Fridge

JonChristman · Post by **JonChristman** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:32 am

Here is a perplexing one.....While on the hard, the refrigerator was working very good. The boat is now at the marina and I turned on the fridge the other night while plugged into shore power and only get a high pitched whine now.

At home, it was only plugged into a regular 20A GFCI circuit from the outlet on the side of the house using a simple 12ga extension cord and an short adapter to the twist-lock plug. At the dock I am using a 30A circuit and the big yellow extension cord.

Any thoughts.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:37 am

Check the voltage to start

JonChristman · Post by **JonChristman** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:40 am

The meter on the circuit break shows exactly 120v. I have not tested the fridge side yet. The fridge is dual power though in that it has 12v and 120v power connected.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:47 am

check it at the fridge

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:59 am

Ditto Paul. Also how long after you launched did you turn it on? Should wait for a few hours after transport, down launch ramp etc. before firing it up. Is it reaching it's normal temp? Also, the hull doesn't quite sit the same in the water as on land. Something that may not have been rubbing may be rubbing now; metal to metal, fan blades, etc.

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:54 pm

Big D wrote:Ditto Paul. Also how long after you launched did you turn it on? Should wait for a few hours after transport, down launch ramp etc. before firing it up. Is it reaching it's normal temp? Also, the hull doesn't quite sit the same in the water as on land. Something that may not have been rubbing may be rubbing now; metal to metal, fan blades, etc.

Or you hit one too many bumps in the road between the house and the boat...

larryeddington · Post by **larryeddington** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:09 pm

Just Gremlins, they are hiding somewhere, I agree with Paul check both voltages at the equipment. IE is problem external to Ref. or Internal will then be understood.

JonChristman · Post by **JonChristman** » Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:20 pm

Haven't been back over to the boat to check this out yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

JonChristman · Post by **JonChristman** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:16 pm

I finally got around to troubleshooting the fridge.

This NorCold fridge has an AC and DC connection. There are no switch to go back and forth, do it must auto-select AC or DC, but when both sources are hot, it shuts off and goes to the high-pitched squeal. It will not run on AC alone. It looks like there is a large transformer where the AC feeds in so I am assuming the fridge is a DC fridge primarily and the AC is converted to DC. I think maybe where my pronlem lies since it will work on DC without the AC plugged. For the time being I just disconnected the AC and all it is working well off the DC circuits.

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:46 pm

If it is one of the old Norcolds, then yes the guts are DC. I believe the compressor takes 20V DC, and the big black box on the back contains a transformer to step your 12V up to 20, and to step your 120V AC down to 20V DC. There are also some diodes and a relay to detect if you have AC connected or not, and to convert it to DC power.

If you want to get in to it, I may still have some old wiring diagrams I can send you (if I can find them). My fridge crapped out just after launch last year. When I took it apart I found the problem was a teeny tiny broken wire from the transformer windings, that just happened to come into contact with the metal enclosure box and fried a bunch of stuff. I was able to find someone selling a used similar model (off a Sea Ray) for $100, and scavenged the parts I needed to rewire and get it working again.

Boats2012 · Post by **Boats2012** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 5:59 pm

This raises an interesting thought for me. I recently threw out a relatively new fridge after getting back to dock because it had appeared to die. I just figured it was cheap, but it is possible that I just missed an easy fix! Handling appliances on the water is a lot different than at home!