# Waeco fridge on Mondial voltage drop?



## Mervyn (Jul 31, 2007)

I have a Swift Mondial with a Waeco CR0080 fridge. Works perfectly on mains as long as leisure battery charger is on and when driving. On 12v only the red light flashes once every 15 secs or so indicating not enough voltage. Has anyone else experienced this and any advice re solutions.


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## bigtwin (May 24, 2008)

I\'m not familiar with your fridge but normally if the engine isnt running the 12 V supply is usually disconnected.

I suspect that you need to select a different power source.

Are compressor fridges configured differently?

Ian


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## rod_vw (May 10, 2005)

[quote:7bd3e5ea01=\"bigtwin\"]

Are compressor fridges configured differently?

Ian[/quote:7bd3e5ea01]

Yes Ian they are. Consider them just like a domestic fridge but running on 12 volts.

Mervyn, it sounds as if you have volt drop somewhere in the fridge circuit. Check the voltage at the fridge with a good digital volt meter at the fridge terminals. The Waeco documents will tell you the minimum voltage before warnings show.
You can trace the source of a volt drop by reading the voltage across various sections of the circuit. Don\'t forget that the -ve wire is just as important as the +ve!
If you are lucky you will fins a poor connection somewhere.

Rod


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## pippin (Nov 15, 2007)

Could even be a duff leisure battery.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Check the voltage at the leisure battery and compare with the reading at the fridge.

If there is a drop, it could be, as has been said, a poor connection(s) or a damaged piece of cable where some strands have been broken resulting effectively in an undersized cable carrying the load.

Geoff


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## Mervyn (Jul 31, 2007)

Thanks all for advice. The problem I have is that Swift customer care say WAECO fridges are very hungry and accounts for short time kept cool enough. Company that did the wiring for them say 6mm wire more than adequate. Waeco technician said more than likely wrong wire or something along route causing voltage drop. I was hoping that someone else may have experienced similar with this problem before painstakingly ruling out all these possibilities. I even have solar panel fitted and leisrue battery is almost new and problem arose before either. Anyone with the magical answer?


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## pippin (Nov 15, 2007)

Swift are talking out of their - what is the expression again?!

A compressor takes a momentary high current every time it starts.

If the wiring is not heavy enough that causes a momentary voltage drop.

The fridge senses that and thinks not enough volts so shuts down.

The cabling needs to be as heavy as practicable to cope with that switch-on surge.

The running current is very much lower, approx 3A.

As Geoff says, check the volts at the fridge terminals and see if you can detect what happens at switch-on.

I bet you a pint to a pinch of rocking-horse sh1t that I am right!


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