Invertor problem

[bethcb]

We just had the invertor for the refrigerator in our 2015 35FBTS Pinnacle replaced at the dealer last week in California. Worked OK in Nevada until yesterday. Now we are in Grand Junction and the invertor is not working. The amps say 13.6 but the other numbers are all 0.00. Also, yesterday when I turned on one AC, I heard a pop and now the washing machine doesn't work. The same thing happened a few weeks ago and the dealer replaced a coil but it blew again. No dealer here or near Denver can see us for at least 2 weeks. I have a mobile RV guy coming in the am. Was wondering if any of you had ideas about how I can reset the invertor to get the refrigerator working. The refer has lights, just not cooling. I am going through a lot of dry ice!

[Grumpy]

If your on shore power the inverter is being by-passed and won't give you any readings. The 13.6 your seeing is battery voltage since the inverter is not producing any power. Sounds like you have a fridge problem or possibly a park power problem since you are having other issues.

[Robbbyr]

If you have a residential refrigerator with a compressor (I suspect you do since you mention the inverter) and the refrigerator interior lights are on, something may be wrong with the refrigerator itself causing no cooling. Residential refrigerators usually have 110-volt interior lights fed by the same plug that powers the cooling circuit compressor. Are you plugged into campground power or running the generator if you have one? If so the inverter is not what should be supplying your power.

Inverters do usually have a transfer switch which will allow the connected circuits to receive power either from outside 110-volt power (when plugged in to camp power or running generator if applicable) or from the batteries via the inverter. If that transfer switch fails it would appear that the inverter isn't making current since it can't get out to the circuits.

Have you checked all breakers? Any chance you took a surge causing electrical damage?

[eldermike]

Last year I found 2 50amp pedestals that had bad neutral connections. I did not plug into either one of them. In one case they moved me to another site and in the second case I went with 30amp for that week. Are you using a surge protector to check condition of power before you plug in?

[Robbbyr]

To try to help as much as we can, can you confirm you have a residential-style refrigerator? I want to make sure you don't have an absorption-style unit (Dometic or Norcold) because troubleshooting that style of refrigerator is altogether different than a unit that has a compressor.

[bethcb]

Residential refer. Interesting that the freezer is now maintaining temp. Refer is not.

[Robbbyr]

Any chance you took an electrical surge? Do you have any way to monitor campground power to ensure you have adequate (and proper) power coming into your unit?

[eldermike]

Anytime you have a doubt about 50amp service switch over to 30 using an adapter. 30amp can suffer low voltage but it's not prone to the wild leg surge seen in 50 amp camper service.

[bethcb]

Tech came out. Tested all the electricity from the post into the trailer. It seems that the 110 going into the invertor was causing the error. When he disconnected that wire, the refrigerator was working good on just the battery. Hooked into shore power, charging the battery. This is not the solution, but at least it fixes it temporarily. The invertor was registering all the right numbers, but now the invert has 13.6, 0.00 and 0.00. We would think that would mean the refrigerator is not working because this is what happened before, but now thats not the case. Thinking its just a bad invertor. In any case, for now the refrigerator is working off the battery w invertor. If it maintains temp, we will continue our trip in the am. If not, we head back to home dealer in Southern California.