110 Volt Fridge

[Blue~Go]

Aw that's too bad on the smoke. Tis the season, I guess.

One thing to be aware of, if the wire gauge measures the outside of the insulation is that that can vary. Also there is SAE, AWG, etc. I forget what year you have (sorry!), but it shows as 8AWG on al of the electrical diagrams I've seen (granted they don't show as much for the later years). Mine is definitely 8 gauge. Stranded, but not the finer tined marine strands - more of a coarse bare copper stranding (with red insulation).

Oh, wait, duh - it should be printed on the side of the insulation. I might have a photo...

Well, the photos I can find show the lettering but not the actual section where the AWG size is listed. But it's not too hard to find. It's white lettering on the red insulation. There will be a lot of numbers you don't care about, but at intervals it will say "8AWG" (or whatever the size is). It's also interesting to note the temp rating, as that affects ampacity (not that you care about that in this case). Most of the wire I've seen Chinook use is rated 105ºC, which is good.

You could look at the stub behind the refrigerator, or where it comes into the fuse box (Brown Box), or where it goes into the LVD, or where it arrives at the batteries (at least on my rig these were all 8AWG, as the manual shows also.

BG

PS: Here is the fuse panel diagram from the 2000 manual (Concourse shown). I highlighted the 8 gauge for the fridge circuit and to/from the batteries. It's the same in mine. One handy thing is that now that I have superseded both of those wires, I have them to use for other circuits. Ah, a nice big 8AWG going up to the driver's pillar area and over to the passenger side too!

[pdemarest]

Hey Blue - yep, its 8 gauge wire. The contractor I use on my house is also going to be doing some work on my Premier repairing some water damage, putting in some laminate flooring, building a cabinet door to close off the opening that was left from removing the television, etc. I'll probably have him run the new wire since I'm going to pull the fridge out to better insulate the area as well as to put some Dynamat around the generator enclosure. When boating season ends I'll have the winter for upgrades/modifications and then we will head out on a two week trip to Yellowstone, South Dakota and Montana. Hope to have our 2 year old German Shepard "tamed" enough by then to take him with us. If you think a Chinook is "compact" try adding a 115lb dog to the mix!

[Blue~Go]

Sounds like a great plan. Yeah, you pull the fridge back out, but you accomplish a bunch of things that will have great rewards (insulation, eliminate gobs of voltage drop, sound deaden generator box).

Boating season is sacred, as we know And a trip to Yellowstone sounds fabulous.

I lost my best buddy pup almost a decade ago (not lost like in the woods, but because he died after a long, fun life). First I didn't get another dog because I was too grief stricken and didn't think I could stand the heartache again; next I thought I'd compare any new dog too much to my "best" one; then I kind of got used to the freedom (no-one to let out, no hair on anything, travel at the drop of a hat, etc.). But now I'm thinking perhaps it's time for another "best bud." Or maybe anyway. I've always like big dogs, but it sure would be convenient to fall for a small one! (As in, convenient travel-size peanut type )

[Scott]

head out on a two week trip to Yellowstone, South Dakota and Montana. Hope to have our 2 year old German Shepard "tamed" enough by then to take him with us. If you think a Chinook is "compact" try adding a 115lb dog to the mix!

You'll have fun, Paul. Maybe you've already been, but almost everything about Montana is stunning. Glacier park is unreal. Yellowstone can be a complete zoo, so be sure to time that. South Dakota is outstanding as well. The Black Hills have great camping spots. We bring a 100 lb Golden, and he really adds to the fun. And he's also a great networker by making fast friends with helpful local folks.

[pdemarest]

Hey Scott - thanks for the travel tips. We are hitting Yellowstone in mid-May to avoid the summer crowds - I say Yellowstone for the first time when I was only 10 years old and it was a madhouse even back then. Other than Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons our plans for Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana are open at this point. Would love to see Glacier but I think mid-May is too early for all the roads to be open but we will see as much of Montana as we can.

Our dog is also a conversation starter. After our first German Shepard passed away we went dog-less for about 5 months before I put a deposit down on another Shepard. As it turned out the first available litter were mostly black (Czech bloodline) but our pick was an all black male, which apparently is pretty rare - only 2% of all German Shepherds are all black. He's very friendly and still in his puppy phase so he gets lots of attention when we take him out. On the other hand, unlike our first Shepard he's very wild at times, and at 115 lbs. he can be a handful in a small space.

Will definitely be looking for more travel tips for our upcoming trip and will post our itinerary once we firm it up.

[pdemarest]

Ran the fridge for two days before loading it with precooled items. Overnight it had warmed up to the point where I had to set the controls on the maximum setting. Drove up to our campsite at the lake, outside temperature in the high 90's but cooled down into the low 70's at night. By midnight the freezer was up to 30 degrees and the refrigerator section was up to 45 degrees. Went outside and opened up the access panel for the original gas fridge in hopes that it might cool down and found the compressor was too hot to touch and the lower back of the unit was very hot. By the next day the freezer was up to 40 degrees, fridge at 55.

