Battery disconnect doesn't do fridge?

**supaphly42** · 04-30-2021, 05:31 PM

Just picked up our new 261BH. Love it so far! Took it camping straight from the dealership. That said, it's in the driveway now, and when parked I always leave my fridge/freezers open. It's not on shore power, and I flipped the battery disconnect, but I noticed the light in the fridge is still on. Is that normal? How do others keep the light off while venting the fridge? And why wouldn't the disconnect kill power to it?

**MickUpi** · 04-30-2021, 06:42 PM

Is anything else on? My guess is the switch is not in the right position.

**supaphly42** · 04-30-2021, 06:45 PM

I'll check other things tomorrow, but I flipped it to Off and pulled the red key out.

**sirtate** · 04-30-2021, 08:39 PM

The fridge is directly wired to the battery.
The disconnect doesn't disconnect it...

You have to turn the fridge off inside the fridge...

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**supaphly42** · 05-01-2021, 05:41 AM

Originally Posted by sirtate

The fridge is directly wired to the battery.
The disconnect doesn't disconnect it...

You have to turn the fridge off inside the fridge...

Gotcha, thanks. And I turned the dial all the way down to the off position, but that doesn't do anything for the light.

**Johnww** · 05-01-2021, 06:20 AM

I installed a second battery disconnect switch just above the batteries. When it's in the off position nothing is connected.

**tabnab** · 05-06-2021, 07:44 AM

I have been putting a piece of gorilla tape over the switch but that doesn't always hold. Someone said they use the refrigerator expanding bar that holds your food to hold the switch off. I'm trying that next.

**Keebler** · 05-06-2021, 08:27 AM

You park in your driveway, so this might not be as important to you. I have to store mine in a lot that is 20 minutes away. Fridge aside, I could not survive without an after market battery disconnect as mentioned by Johnww above. I am not sure of everything powered with the factory switch in the "disconnect" position, but suffice it to say that my battery would be dead in 2 weeks without a "true" disconnect installed. Yes, this will take care of your fridge situation too!

**sirtate** · 05-06-2021, 09:30 AM

I have no issues with my 261bh batteries draining while not in use...

It is parked in outside storage, and everything is running... (Batt disconnect is ON)

There appears to be approximately a .6-.8 Amp draw in the dark of night and the fridge draws about 6 or 7 Amps when it runs.

The furnace will draw almost 15...

The solar panels and charge controller keep up, and have kept up since April 5 when I brought the trailer home.

We haven't been able to go anywhere because we are in a CoViD lockdown until mid May...

We do have 230Ah of storage, and after 2 sunny days in a row, the batts are back up to full...

I was initially monitoring charge status multiple times a day, but now it is just a daily visit to make sure my beer is still cold in the fridge... (If that often)

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**SmokeyBear** · 05-06-2021, 10:53 AM

I found out the hard way just turning the battery disconnect off doesn't work. I was away from our camper for a couple weeks and went to hook it up to the truck...dead battery. even in the off position something is still drawing a little juice. I am getting back in the practice of disconnecting the negative on the battery to kill all the power which is what I had to do with our previous campers when we didn't have a disconnect switch.