Marine fridge wiring help needed! Calling all electrical gurus!

M

Matt R

New Member
Jul 22, 2008
25
Indiana
My fridge won't run when plugged into 110v. Here's a pic of the wires coming into my ac/dc marine fridge. Just to help decipher:

batt pos in = pos wire coming from battery

batt in = negative wire coming from battery

110v conv in = wire coming from 110v-12v transformer

to comp relay = black and red wire going to compressor relay (these both go through some kind of capacitor/resistor/electrical thingy before going to the compressor relay)

???? = never has been connected to anything

Where, if anywhere, should the ???? wire be connected to? Could this be why the fridge won't run on 110ac?

2988130804_9e10bbf85e_b.jpg
 
Well my guess is that your fridge runs on 12VDC all the time, but when plugged into 120VAC, the transformer is taking over and when 120VAC is not present it's running directly off the 12VDC.
Are you saying when that black 120VAC plug is plugged in and 120VAC is present your fridge doesn't work?
If so, it may be that your transformer is bad.
 
Yep, when that black 120VAC plug is plugged in and 120VAC is present the fridge doesn't work. The little green light on the transformer is on; dunno if that means the transformer is bad or not.

I was wondering if that blue wire I labeled "????" should be connected to something.
 
Well that looks like a rectifier. Not sure if the blue should be a ground, but are you getting 12VDC out of the transformer when the 120VAC is on?
 
I'm at work and for some reason I can't see what type of unit we are talking about but I have a Norcold DE 461 that was doing the same thing. The black plug supplies AC power to the power supply. By turning off the A/C to the unit it would try to work on the DC side but not very well. I figured the power supply was bad so I ordered a new one and installed it. THEN I found a troubleshooting guide for my unit and discovered the compressor was locked up. Bad enough except that the new power supply is toast as well.
Moral of the story (for me anyway) is make sure you now exactly what's wrong with that unit before you start replacing parts. Most of the time they aren't worth repairing.
 
Good advice; that said, mine works fine when hooked up to a battery, just not on ac. I'm thinking the transformer is shot. I'm still not sure what that loose blue wire is for, though.
 
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