my fridge stops working after 24 hrs

[lloyd cicetti]

Is it normal for a refrigerator (mine is relatively new) to kick off after 24 hrs when connected to the RV battery? A red light comes on, saying that there is not enough voltage needed to operate the fridge. I checked the battery with a volt meter and it reads 12 volts. Shouldn't that be enough? When I hook it up to the house on AC current, the red light goes off and the fridge works great. Checking the battery on the RV when hooked to the house, the battery reads 14 volts. Why should it work at 14 V and not 12 V? I could see it not working under 10 V but 12?

Thanks for the help...Lloyd

[joelh]

Originally Posted by lloyd cicetti

Is it normal for a refrigerator (mine is relatively new) to kick off after 24 hrs when connected to the RV battery? A red light comes on, saying that there is not enough voltage needed to operate the fridge. I checked the battery with a volt meter and it reads 12 volts. Shouldn't that be enough? When I hook it up to the house on AC current, the red light goes off and the fridge works great. Checking the battery on the RV when hooked to the house, the battery reads 14 volts. Why should it work at 14 V and not 12 V? I could see it not working under 10 V but 12?

Thanks for the help...Lloyd

When mine runs on battery alone, the voltage coming out of the battery drops to only about 6 volts after about 12 hrs. I am surprised it lased that long

[lloyd cicetti]

Originally Posted by joelh

When mine runs on battery alone, the voltage coming out of the battery drops to only about 6 volts after about 12 hrs. I am surprised it lased that long

are you saying that if the fridge worked for 24 hrs, that would be normal?

[mcbrew]

Unless something has changed, 12v mode is supposed to be only for on-the-road use where it runs off of the tow vehicle's alternator, not a house battery. If you are parked, you should be running on LP or 115v AC.

My guess is that the fridge has a low voltage shutoff to protect the battery, since it is assumed that it is running off of the tow vehicle... you wouldn't want to accidentally leave the fridge on 12v and find that you can't start your tow vehicle since the battery is dead.

[Matt in SV]

The open circuit voltage measurement of a fully charged 12V battery is more than 12 volts: You'll see about 2.12 volts for each of the six cells, for a total of about 12.7 volts at rest. By the time you actually measure 12.0 volts, you'd have used about half the charge capacity, which is considered a typical "safe point" for frequent discharge and reasonable life expectancy. By the time you hit 10 volts you'll have done some damage.

It looks like your refrigerator is working correctly and trying to prevent damage to the battery.

Regards,

Matt

P.S. there is a colorful chart about 3/5 toward the bottom of this section that may be useful:

Deep Cycle Battery FAQ