Refrig not working

[landonshaw]

Have a Waco refrig, 1yr old. Got on the boat, volts were down to 9.4, turned everything off and checked the battery water, all is ok. My refrig shut down due to an automatic battery protection. The light on the controller was blinking in flashes of 1. When the batteries got back to 11.7 I turned on the refrig and still blinkers.

The manual says low battery, that is up. Might be a fuse, checked that unless ine is on the system itself??? Does anyone know? I have a inline fuse and it was ok.

The manual mentions a able cross section. That I do not know what it is. Please help if you know.

Dave. Aloisius

[landonshaw]

Should be a cable cross section

[Sailmonkey]

11.7 is still awfully low.
And the cross section usually indicates the size of wire feeding the fridge.

But first start by getting your batteries above 12.2 Volts then try the fridge again.

[boatpoker]

Sounds like your batteries are toast. Get them load tested but don't expect them to last too long.

[Caribsailors]

11.7 is still to low. Not sure what compressor you have, but most likely a Danfoss with electronic controller.

"Low voltage. To prevent the batteries from being totally discharged, the compressor will be stopped if the
voltage at the terminals on the Module falls below 10.6 volts, & will not re-start until the voltage rises
above 11.7 volts."

Cheers

[westwinds]

Charge the battery. That's all you need to do.

[landonshaw]

Thank you for the clarification. Charging the batteries now. Will try later today when above 12.4.

[Richard Kollmann]

If a Danfoss BD compressor see more than 1/2 of a volt drop in boats wiring battery voltage will need be above 12.5 volts to start compressor. Compressors control module will stop compressor when it is running at 10.9 volts or higher voltage if no wire is connected to module terminal P. During compressor start up if module sees a low voltage spike, one you might not see with a volt meter, it will stop compressor.

To take full benefit of battery capacity above 10.9 volts all resistance connection in boat’s wiring need to be eliminated as much as possible. This generally means correct size or larger refrigeration wiring should be connect direct to battery Plus and minus busses. A quality fuse or circuit breaker and as few as possible other connections will improve system reliability and reduce expensive module failures. The Danfoss control module depends on a clean source of power from battery bank and also uses battery as a giant protective capacitor against voltage surges.

Why now after months or years of good service is the boat’s wiring a problem? It may be because other circuits in boat are causing voltages surges or age of wiring and terminal ends. Some boat wiring designs use circuit breakers as a switch to turn on and off refrigerator causing inexpensive breaker contacts to pit and burn over time. One Production boat manufacturer uses a cheap 70 cent switch in their control panel to power Adler Barbour refrigeration.

[landonshaw]

Thank you for your response. I ran the engine and prior to that had 12.8 v. The refrig worked fine. The power is direct off of the battery through the console, as you mentioned, the console is old and probably in need of replacing. I am happy to note that the frigid is not the problem, now a new set of batteries and console switches may be put on the list to update.

Thank you for all of the information. I'm off on a 4 day solo sale to Puerto Rico then 6 weeks sailing back to Grenada and was not ready to replace the refrig.

Dave sv Aloisius