Frig shows low battery

[Dada]

I have a 2019 jayco greyhawk and after driving 1 hour back home the panel on the frig was displaying low battery symbol. The main panel with the battery switch showed that battery was 100 percent fully charged. Really appreciate input from someone that may have had this problem or know what could be the problem. Thanks a lot
Dada

[Berjr]

Is the main house switch on?

[JimD]

I had a similar problem with my 2017 Greyhawk and a Norcold 1210. Boondock camping overnight would cause the fridge to display low DC voltage in the morning. This happened just about every night,

I have a remote voltage monitor on my battery and found that the fridge would go into this error mode when my battery voltage dropped to 12.1 volts at the battery. According to the Norcold manual, low DC shouldn't display until the voltage was below 10.5 volts.

I assumed that I had a bad fridge control board but, being an electronic tech, decided to troubleshoot on my own. With the fridge on (propane mode), I measured the voltage at the battery and then at the main power distribution box and the measurements were basically the same with little voltage drop. I then measured it at the fridge.

I was floored because I was measuring a bit over a 1 volt drop between the power distribution box and the fridge. I believe the fridge was pulling 2 amps or less at the time while operating on propane. The wire run had to be less than 20 feet so this was indeed strange as according to the Jayco wiring diagram they were using 16 gauge wire which should easily handle a couple of amps.

I ended up piggy backing a new 16 gauge wire from the box fuse connection, for the fridge, to the fridge and also one for the ground to the frame. My new voltage measurements showed no voltage drop now and my error condition has not returned for over a year.

From the looks of Jayco's wiring, they were using Scotchlock connections all over the place to make various connections. My guess is that the wiring to the fridge was not a direct wire but may had been run through a poor connection somewhere in the run.

So, if you are getting a low voltage error, measure the voltage at the battery and then at the fridge to see if the voltage feeding the fridge is low. If it is good then the problem is with the fridge. If the reading shows low, well, good luck at explaining it to Jayco.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by JimD

I have a remote voltage monitor on my battery and found that the fridge would go into this error mode when my battery voltage dropped to 12.1 volts at the battery. According to the Norcold manual, low DC shouldn't display until the voltage was below 10.5 volts.
.

I guess Norcold has no clue that a 12 volt battery is DEAD at 10.5VDC.
12.1 Volts would be the proper voltage level to display this error message. A few times of 10.5 voltage drops will really have an impact on the battery life.

Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Dada]

The main power switch was on when the frig showed the low battery. When I get a chance in a couple days I will put frig on propane to see if the Low Battery comes on again and if it does I will check voltage in both places. Really appreciate the input and advice. Thanks again
Dada

[Bullitt6283]

When I had the single Group 27 house battery I was seeing the low DC voltage alarm on the fridge every morning. Especially if the furnace kicked on a couple of times during the night. Jayco runs fairly light gauge wiring on the DC circuits, so anything like the water pump running a few seconds drags down the voltage and the fridge alarm gets triggered.
I replaced the single 12 volt house battery with a pair of mongo 6 volt batteries and now I don't get the fridge alarm.

[Davidmac]

Just this week I tracked the wiring on my 2016 GrayHawk refrigerator for the same low voltage error when the engine was not running or plugged into AC . I assumed it was going to be a bad ground , it was not . The Green 16ga power wire to the refrigerator showed a .75 volt drop from battery voltage . After using a tone generator to trace the wire to the dash radio area I noticed a green 16 ga wire in a big loop at the fuse box . This was the return wire from the radio that went to the refrigerator and carbon monoxide detector cutting the green 16 ga wire and feeding it directly to the fuse box solved voltage drop . Note on my Gray hawk the bottom fuse was marked Refrigerator / Gas /CO . The wire connected to the fuse output was 3- 14 Ga Red/white .
Jayco did supply the wiring diagram several days after I was done . They would have been very little help

[Bobby B]

After boondocking at the races last weekend, I had a low DC displayed on the fridge. I had 12.1 at the battery, and 10.9 at the fridge. I just got done rewiring the fridge directly to the battery. No more voltage loss. 12.8 at the battery, and 12.8 at the fridge.

