Faulty charger or Fridge?

[canals are us?]

I bought a mains battery charger to charge my batteries.

 

The charger after less than 2 months has started to cycle on and off ie constantly turning on and off while it satisfies the power of the 12 volt fridge then goes into float mode. Before this the charger would just run and when the fridge switched off the charger switched off into float mode.

 

Is the charger faulty,? Suspect it is. The charger is 20amp made by ritar from electroquest.

 

Or can the 13 year old inlander 12 volt fridge cause issues like the above with the charger. I pulled the fridge out and checked the wiring, all seemed good and vacuumed the cobwebs and dust from the back of the fridge.

 

 

James

Edited July 13, 2013 by canals are us?

[blackrose]

Does the charger work normally and stay on float mode if you switch the fridge off?

[canals are us?]

Does the charger work normally and stay on float mode if you switch the fridge off?

 

Yes

 

You gave me an idea. Turn the fridge off and turn lights on to see if the charger does the same thing. Unfortunately it worked perfectly, charged normally and went into float etc. As soon as I switched the fridge on same problem with the charger. It looks like the fridge is knackered.

 

Any idea on the fridge problem? Could it be low on refrigerant, hence compressor cutting in and out causing the charger to mimic the fridge compressor?

 

Certainly cant afford a new 12volt fridge May have to be a mains one as I have 240v supply or a used 12 volt one.

 

Thanks James

Edited July 13, 2013 by canals are us?

[Graham Davis]

Being as it is so hot, could it be that the fridge is overheating?

How good is the ventilation to the rear of the fridge?

[canals are us?]

Being as it is so hot, could it be that the fridge is overheating?

How good is the ventilation to the rear of the fridge?

 

I would of thought ok as to the left of the fridge ia a single width wine rack to hold 4 bottles vertically that allow full depth ventilation all down the side and back. I have pulled it out to see if it works being cooler.

 

Thanks James

[smileypete]

Didn't you pull a couple of bad batts from the bank recently? Could be the charge requirement is lower as a result when the fridge is running the additional load is not enough to keep the fan on.

 

If you want to know what's going on for sure, get hold of a voltmeter and some sort of ammeter.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited July 13, 2013 by smileypete

[canals are us?]

Didn't you pull a couple of bad batts from the bank recently? Could be the charge requirement is lower as a result when the fridge is running the additional load is not enough to keep the fan on.

 

If you want to know what's going on for sure, get hold of a voltmeter and some sort of ammeter.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

Hi,

 

I did remove 2 suspect duff batteries and then a third day before yesterday and the charger went into float no problem but then the fridge problem arose. Not sure if it ran fine on just the one battery as didn't check the charger after seeing it had gone into float but as you say it could be a current issue.

 

I have been looking at the car type voltmeter plugged into the tv supply socket and when the fridge compressor runs the voltage drops to an indicated 13.5 volts and then fluctuates between 14.2v to 14.4v in random cycles with the charger and when the compressor switches off the voltage returns to 13.8v float.

I have just turned the charger off and the current voltage at the car type voltage display is 13.7v When the fridge just fired up with no charger on the voltage went down to 12.2 volts or a bit less or more fluctuating.

 

I have a multimeter but not a clamp meter. What should I test using the voltmeter?

 

I may well order 2 new trojan batteries to see if it sorts the fridge out but if the fridge is knackered then I would prefer to use the battery money on a 240v fridge and buy a budget battery for the other 12 volt items.

Thanks James

Edited July 13, 2013 by canals are us?

[Justme]

The voltage dropping from 13.7 to 12.2 does seem to indicate that either the batteries are not fully charged or they have minimal usable capacity left.

 

What did they go back to after the fridge went off but without the charger?

[smileypete]

Unless the fridge is running for far longer than it should be I'd not worry about it toooo much.

 

There's been a number of threads/discussions in the past on improving poor ventilation/reducing heat round the back of the fridge to cut the run time. One way on 12V fridges with Danfoss compressors is connect a 120mm PC fan to the fan output on the ECU, just google the compressor no, BD50F or something, to get a manual.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[canals are us?]

The voltage dropping from 13.7 to 12.2 does seem to indicate that either the batteries are not fully charged or they have minimal usable capacity left.

 

What did they go back to after the fridge went off but without the charger?

 

It went back to 13.8volts

 

Unless the fridge is running for far longer than it should be I'd not worry about it toooo much.

