Fridge turning off at lower voltage - how to override this?

SuzaFan · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:29 am

Hi,

I have Vista V258 and ther is a Waeco fridge installed (I think it is Waeco, cannot chesk as my boat is 200 km away now...)
This fridge has some security system that it turns off when voltage drops to cca 11,5V (pretty high voltage still).
I don't need this security as I have 2 batteries and this causes me issues when I want to sleep over without shore power...
I remember that there were some instructions how to override this, but I cannot find it...
Can someone please help me.
Thanx in advance

Goran

ric · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:50 am

11.5 volts??? Your battery is dead. Force it to go lower and you're severely damaging the cells and they'll hold less and less charge and go dead much quicker. You need to upgrade the battery bank capacity (available amp hours).

acguy · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 10:55 am

My guess is you have a voltage drop and the wire gong to the fridge is not big enough. Run a bigger wire to the fridge and solve the problem the correct way. There is usually a control on the fridge and you need to add a jumper on it to let it run at a lower voltage. Do you have a
model # on the fridge?

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:11 am

ric wrote:

11.5 volts??? Your battery is dead. Force it to go lower and you're severely damaging the cells and they'll hold less and less charge and go dead much quicker. You need to upgrade the battery bank capacity (available amp hours).

I will add to this and say that if you run your fridge at any lower voltage than this you will damage the compressor hence the reason for a safety shutoff. How long off of shore power till you hit the 11.5 range?

SuzaFan · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 12:15 pm

Well, it might not be 11,5V exactly, but the fridge turns off pretty fast...after ca 2 hours...
I would still take the risk of overriding this safety feature...
Can someone explain what exactly I have to jump and where?
I don't have the model number cause I am pretty far away from my boat jow...

Partycove2 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 12:51 pm

ric wrote:

11.5 volts??? Your battery is dead. Force it to go lower and you're severely damaging the cells and they'll hold less and less charge and go dead much quicker. You need to upgrade the battery bank capacity (available amp hours).

Not exactly Ric, deep cycle batteries are designed just for this. That said, the OP did not mentioned the type of batteries installed.
My cockpit fridge is a Waeco and it does the same thing, I installed another deep cycle (I now have 2 group 31 deeps for the ship alone) and the fridge still shuts off after a couple hours while the cabin fridge (different manufacturer) can run for 24 plus hours.

I called Waeco to see how to over ride this a couple years ago and they would not tell me, said it was there to protect the compressor

Alan_G_298Vista · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 2:29 pm

Partycove2 wrote:

ric wrote:

11.5 volts??? Your battery is dead. Force it to go lower and you're severely damaging the cells and they'll hold less and less charge and go dead much quicker. You need to upgrade the battery bank capacity (available amp hours).

Not exactly Ric, deep cycle batteries are designed just for this. That said, the OP did not mentioned the type of batteries installed.
My cockpit fridge is a Waeco and it does the same thing, I installed another deep cycle (I now have 2 group 31 deeps for the ship alone) and the fridge still shuts off after a couple hours while the cabin fridge (different manufacturer) can run for 24 plus hours.

I called Waeco to see how to over ride this a couple years ago and they would not tell me, said it was there to protect the compressor

Totally agree with the comments that running your deep cycle batteries down does not harm them. We have a Norcold fridge and I posted the following which fixed ours:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9613&p=92481&hilit=voltage+drop#p92481

Search the internet, you may get lucky and find instructions on how to jumper that model to lower the low voltage safety shut-off. It will help to wire directly to the battery banks with proper gauge wire and an in-line fuse. Currently the wiring with the boat is to small and your going through the panel so an extra long run, this will all cause a voltage drop at the fridge.

SuzaFan · **Posted:** Sun Feb 02, 2014 5:07 pm

Hmm, ok, thanx, I will see what exactly model that is and try to google it... Ir throw it away and buy another fridge :evil:

Pilotpak · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:30 am

Hi Starfish,

I've got the same problem with the dual fridges on my 378 Vista.

Compressor starts to run then clicks out after about 40 seconds. Electrician found 8 volts at fridge, but my batts are fully charged.

Must be a bad connection somewhere - that was a few days ago - they're probably still racking up a huge bill looking for it !

TFD2001 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:32 am

Had this issue on my fridge in the cabin as well. Was told by Nova Cool that Four Winns specifically did not run heavy enough wire to the fridge, which causes the voltage to drop below the shut down thresh hold during compressor startup (I witnessed this as well on my multi-meter), and that the only real fix is to run heavier wire. I did the jumper fix initially, and that did prolong my fridge time but not much. Finally broke down and ran a new heavier wire and breaker, and now, it runs forever.. If I were you, I'd just run the new wire... It was not a fun task, and I was a bit perplexed as to why they actually ran the wire like that (it really added to the length, but also explained partly why they had the issue).. They ran 14ga wire to it, and according to Novacool (and most wiring people probably), for the draw and length of travel, needed 8-10 ga. I ran 10ga, and don't see the drop now on the Multi-meter..

