Refrigerator Not Cooling

Just finished a two-week trip to several southeast states. At the beginning of each travel day, the fridge and contents were cold, and I switched the fridge to battery mode for traveling. The fridge would not cool properly, 50 to 55 degrees and as high as 65 degrees one day when we stopped for the day. The fridge would recover to proper temp when on shore power. I have a new deep cycle marine battery and the daytime temps were never much over about 90 degrees. Do I have a battery issue, converter issue, fridge issue???? Any suggestions.

Did you run the refrigerator fan when the trailer was closed?

It is likely your fridge ran your new deep cycle battery dead in a few hours. Search the forum for the many discussions on supplying power to the trailer when towing. The fridge takes a lot of power to stay cold in 12volt mode.

I did have the fridge exhaust fan running while driving and even when stopped for the night. I must not understand the TM electrical system. I thought my TV's alternator would be charging the TM"s battery when driving.

[hillbillyhotel]

I thought my TV's alternator would be charging the TM"s battery when driving.
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you right , you would think it would, but the fridge uses power faster than the tv can make it, or what can travel back to the tm with the small wireing, upgrading the wire from tv to tm. will help alot

[Bill]

Even with no power at all, the refrig ought to do better than that. After all, with no power it is basically a foam cooler, and unless you open it, a cooler doesn't warm up as much as you described. I suspect something other than a power issue or a cooling mechanism problem. Stupid question, I know, but are you sure the door was fully closed, and latched? Nothing pressing against the inside of the door, keeping it open just a crack? Is the door gasket making full contact all around? Have you done the dollar bill test?

Bill

Your temperatures are about the same as mine. When traveling with propane 50 to 55 degrees. Shoree power in the mid 40's. We put stuff that really needs to be cool In a lectric cooler inside to be cool. Milk lunch meat also water we drink While driving.

[scrubjaysnest]

You didn't mention how long your travel days were. Your TV alternator will only have an output when the TV battery needs charging. The refrig will discharge the TM battery and since it is in parallel with the TV battery at some point the alternator will start charging again. Refrig cooling is strickly dependent on the voltage at the refrig. The higher the voltage, the higher the current it draws and the more cooling you will get. Refrig compartment temps will be ambient plus what ever the fan doesn't draw off.
When you get to the camp ground before hooking to shore power and with out the TV running check the voltage at the TM battery with the refrig off. I'll bet the TM battery isn't fully charged. Your refrig temps are about what we see after 5 hours without running the refrig on a 90 deg day.

First thanks to everyone who responded.

Bill, we didn't do the dollar bill test, although that would have been a good one. I just did the test since the TM is still home as I was cleaning the roof for several hours. The dollar easily pulled in several places, however, I got the same result when I tried it on our home refrigerator and freezer. The door was definitely closed all the way.

Our travel day normally lasts about 7 hours and our stops are limited to gas and about a thirty minute lunch stop. I don't like to balance a sandwich and try to drive at the same time.

Like TampaJohn, my DW has already decided that the real perishable items will go in the cooler we keep in the truck. We got the Coleman 40-gallon one from Walmart that a previous post mentioned. It has plenty of room and works quite well.

It will be a while before we do another trip, but I will take your suggestion Scrubjaynest and test the battery charge after we set up at the end of the day. I might look into using a larger gauge wire from the alternator to the TM battery, but a guy on my Tacoma forum, who used an 8 gauge wire said that you have to change the TV and TM connectors to accommodate the larger wire.

[ELM-JLM]

We have a very close set up to yours! We tow with a 2012 4Runner and use factory connections! I remember reading a lot about this subject a few years back and the advice we heed to is, turn the fridge on at least 24 hr's in advance, fill it with only cold supplies and fill the freezer with frozen goods even if its just a block of ice (rectangle plastic bowl that fills the freezer w/lid)! Never had a problem and the controls stay between 3-4 for consistent temps. I always stack stuff in front of the fridge to prevent the door being knocked open by stuff shifting inside! My DW bought those push bars that look like curtain rods and they work well for holding stuff on shelves!

[Bailey'sMom]

Originally Posted by ELM-JLM

the advice we heed to is, turn the fridge on at least 24 hr's in advance, fill it with only cold supplies and fill the freezer with frozen goods even if its just a block of ice (rectangle plastic bowl that fills the freezer w/lid)! !

This excellent advice. I turn my popups fridg on 2 days in advance, fill with soda just to take up the air space. Any rv fridg is going to be harder to control than your home fridg.

Then it's always fun to adjust the fridg up and down based on temp, humidity, wind etc. it all affects it. I look forward to controlling this from inside my TM as opposed to having to go outside remove the door and guess how much to turn up or down.