Why is refrig still on with battery switch off?

[johnzhang]

Here is a pic of the switch that I installed. The incoming cable is directly from the Pos. terminal fuse. The outgoing cable feeds up to my buss bar. If that switch is off, nothing 12V in the trailer.....unless I am plugged into shore power and the converter/charger is outputting 12V.....

@xrated Thank you for sharing! The pic is very helpful. I will definitely look into this as an good option.

[stroguy]

Well I definitely used the term inverter incorrectly as my brain was stuck on an inverter generator post. The correct usage would have been his 12V power supply. My power supply has the additional GD fuse protection for our fridge. My bad. I think we are off on a clear running of the issue.

[stroguy]

OK, everyone... besides getting a bit off-track, several of the replies come across as argumentative. Let's remember the forum's "be nice" rule and think about how we express things.

Rob

I would never argue with x. We went to different high schools together.

[xrated]

Well I definitely used the term inverter incorrectly as my brain was stuck on an inverter generator post. The correct usage would have been his 12V power supply. My power supply has the additional GD fuse protection for our fridge. My bad. I think we are off on a clear running of the issue.

Thank you for that post ^^^^ You had me scratchin' my bald head and second guessing what I had said....Whew! I feel better....still bald....but better!

[Roll With The Changes]

When I redid my batteries this past spring and built a LiFePO battery from 4 LFP cells, I added a true battery disconnect switch. The Pos pole of the battery has a 300A fuse on it and off of that the cable goes to a Blue Seas 300A switch. When that is off, the entire 12VDC system is dead in my trailer. I don't need the breakaway switch when it's parked, I don't need the smoke or CO2 detector when I'm parked and not in it, and I don't need any unnecessary drain on the battery.

I rewired my battery switch for other reasons and did the iron phosphate upgrade later. I agree with all of your thinking except one thing. I left the vehicle charge and the breakaway switch on the battery side of the switch. My thinking was to make the system scatter brain proof. If I forgot to turn the battery on, because I was just moving the trailer or whatever, the breakaway would not work. It is not always the most elegant result, but I think keeping the vehicle side of things functional and separate from the house is important.

[Roll With The Changes]

Is your fridge an absroption fridge, that runs on 120VAC AND Propane?......because those do have both 12VDC and 120VAC going to them. Even when you are running one of those on 120VAC, they still require 12VDC for the control devices, lights, and fans. When they are running on propane, all they need is a propane supply and 12VDC for the control.

I know this is off topic, but it's a funny story (we'll, it's funny a year later.)

As stated in another post, I also rewired my battery disconnect because I was tired of the onboard converter boiling my battery dry thus destroying it. At that point, my SOP was to disconnect the battery whenever I was plugged in to shore power and use a smart charger that wouldn't destroy my lead acid battery. (Were full time stationary for long periods.) Now to the good part of the story....

We left the RV for an extended period while plugged in to shore power. We left A/C and the fridge running, just like we did in the sticks and bricks for obvious reasons. Since we had a freezer full of food, I wanted to have the battery on in case the shore power failed. But... since the dumb converter liked to boil batteries I turned off the converter thinking that a shore power interruption would be short, and the battery would fill in with no problem. It never occurred to me that the fridge did not provide the 12V control supply internally. So... the control side of the fridge (and probably the A/C thermostat) killed the battery in a week or less and we came home to a three inch puddle of stinky freezer. (Without shore power having ever failed.)

Once I figured out what happened, it was obvious, but it proves the point that you have to be smarter than the machine you're working with. 🤣

[xrated]

I rewired my battery switch for other reasons and did the iron phosphate upgrade later. I agree with all of your thinking except one thing. I left the vehicle charge and the breakaway switch on the battery side of the switch. My thinking was to make the system scatter brain proof. If I forgot to turn the battery on, because I was just moving the trailer or whatever, the breakaway would not work. It is not always the most elegant result, but I think keeping the vehicle side of things functional and separate from the house is important.

Well, you do have to do what works for you, that's for sure. In my case, I don't want the LFP battery sitting at 100% charge for lengths of time....it's not good for their longevity. Secondly, with the breakaway switch being disconnected from power, that's OK too. On my trailer, with the Lippert 6 point hydraulic system for the landing gear and leveling legs, it requires the hydraulic pump to be running to operated and I seen that pump motor pull just a bit north of 70 amps.....so you need the battery circuit to be able to provide enough power for it to run effectively. And for battery power, the 300A switch has to be on or your not going to do much in the way of operating the landing gear to even hook up to the truck and be able to move the trailer. Plus, I have a permanent flap of plastic over the control pad for operating the leveling system that states..BATTERY SWITCH MUST BE ON! I have to lift that flap out or the way to even push the arrow buttons and turn the system on.