www.iFourWinns.com

We have a Waeco frig in our 2006 288 Vista that will not get cold on 12v DC but runs perfectly on 110 v shorepower. Our battery configuration is three batteries, one dual purpose battery dedicated to the port engine and one for the starboard engine, and I just replaced the ships system battery with a group 31 Marine/RV deep cycle battery. When on 12v power, the compressor will start and the shut off after 10 seconds or so and you can hear what sounds like a fan running. After a minute or so, the compressor will kick on, run for a short duration and then shut down. While in this cycling mode, the frig stays cool, but not cold and the items in the freezer defrost. It appeared it wasn't getting enough power, but when switching on the port and starboard engine batteries, the result is the same. Anyone have any thoughts on what could be going on? Thanks for your consideration.

_________________
"One Moor Time" 2006 288 Vista
"Kalin II" 1995 258 Vista
"Kalin" 1985 Four Winns 215 Santara

I don't have a Vista, and I'm awful at electrical stuff, but I think I remember reading here that the gauge of the wire for power to the fridge in FW's are too small. The fix is to run higher gauge (thicker) wire to the fridge?

_________________

1996 205 Sundowner DLX
5.0FL Volvo SX Cobra
Tow Veh: 2012 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X

Thanks for your response. I'm not doubting what you say may be true but it seems incredible that it would leave the factory in this state, or for that matter, leave the drawing board. As I stated in my last reply, I will be pulling the frig to investigate.

_________________
"One Moor Time" 2006 288 Vista
"Kalin II" 1995 258 Vista
"Kalin" 1985 Four Winns 215 Santara

+1 Had this exact same problem, fridge fan starts but failed to start the compressor. Removed the fridge to find a 16 gauge positive wire and a 16 gauge ground that was also shared with the power outlet and stereo. The wiring also goes through a small fuse and a ship systems breaker, but the fridge manual asks for a higher gauge wire without all the interuptions. I ran 2 10 gauge wires directly to the battery with one fuse....works perfectly now

_________________
Our Boating Blog: http://ben-dana.blogspot.com/

2005 268 Vista "Sea Pickle II"
1979 AMF Alcort Puffer
Previous:
2003 FW190 Horizon
1973 Startcraft 18ft "Sea Pickle"

+1, I had the same problem on 2000 328. I have changed the wires to a bigger ones and no more problem up to now!

Thank you for your response. I will plan to do the when I can get to the boat. How does this wiring configuration work with the 110v connection to shore power?

_________________
"One Moor Time" 2006 288 Vista
"Kalin II" 1995 258 Vista
"Kalin" 1985 Four Winns 215 Santara

+1 Mine was the exact same (different fridge, but same results).. Upped the gauge of the wire from 14 to 10 (fridge manufacturer recommended maybe even 8 because of length, I used 10 because I had it).. Problem went away. On mine, the wiring route was kind of silly, but I matched what they did. For mine, the reason it worked fine on the AC, was because the AC/DC converter on the back of the fridge, had same gauge wire to the controller on the fridge as the DC supply from the battery, but it was all of 4 inches long, not 50' long, like the DC supply from the battery was, so the loss wasn't that much. You could see what happened on my fridge with a meter. The fridge had a "low voltage shutoff" on it, to in theory protect the battery from being drained all the way.. THe problem, with that was that when on battery for any time at all, you could watch the meter, see that you had a good 12v supply, but as soon as that compressor would try to fire, it would drop the voltage below that safety cutoff, and shut it off. Higher gauge wire I would put money on, will fix your problem..

_________________


2004 Four Winns 328 Vista
1997 Larson Cabrio 290 - sold
1988 Rinker Fiesta Vee 248 - sold