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nightcrawler

Inverter issues

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2010 Tiffin Phaeton - the inverter beeps off and on while traveling. Have residential size refrigerator. Is the engine supposed to be charging the house batteries while traveling? What could be causing the invertor to beep off and on? Batteries tested good, while stationary and not plugged into shore power.

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Is it the Inverter, or is the beep from fridge?  If the fridge looses it's air tight seal, you'll get on/off beep!

Engine charges start batteries, generator or shore power charges house batteries.

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I do not have a Tiffin product, but on my motor home the engine generator charges the chassis batteries then when they are charged the house batteries are charged. So it all depends on how the manufacturer has set up the charging system. Also, if there is a battery minder, all the batteries may be charged at once, but at different charge rates. 

Edited by rossboyer

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Hi Nightcrawler , we have a2010 Phaeton with a Residential Fridge . same Problem .2010's dit not come with this Fridge from Factory . To me this happens about 6 Hours out when driving

have to start the Genny + run for about 1 -1 1/2 Hours . this stops the beebs , I dont think it was wired for this or this Electrical Load , We dit not ever had this until after we got rid of the NO COLD Fridge . I just learned to live with it .

Old Marine

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With a gas absorption unit it is plugged into two different 110 volt power sources. One is from the inverter to power the refrigerator. The second one is from shore or generator power for the ice maker (so it will not operate when in motion.) If the residential refrigerator it should be plugged into the 110 volt inverter plug. that will provide power all the time whether moving or connected to shore power or on generator. With all that being said, that is how mine works (residential for over 5 years).

In our 2002 Monaco Dynasty, when the engine is running it charges both the chassis and the house batteries.

Herman

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Hard to believe, but my King Aire start batteries only charge on Alternator and a Solar panel.  When New, this coach was listed at $805,000+!  We just installed new start batteries yesterday, NAPA Ser. 31 AGM Commercial.  

Edited by manholt

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4 hours ago, hermanmullins said:

With a gas absorption unit it is plugged into two different 110 volt power sources. One is from the inverter to power the refrigerator. The second one is from shore or generator power for the ice maker (so it will not operate when in motion.) If the residential refrigerator it should be plugged into the 110 volt inverter plug. that will provide power all the time whether moving or connected to shore power or on generator.

What I have found is a gas absorption unit it is plugged into a standard 110 circuit. The outher is from the inverter to power the ice maker when no outher 110 power is available and running on propane. I used this outlet for power when I installed my residential refrigerator upgrade.

Bill

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13 hours ago, manholt said:

Is it the Inverter, or is the beep from fridge?  If the fridge looses it's air tight seal, you'll get on/off beep!

Engine charges start batteries, generator or shore power charges house batteries.

 

11 hours ago, oldmarine said:

Hi Nightcrawler , we have a2010 Phaeton with a Residential Fridge . same Problem .2010's dit not come with this Fridge from Factory . To me this happens about 6 Hours out when driving

have to start the Genny + run for about 1 -1 1/2 Hours . this stops the beebs , I dont think it was wired for this or this Electrical Load , We dit not ever had this until after we got rid of the NO COLD Fridge . I just learned to live with it .

Old Marine

 

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Thanks, we just bought this Phaeton two years ago, did not realize that the residential fridge was not factory installed. Our inverter starts beeping much sooner than six hours of driving, sometimes just about 30 minutes.

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First I would double check the batteries and do a load test. Next I would look up in the manuel for your inverter and find out what the beeping signifies.

3 minutes ago, Nightcrawler said:

so how do we find out if the house batteries are actually getting charged while traveling.

With the coach running and no outher power connected use a meter and see what the voltage is at the batteries.

Bill 

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47 minutes ago, WILDEBILL308 said:

What I have found is a gas absorption unit it is plugged into a standard 110 circuit. The outher is from the inverter to power the ice maker when no outher 110 power is available and running on propane. I used this outlet for power when I installed my residential refrigerator upgrade

The above statement is true on every unit that I have dealt with in the past. If the Op will please look at the tech sticker just inside the fridge door and verify the max amp draw of that unit, will be helpful to determine what may be happening.  Many fridges of the 2010 vintage were very high wattage/amperage and will pull the batteries down very rapidly while on an inverter, and as stated in previous post, the charge to house batteries are kept to a minimum from the chassis supply. If max amperage is 8 or more then the average run amperage is very near 4 amps at 120 volts, this will deplete about 48 amps from a 12 volt DC supply.

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4 hours ago, kaypsmith said:

The above statement is true on every unit that I have dealt with in the past. If the Op will please look at the tech sticker just inside the fridge door and verify the max amp draw of that unit, will be helpful to determine what may be happening.  Many fridges of the 2010 vintage were very high wattage/amperage and will pull the batteries down very rapidly while on an inverter, and as stated in previous post, the charge to house batteries are kept to a minimum from the chassis supply. If max amperage is 8 or more then the average run amperage is very near 4 amps at 120 volts, this will deplete about 48 amps from a 12 volt DC supply.

Kay, You are working OHMS Law and the Power formulas Hard. Good exercise for the gray mater. 😵 I get a dizzy face at times. Gaps in the organic file folders.☺️

Rich.

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Hi Rich, I use average amps, max is usually 100% added to average, 8 X.5=4X10 windings 40, plus 20% 8 for overhead of the inverter = 48 @120, very close results in most cases with the inverter manufacturers equation. I still use the formulas pretty often, and still love it..:wub:

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sorry i dit not look at this Post since last time that i posted

Night crawler , like I said before , the residential Fridge dit not come from the Factory . we upgrated to a RF and also to a 3K pure sine wave Inverter .It has a lot bigger Battery charger as well, the problem is ,the coach does NOT charge the House Batterys while traveling ,and the power needed to keep the Fridge running will deplete the House Batterys Quickly .If ,like You said the Beeping starts after 30 Minutes into Your Traves , I would suggest YOU get the House Batterys Tested , they might not be good anymore or you have A bad one that is drawing the others down . If you repl . the House Batterys and go with 105 AMP batterys ,go with 6 batterys , if YOU go with125AMP Batterys You are OK with 4 . Please dont ask how I know . All i can tell You I found out the hard way . I hope this helps You . All the best to You + save Travels .    Old Marine

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2 hours ago, oldmarine said:

sorry i dit not look at this Post since last time that i posted

Night crawler , like I said before , the residential Fridge dit not come from the Factory . we upgrated to a RF and also to a 3K pure sine wave Inverter .It has a lot bigger Battery charger as well, the problem is ,the coach does NOT charge the House Batterys while traveling ,and the power needed to keep the Fridge running will deplete the House Batterys Quickly .If ,like You said the Beeping starts after 30 Minutes into Your Traves , I would suggest YOU get the House Batterys Tested , they might not be good anymore or you have A bad one that is drawing the others down . If you repl . the House Batterys and go with 105 AMP batterys ,go with 6 batterys , if YOU go with125AMP Batterys You are OK with 4 . Please dont ask how I know . All i can tell You I found out the hard way . I hope this helps You . All the best to You + save Travels .    Old Marine

So did you upgrade so the house batteries are being charged with the motor running? 

Bill 

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