[Redshawk]

I have a 2018 Redhawk 29XK and after a long weekend of camping, I left the fridge on while on shore power where I store it because we needed to defrost it and did not have time when we dropped it off at storage location. After a few very cold weeks (RV storage is indoor, but not heated) we got back and fridge was off (and defrosted - fortunately all water drained outside properly).

After lots of troubleshooting, it appears that the 12 VDC power to the control board is too low for it to operate. Also found that one of my house batteries was bad and causing the converter to charge in the boost mode (14.4 volts) and maybe? not get to charging the chassis battery. The chassis battery was at 12.5 volts and would start the engine easily.

Replaced both house batteries, converter is putting out correct 13.6 volts and house batteries are now at 13.54 volts when plugged into shore power. However, fridge still won't come on unless I start the RV while it is plugged into shore power. At that point, the radio, gas detector and fridge (which are on the same fuse) all work as the extra voltage boost from the alternator gets that circuit to around 14.4 volts.

Based on the thread below, I am looking at running a new 12 volt line to the fridge power board in parallel and leave just the radio and gas detector on the old circuit. I assume I should run the new line directly from the converter (which won't be all that easy). Is that correct? I have read other places that the radio, gas detector and fridge 12 volts may come off of the chassis battery, but it does not look that way.

Any prior experience or actual wiring knowledge about factory configuration would be appreciated.

[JimD]

I ran parallel power lines to the fridge for the low voltage problem. The fridge's voltage was a full volt below the house battery. I tied in to the fridge's positive wire at the fuse block and the negative wire at the frame ground block that the fridge was connected to.

Do not tap off 12 volts anywhere else because that will cross connect different circuits. You want the fridge on its own fuse. Connecting to some other 12 volt source is not a good idea.

Use a voltmeter and measure at the fuse panel and then at the fridge with it running. This will show you how much you are losing. After adding in the parallel wires, remeasure and you will be amazed at the improvement, provided there was a problem in the original feed.

[Redshawk]

Jim,
Thanks for the quick feedback. I was planning on running the new circuit from the line that comes out of the current fuse for the radio, gas detector and fridge back at the Power Control Center/Converter so as not to cross-connect any circuits. When you say you tied into that circuit at the fuse block, I assume you mean the fuses at that unit (in my case, under the bed), as opposed to any fuse blocks elsewhere in the vehicle. Is that correct? If so, how did you snake the new wire out to the back of the fridge to connect it to the power board? I'm looking for the easiest route possible. I was even thinking of just connecting the ground wire to the ground screw that is already out at the back of the fridge.

Also, I did measure the voltage at the fridge power board versus at the fuse in the power center with the fridge and radio off and the gas sensor disconnected and it was about a half a volt lower already. When I flip the radio on, it works, but the voltage drops about another quarter volt. However, when I turn the fridge on with the radio on and gas sensor still disconnected, it drops to about 8 volts and the refrigerator, and radio don't work. As soon as I start the vehicle and it switches over to the alternator though, the voltage all goes up to 14.5 and everything works fine even though it is still the same wires going from the radio area to the gas sensor and fridge.

It still feels like the voltage drop issue is the driver here and that a parallel power circuit would eliminate the problem, but it all worked fine before and during our first two trips. So, something has changed. Maybe a specific connection in the original circuit just got a little worse and was enough to tip everything to shutdown.

I don't know, but wanted to share all of the specifics I have just in case I am missing something.

[JimD]

My 2017 Greyhawk has all the electrical under the bed. I punched a small hole in the floor and ran the wire under the rig, protected in spiral wrap, and then up through another hole I dilled under the fridge.

If you want to feed the fridge from any other source than the fuse that protects the fridge, you should disconnect the original power feed. If you supply an item with 2 different 12 volt sources protected by different fuses, you are asking for trouble. If there is a problem with the fridge where it would pop a fuse, you would be protecting the fridge with 2 separate fuses that may not blow properly.

[Redshawk]

Understood. THANKS!

[Jab55]

X2 Jim D. I had same issue....I tapped into wire from Water heater which is located directly under fridge. Easy to route wire between the 2 from the outside access panels. Problem has been gone for over a year.

