No batteries installed vs. refrigerator fail

[tjpolsin]

I attempted to turn on my refrigerator when I opened up my 2007 26BHS for the season and the GFI to my house circuit tripped - twice.

the trailer was plugged into the house as normal, but I had yet to reinstall the trailer batteries. about 15 minutes after turning on the refrigerator to electric mode, my GFI tripped. refer wouldn't even run in gas mode.

is there an interlock between having the batteries installed and running the refrigerator? After I installed the one good battery, everything worked fine.

My engineering brain can't comprehend this.

[mcfarmall]

My engineering brain can't comprehend this. It's ok we understand. See the joke in the "Jokes and Humor" forum area.

The fridge wouldn't run in gas mode 'cuz it needs 12v for the control circuits, you hadn't installed the batteries AND your shore power GFCI was tripped.

Why did your house GFCI trip?
1. All it takes is one drop of water in the wrong place.
2. They do fail from time to time without any 'reason'.
3. They are extremely sensitive.
4. Sometimes they will trip with certain motor loads (although this was not likely the reason in your case).

[tjpolsin]

to help clarify,
it wasn't that the refer wouldn't run because the GFI was tripped, it was that the GFI tripped BECAUSE the refer was turned on and batteries were absent.

All I did to recify the problem was install a battery.
The converter should have provided sufficient 12V power to run the refer, right? and why would I need 12V DC power to run the refer if I select "electric" or "auto"

still stumpted.

[Jagiven]

Probably not the case, but was the hot (+) battery lead touching the frame? Normally this should blow the fuse, but????. Where is your GFI located on the house? I have one on my old deck that I would have to replace every few years as rain and snow somehow would migrate past the cover and into the box. Overtime the GFI got week and needs to be replaced.

[tjpolsin]

with the batteries disconnected all winter and the trailer plugged in, I was still able to operate the slideout and all the lights without issue. And my GFI is located in my garage high and dry.

operating the refer with the battery disconnected caused the gfi to trip - twice.

[mcfarmall]

Originally Posted by tjpolsin

And my GFI is located in my garage high and dry.

operating the refer with the battery disconnected caused the gfi to trip - twice.

A GFCI operates by sensing current on both the hot and neutral wire. If the current returning on the neutral wire is less than the current flowing out on the hot wire, the GFCI thinks that the missing portion of the current must be flowing through you (or a faulty piece of equipment) to ground and it trips. So it stands to reason that anything on the load side of the GFCI could be causing the problem. Now that I have stated this, try a few things.

1. Remove the grille on the outside of the TT behind the fridge and you should find a single 110v recep that the fridge is plugged into...unplug the fridge and see if the GFCI trips. If the GFCI holds, plug the fridge back in and see if it will trip. Try this with the control switch on the fridge in both the OFF and AUTO positions.

2. If it passes test #1 then it must be a different 110v circuit that is causing the problem so repeat the test with each circuit on the trailer until you find the culprit.

The strange part of your problem is that you stated the fridge will run on AC power for about 15 minutes before the GFCI trips.

Currently my trailer is plugged into shore power (GFCI), the battery is disconnected, and the fridge is running on AC (switch in AUTO position) so one could conclude that having the battery connected is irrelevant.