[Grintwice]

Hi. I have recently bought myself a lovely t4 1.9td. It has a tv xbox fridge and lots of electrical sockets all fitted professionaly. My problem started out that when I switched the invertor on a red overcurrent light was on. The fan was running but no power to t.v. or fridge (Stella fridge). I then decided to charge the battery so removed it and charged it. When I tested the inverter it ran lovely the overload light disappeared and the tv and fridge ran o.k. 6 hours later and the overload light was flicking on and off. at this point I was only running the fridge. I decided that the battery was probably knackered so bought a new one. Installed it and whoopee the fridge is working again. 6 hours later and we have the same issue battery not running the invertor. . Is this fridge that I have compatible with the van or am I missing something stupid here. My next port of call would probably be to get a new invertor but don't wanna waste any more money. Please help

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Neil T4 Newby

 

[ladymarmalade]

Inverters are notoriously uneconomical on your battery. Alongside your fridge if it is turned up a little high temperature wise - these two could be draining your battery fast.

I dont know what size ah battery you have but it could soon drain with a power hungry fridge and an inverter running your gadgets.

We use the 12v sockets when not on hook up and only when we are hooked up on a site do we ever use your normal 3 pin household plugs. I never bothered with an inverter as they are too much hassle and we have invested in car charger cables for everything we need to use/charge in the van.


xx

 

[Grintwice]

Thanks Lady marmalade.

The guy I bought it from said he never had an issue with it? I did think the fridge was a bit beefy for a campervan. We don't have mains hook up so he must have ran it as it is. what fridge do you use then?

 

[Noo Noo]

Sounds like you're definitely killing the battery to me.

I think you need to have a look at everything you're doing and perhaps consider doing some sums to check your power usage. Even easier would be to buy and fit a cheapy voltmeter (£6 ebay job). That way you can actually see what's left in your battery. Remember when it reaches 10v or so it's dead flat.

 

[mucky]

sounds like the first thing to check is that the split charge unit is charging the battery ,put a meter on the lesiure battery and see if you have about 14v when the engine is running

 

[arnie1971]

As above. Inverters are notoriously inneficient, add to thet the fact you are trying to run a domestic fridge from a 12v supply and your battery isn't going to last long. If your planning on running 12v only then I would look at buying a proper 12v fridge and binning the inverter to be honest! Either that or look at some way of constantly charging your leisure battery, solar power etc.

 

[traversd]

^^ What he said. Domestic Fridge running through an inefficient invertor will kill the battery fast.

I would go down the route of a new fridge (or run it off the mains before you go, throw in a load of freezer blocks and keep it off)

Otherwise you are going to go through a few fair batteries quickly ! They don't like being completely discharged frequently.

 

[Grintwice]

Many thanks.
Think the Stella fridge will have to be filled with Stella and put in the shed