[Redshawk]

Jab55,
Thanks. I ended up running a "test" wire from the refrigerator down to the interior furnace compartment underneath the fridge, under the shower (which had an access door) out the back wall to the bed and refrigerator circuit under the bed. The only part showing is from the shower wall to the bed and I put a bath mat over that section.

So far, it has been working great for two days. If it lasts the trip, I will run that last section under the carriage. Still feels like there's an issue with the circuit in the engine compartment that switches between the house and chassis batteries when the ignition is turned on, but I'll check all of that out later.
Jim

[Jab55]

Redshawk,
I thought the problem was more serious originally as well...That crappy little wire just doesn't cut it. I thought after installing 2 big house batteries...and 400 watts of solar that my problem would go away....it didn't. After the battery upgrade I added the additional wire and it was fixed. I think it was the waterheater access below the fridge...may have been the furnace...whatever it was the 2 outside access panels are a couple inches apart on my 30XP. I was able to fish a wire between the 2 locations really easily. I attached the new power feed wire along with the old power feed wire to give it a little extra amperage.

[rlm1lmm]

Originally Posted by Jab55

X2 Jim D. I had same issue....I tapped into wire from Water heater which is located directly under fridge. Easy to route wire between the 2 from the outside access panels. Problem has been gone for over a year.

I'm wondering if you could contact me, my daughter has our MH and lives in Sparks, NV.

Thanks Ron

[rodpod]

Originally Posted by Jab55

X2 Jim D. I had same issue....I tapped into wire from Water heater which is located directly under fridge. Easy to route wire between the 2 from the outside access panels. Problem has been gone for over a year.

Several folks have said they ran a new wire in parallel. I am not sure what that means. I like your idea of tapping into the W/H circuit. Since there are other devices(radio, C/02 detector) on the fridge circuit, what did you do with that wire after you cut it from the fridge? How did you fuse it?

[Travlin2]

Thank you Redshawk. 2016 31ul, Your post was the only one that ended up working for me. After much troubleshooting and experimenting here is what I ended up doing. In the fuse box at the end of our bed I found the fuse for the frig, radio & co detector. I was able to determine which line served the frig by cutting all the wires and gator clipping them together and pulling them off one at a time until I found which one was for the frig. I tried that one on a single fuse (as suggested by Jayco I saw in another post) but that did not work. I still got the lo-dc code flashing on the frig. I ran a test wire (16-19 guage) from a single fuse, it was the second slot that did not have a fuse in it, down the hall out the door to the 12v green wire plug on the back of the frig. I left it there for 3 hours with no lo-dc code ever flashing again. It appeared that was going to be the only fix. So I tied all the old wires including that one that serves the frig back together with a twist on cap. NOTE: You have to have the old wire that serves the frig hooked up or the radio and light on the main breaker will not work! So I picked the second slot that had no fuse, put in a fuse (mine was numbered 002) attached the new (test) wire to it and ran it under the carpet (not easy) to the edge of the shower, to the left side of the shower in through a small access panal, then into the area under the frig, (which has another access panal) by the furnace and up the inside with the wiring harness to the frig and attached it to the 12v connection there. Which that was accessed from the outside on the back of the frig. The only place the wire shows is in the hall in front of the shower which I also covered with a mat.



I'm still a little stumped at the voltage. When I measured it at the back of the frig with the old wire I was getting about 8.6 volts with a lo-dc error code flashing. With the new wire dedicated to just the frig on a single fuse I was getting a 9.3 volts with NO lo-dc flashing error code after 3 hours. Seems like it would still be flashing but it was not. I will not get a real test until we once again boondock somewhere for a long period of time. We love staying in National Parks which typically have no hookups. I hope this helps someone because all of your posts sure helped me! After reading all the posts I was able to piece together a fix that worked for me. Some other units may be wired differently which if the way it seems.

[rodpod]

Originally Posted by Bobby B

After boondocking at the races last weekend, I had a low DC displayed on the fridge. I had 12.1 at the battery, and 10.9 at the fridge. I just got done rewiring the fridge directly to the battery. No more voltage loss. 12.8 at the battery, and 12.8 at the fridge.

I have the same problem. How do i get to the fridge wire and where does it terminate at the fridge, under it, or outside in the access panel. what color is the wire. Thanks