I'm now waiting on a call back from the place that installed a new electronic control module after the first one failed. The difference this time is that the fridge is still running but still not cooling adequately. I'm starting to wonder if there's insufficient refrigerant in the unit, did tilting it to get it through the side window have some effect, is the unit defective or is it just poorly engineered.

One more boating trip this summer and it looks like we'll be back to multiple ice chests until this is resolved.

[Blue~Go]

Well that's a pain! I don't think they're poorly engineered for a couple of reasons:

1) I have one of their other models, and a friend has a different model. They are both basically what you would expect, and really, not that much different than other brands (Isotherm, etc.). The only reason I chose Vitrifrigo over say, Isotherm and Nova Kool is that I preferred the size and the shape of the freezer (worked out best for my buddy as well). Otherwise I'd consider all three very similar.

2) They have what's considered the best compressor, so that's not an area of inferiority (Isotherm and Nova Kool I believe also run the Danfoss/Secop).

But, they DO need adequate cooling. And now I've forgotten: Do you still have the original "chimney" up the back to the roof vent? If so, I'd think that would be fabulous cooling, more than would be typical if you simply designed for a compressor refrigerator. After all, that can vent a "fire."

Di they change the chimney at all? Make it larger? (Which, ironically, can reduce the draft.)

I can't remember if you are supposed to let the unit sit after having it horizontal, but if so, it's only something like 24 hours. On my buddy's other-brand Class C, we did bring the new refrigerator in through a side window, on it's "back." But it took us much longer than 24 hours to get the opening all framed in, so it sat right-side up.

It would be pretty easy to wire in a second fan (say a computer fan, two wires), but you shouldn't really need that if you still have the chimney.

BTW, it is fairly normal for the compressor to feel hot, although of course the cooler the better.

Oh, and one more thing: It's important that the compressor fan not suck in "used" air. In other words, hot air goes out the back while the fan is sucking in new cool air onto the compressor. But if there is a loop, where the fan can suck "pre-heated" air onto the compressor that's not good. Since my buddy is only using the lower vent (not ideal but that's what he wanted), we built a little shroud (like you might have around a car radiator) so that the fan could ONLY suck air in from outside, not the pre-heated air coming off the compressor. If you have the intact chimney that shouldn't be necessary, somewhat dependent on where the compressor fan is sitting in relation to the holes.

[Scott]

I'm starting to wonder if there's insufficient refrigerant in the unit, did tilting it to get it through the side window have some effect, is the unit defective or is it just poorly engineered. .

Awe man, what a bummer. Glad you've retained your composure on this one. How annoying. Sounds to me like a lack of ventilation. Tilting, especially while not running, would not be a likely culprit to my mind. Engineering... there are millions of those units in operation; I'm confident in their design abilities. Defective unit ... maybe. Low on refrigerant... well possibly, but the way those systems are sealed, that would be a big surprise. Either the venting scheme is severely restricted or there's a manufacturing defect (which would explain the fried board you've already dealt with). Good luck.

[Blue~Go]

Just as a note (and I realize you were speaking of it being on its side coming in through the window), these compressors are good to run up to a 30º tilt. That's HUGE. I had my car on what felt like a pretty good angle the other day and checked it with the "tilt meter" on my phone: 6º.

These are commonly put in sailboats (maybe not your same model, because that would be unheard of size luxury in most normal-sized sailboats, but same compressor), and it's not out of the ordinary to be heeled over on a 30º angle all day long while sailing. Plus added jostling as you go over/hit waves and such.

That said, they do also run fairly hot in the tropics, and don't always have the best ventilation on a boat, so they are fairly tolerant (not GOOD for them, but tolerant). But I'm still curious how your venting is set up.

[pdemarest]

Thanks for the encouragement. I've got an appointment to take the rig up to Swedish Marine in Richmond, CA to have them check the refrigerant and the control module. They seem to be pretty stumped by the continuing problem with the unit and say that these units should get down to zero in the freezer. I do think that ventilation could be the problem - the fan is so small its hard to believe it could keep things cool but I'm going to take another look to make sure my installer didn't close off the roof vent. One other issue is the generator, which is inconveniently located directly under the refrigerator compartment. I did run the generator to power the A/C for a few hours before I realized that there was no insulation under the fridge and the compartment was heating up. Turned off the generator and took the outside access panel completely off to allow more air circulation over the compressor, moved to a site with hookups, but 24 hours later temperatures inside the unit were still climbing.

This problem has been particularly frustrating because one of the main reasons I had solar installed was to avoid hook-up sites. The good news is we only have one more boating weekend and then I had planned to use the fall/winter for removing the carpet and installing vinyl flooring and doing some small interior modifications. In addition, no matter what they determine next week I'm going to pull the fridge out enough to fully insulate the compartment from any generator heat. I'll keep you guys posted.