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:49 am

TFD2001 wrote:

Had this issue on my fridge in the cabin as well. Was told by Nova Cool that Four Winns specifically did not run heavy enough wire to the fridge, which causes the voltage to drop below the shut down thresh hold during compressor startup (I witnessed this as well on my multi-meter), and that the only real fix is to run heavier wire. I did the jumper fix initially, and that did prolong my fridge time but not much. Finally broke down and ran a new heavier wire and breaker, and now, it runs forever.. If I were you, I'd just run the new wire... It was not a fun task, and I was a bit perplexed as to why they actually ran the wire like that (it really added to the length, but also explained partly why they had the issue).. They ran 14ga wire to it, and according to Novacool (and most wiring people probably), for the draw and length of travel, needed 8-10 ga. I ran 10ga, and don't see the drop now on the Multi-meter..

I'm re wiring mine this weekend and I'm wondering how you ran your wire. Did you go straight to the ship systems terminal on the battery switch? I have access to my house bank 5 feet away from the fridge because of my inverter....wondering if I should just tie in there and add a shutoff switch for when the boat is sitting on the trailer?

SuzaFan: Does your stereo shut off briefly when the fridge kicks on at that lower voltage?

SuzaFan · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:55 am

No,
my only problem is fridge...
No problems with stereo...
The fridge just stops working after ca 2-3 hours, when I am anchored...
When I turn on the engine, the fridge turns on immediately and everything is fine again...
I am about to buy new batteries for this Summer, but I suppose that it willnot solve the issue completely...it might be a bit better...
I would definitely like to override the safety settings if possible...

Bliss36 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:08 am

Ok just curious because after being anchored for a couple days our stereo momentarily shuts off every time the fridge cycles, and it usually happens around 12.1-11.9V. Wondering if yours was doing the same thing. I can't help you with the bypass as I'm only familiar with Norcold fridges, but I think the new batteries will help for sure.

TFD2001 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:38 am

I'm not convinced that new batteries will do the trick. The wiring is still likely the root cause of the problem. The bypass, if it is the same as what mine was, only lowered the cutoff voltage 1 volt or less, so, in my case, because of the wiring, it would still drop below that cutoff point after a short time on batteries. I've added extra sets of batteries to my boat, and should have the battery capacity to run my fridges at minimum 2 days without starting a motor or generator, but I wasn't even getting 4 hours. After the wiring switch, I've yet to have it shut off during a weekend on the hook, mildly running the stereo, and also running the cockpit fridge to keep the beer cold (which never has had the problem mentioned in this thread, but is a Norcold I believe)..

Bliss, I just retraced the original wiring from the control panel in the cabin, to the fridge. The wiring to the control panel, is apparently heavy enough... However, the fridge is on the opposite side of the cabin from the panel, and to do that run, they went all the way around to the stern, through the engine compartment, and back up the other side.. I followed the same route, and with a lot of cussing, got it done. I wouldn't have gained a whole lot if I just went straight to the battery switch as you spoke, so I just kept it "stock" so to speak.. If you have that close of a shot, I would probably do as you're suggesting, for the simple fact, the shorter the run, and the less stuff in the run (breakers and switching and what not), the better off you'll be. Ideally, the more direct you are to the batteries, the better wiring wise, but you also have to make it manageable for purposes like you mentioned...

Alan_G_298Vista · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:00 am

TFD2001 wrote:

I'm not convinced that new batteries will do the trick. The wiring is still likely the root cause of the problem. The bypass, if it is the same as what mine was, only lowered the cutoff voltage 1 volt or less, so, in my case, because of the wiring, it would still drop below that cutoff point after a short time on batteries. I've added extra sets of batteries to my boat, and should have the battery capacity to run my fridges at minimum 2 days without starting a motor or generator, but I wasn't even getting 4 hours. After the wiring switch, I've yet to have it shut off during a weekend on the hook, mildly running the stereo, and also running the cockpit fridge to keep the beer cold (which never has had the problem mentioned in this thread, but is a Norcold I believe)..

Bliss, I just retraced the original wiring from the control panel in the cabin, to the fridge. The wiring to the control panel, is apparently heavy enough... However, the fridge is on the opposite side of the cabin from the panel, and to do that run, they went all the way around to the stern, through the engine compartment, and back up the other side.. I followed the same route, and with a lot of cussing, got it done. I wouldn't have gained a whole lot if I just went straight to the battery switch as you spoke, so I just kept it "stock" so to speak.. If you have that close of a shot, I would probably do as you're suggesting, for the simple fact, the shorter the run, and the less stuff in the run (breakers and switching and what not), the better off you'll be. Ideally, the more direct you are to the batteries, the better wiring wise, but you also have to make it manageable for purposes like you mentioned...

x2 - Do the wiring change, we witnessed the same voltage drop issues at our cabin fridge, we jumpered it also. If your only 5 feet away you've got a lot nicer job then most! I went directly off the end of the house bank (three group 31 batteries) with an inline fuse. You should also be able to shut your fridge off with the temp control dial, mine has an off position (Novacool). We run both cockpit and cabin fridges all weekend, Friday night to Sunday afternoon and the big cabin fridge stays good and cold, never shuts off. My battery voltage still shows mid to low 11's for volts at the end of the weekend with my battery bank. Best part is you don't need or have to listen to any bloody generators all weekend!

www.iFourWinns.com

Fridge turning off at lower voltage - how to override this?

Who is online