 

There's been a number of threads/discussions in the past on improving poor ventilation/reducing heat round the back of the fridge to cut the run time. One way on 12V fridges with Danfoss compressors is connect a 120mm PC fan to the fan output on the ECU, just google the compressor no, BD50F or something, to get a manual.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

The fridge spends about 5 minutes on and about 10 minutes off. My main worry is it causing damage to the battery charger with the charger turning on and off while the fridge compressor is running.. Could it be knackered batteries as to be honest I'm tempted to replace with cheaper ones incase I have to replace the undercounter 12 volt fridge with freezer compartment with a 240 volt one for £137.00

 

Thanks. James

Edited July 13, 2013 by canals are us?

[blodger]

 

It went back to 13.8volts

 

 

The fridge spends about 5 minutes on and about 10 minutes off. My main worry is it causing damage to the battery charger with the charger turning on and off while the fridge compressor is running.. Could it be knackered batteries as to be honest I'm tempted to replace with cheaper ones incase I have to replace the undercounter 12 volt fridge with freezer compartment with a 240 volt one for £137.00

 

Thanks. James

Sounds to me as though the friidge is fine doing its job in hot weather, but the batts have little capacity and hence are reliant on the charger to augment sooner and more often.

[Justme]

 

It went back to 13.8volts

 

 

 

 

 

Even with no other charge source?

 

Thats very odd.

[smileypete]

The fridge spends about 5 minutes on and about 10 minutes off. My main worry is it causing damage to the battery charger with the charger turning on and off while the fridge compressor is running.. Could it be knackered batteries as to be honest I'm tempted to replace with cheaper ones incase I have to replace the undercounter 12 volt fridge with freezer compartment with a 240 volt one for £137.00

 

Thanks. James

Fridge run time sounds about right for this weather.

 

The charger turning on and off shouldn't affect it's reliability in any way, if the fan is on less overall then it should last longer, they can usually run non-stop for a good number of years anyway. Is the fan switching on and off annoying at all?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited July 14, 2013 by smileypete

[canals are us?]

Sounds to me as though the friidge is fine doing its job in hot weather, but the batts have little capacity and hence are reliant on the charger to augment sooner and more often.

 

The battery charger comes on as soon as the fridge turns on or shortly after turning on a light. When just a light is on the charger stays on and doesn't cycle, probably due to the lower load. But the fridge the charger Cycles on and off every few seconds.

 

 

 

Even with no other charge source?

 

Thats very odd.

 

Yes, it's strange and the voltage for a few seconds can go anywhere from 12v - 14.9volts while the charger is on and fridge running but stays at 13.8volts when charging or off charging.

 

Fridge run time sounds about right for this weather.

 

The charger turning on and off shouldn't affect it's reliability in any way, if the fan is on less overall then it should last longer, they can usually run non-stop for a good number of years anyway. Is the fan switching on and off annoying at all?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

At first yes but have the windows open so not as quiet as when they are closed, so don't notice the charger fan then.

 

I'm thinking I should just order 2 new Trojan 105's on Monday and rule out knackered batteries and then if the fridge continues to cycle the charger replace it with a 240volt one.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the batteries capacity has gone flaky and hence getting the unstable voltage readings that upset the fridge.

 

Thanks everyone. James

[canals are us?]

Well I swapped out the currently in use battery and tried one of the other 3 disconnected suspect duff batteries. Tried all three with a multimeter for the highest voltage and connected that one up.

 

So now the good news. Switched the charger on and it charged, went to float and then the fridge switched on. No cycling of the battery charger. Stayed on full charge while the fridge was on and then switched off to float It has worked fine so far the last half hour.

The battery when I removed it was a Numax! The others no name/brand sticker.

 

Will order some Trojans Tuesday!!

 

James

[canals are us?]

Installed the new 6 volt Trojan T105's and everything is now working great again! The batteries were at fault not the charger or fridge.

 

The Trojan's certainly are heavy! Very pleased with the speedy delivery. Ordered around 3pm and delivered around 2.30pm the next day, very well packed.

 

I have a question though Is there any BSS rules regarding the colour of the cable connecting in series ie + to - connection? Mine I did in blue and positive red and negative black.

 

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They fitted well in the battery box and still room for two more if I want. Charger fully charged them in 3 hours with a final charge at 14.8v.

 

I was sweating buckets in the hour it took to swap and wire them in.

 

Thanks James.

Edited July 18, 2013 by canals are us?