I literally as I checked it I saw 10 volts on fridge. As I went to check the battery voltage the fridge locked out and I saw the voltage rise so I presume the battery voltage was low aswell. I got to take kids out now so i had to stop. I think I was getting tricked by solar panel. I will have to take solar fuse out or do it at night time cos once the sun Is out it runs fine. Do you think its battery?
sounding like battery, just cover solar panel with a blanket when testing next time,that will eliminate its influence. a healthy battery should only drop a few tenths of a volt ,eg 12.8v to 12.5v or 12.6 v when compressor is running. You might be reading solar voltage at battery terminals and not battery state of charge. make sure all chargers etc are turned off when running battery tests. How old is your battery and how many times have you run it below 50 per cent state of charge ( SOC )
Battery was put in when we had van converted. That was march 17. Probably a couple of times under 50% but since we had solar it stays charged all the time.
OK To test battery make sure nothing is inputing power to the battery, leave it sit for a few hours, then run your tests again or you said you had another battery , charge that one to 100 per cent then connect it to your fridge through the existing cabling , if all works ok then it is your leisure battery
I am thinking it's a combination of cable between the controller and fridge. Also quite a bit of losses through the controller which houses the fridge fuse. I also thought the battery was losing a bit aswell but I just been and had that checked by bournemouth battery centre and they said it's an excellent battery in near new condition. So tommorrow I'm going to try and get some decent size cable and replace that and also run it straight off battery through a inline fuse.
Not sure I understand the first bit of that statement - could you explain more. The second bit is how it should be wired (unless I am missing something).
Pete
Not sure I understand the first bit of that statement - could you explain more. The second bit is how it should be wired (unless I am missing something).
Pete
It goes into this. I didn't mean my charge controller that's for my solar panel. I wondered if theres any reason it should still go through my power management unit. Or am I ok in just connecting the negative of fridge to chassis somewhere near fridge and running a live straight off battery through an in line fuse and then to fridge?
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Cool. Do you think 4mm or shall I go 6mm. At present I reckon its 1.5mm. It's just so weird it was working fine for 2 years and then stopped. I'm sort of glad I dont think theres anything wrong with fridge but I still think although 3 people have said my battery is fine that something is not right with it. When its sunny the fridge must run pretty much from the solar and as soon as sun goes down it cant run and volts crash below limits.
Since you started having problems have you changed or added anything electrical at all. Both cables to fridge ( positive and negative) must be decent size. You don't want much voltage drop between fridge and battery
No I havent changed anything. It just randomly stopped working I'm going to buy some 6mm cable tomorrow.
Well all seems good at the moment. I have run some 6mm cable. Fused straight of leisure battery. Its dropping 0.07 volts now between battery and fridge and has been for about 2hours. I'm guna check before bed and then again in morning but I think a massive thank u to you guys as I was going to buy a fridge. Looks as though you saved me a small fortune. Mark
Is fridge behaving itself still?
No mate. 10.5 volts at battery and fridge this morning. I went off to work this morning thinking wtf is going on. I'm leaving solar to charge van. Then tonight I'm guna run fridge with as many fuses out for everything else. See what happens overnight tonight then. I could do with a volt meter that records what is happening and measuring the loads that are bring drawn the whole time aswell.
Have you measured the current drawn by the fridge?
If your wiring was the trouble your battery wouldnt be at 10.5v this morning, it points to your battery not holding charge.
Can you put another battery that is fully charged and you know is a good one,( only on your fridge.) on for 24 hours and see what happens.
Also how do you know that your leisure battery is getting a full charge from your solar, you would have to check it an hour or so after solar is not inputing to get a more accurate voltage reading, also the voltage reading doesnt give you the whole picture of battery state of charge
Can you put another battery that is fully charged and you know is a good one,( only on your fridge.) on for 24 hours and see what happens.
Also how do you know that your leisure battery is getting a full charge from your solar, you would have to check it an hour or so after solar is not inputing to get a more accurate voltage reading, also the voltage reading doesnt give you the whole picture of battery state of charge
I havent got a meeter that can measure the load. My dad suggested the compressor maybe faulty and drawing more load. Every where I have taken battery to have it tested says its showing over 700amps. So for me to loose 700amps overnight that's a massive drain. Unless fridge isn't kicking in and out and running constant. I might sit in van later and see if it actually does kick in and out.
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