a 240/12volt transformer, and you will see what I mean. Maybe the AES is better, but if I had the opportunity ( and funds ) i would switch to a compressor type caravan fridge and go battery with full solar charging when 12volt is unavailable from the vehicle.

A hint on the plug. I you purchase a 7 pin plug and socket of the same type, the centre pin is generally switchable, then you have a matching plug for your socket. Then you cannot plug it into the wrong socket.

Thanks for input, I do not expect too much other than maintaining temp and would also love compressor style fridge for van but funds can and usaully do run short eventually.
thanks for tip on plug/socket as I did not consider pulling out male pin from socket, der me.....moment of stupidity, oh well. I am allowed one just dont tell chief advisor that I made an error.
BTW I still run two waecos for the really important stuff which run off another seperate batt and also off a arc pak set up that is in car....really cold beers, sundried tomatoes, and eye fillet steaks is what I call important, dont forget a can of coke for the bourbon nightcap.....
Cheers and happy travels............

hadaknocktothehead · 6th March 2014, 09:53 PM

Thanks but will keep VSR as I also sometimes charge to arcpark via same anderson lead off car. Thanks for response though and Cheers

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