New owner with fridge problems
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Forum Name: Introduce Yourself
Forum Discription: New Members - tell us about yourself and your r-pod
URL: http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6078
Printed Date: 19 May 2025 at 10:53pm
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Topic: New owner with fridge problems
Posted By: danmarkian
Subject: New owner with fridge problems
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 4:34pm
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Hi all, I've been checking out this forum for while now and just purchased a 2015 179 last weekend and we love it! My wife and I live in wilmington NC and we just recently sold our 36 foot motor home and opted to go smaller, we ended up driving to Ohio to a dealer (Jeff Couchs RV Nation) that gave us a deal a lot less than a local dealer was able to, and included the R-Dome which was a $700 add on here locally. We picked it up and headed out on the 11 hour trip back home. Half way we stopped to camp and we found that the fridge would not start, in any mode. We were plugged in, and strangely when it was dark, I could see the panel just barley glowing, and when I pushed the on button, it lit up just a bit more, but failed to turn on. I went to the access panel and un-plugged it from the AC for now for safety. So I called the dealer yesterday twice, was sent to the warranty department both times and had to leave a message both times, they never called me back. Emailed the dealer I worked with, and within 5 minutes he replied and said he talked to the warranty dept. and they would get back to me.. but still haven't 8 hours later, dissapointing to say the least. Now I guess I will have to go to the local dealer (the one I refused to buy from) and I'm sure they will drop everything and schedule a repair, in a month or two! Now the sales staff at RV Nation was great, but I'm still waiting on someone to call me back to let me know what to do. I guess maybe for the extra money I would have been better off buying from the local dealer. The other part of this trip was towing it with our Xterra, with a now check engine soon light flashing, but thats for another time. I swear it was up hill all the way to NC! Anyone have any tricks I could try to get it working?
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Replies:
Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 8:11pm
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Please explain "failed to turn on" the fridge is an absorption system, no clicks, "whirrs", or dings, and it takes hours to start feeling cold from a warm start.. ------------- |
Posted By: yalilminx
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 8:17pm
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I also purchased mine from Couchs last week. Had a few issues and they are working on it right away. I did notice it took forever for the fridge to get cold. It never felt really super cold to me but our drinks were cold the next morning. ------------- 2015 rpod 176t |
Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 8:34pm
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The ammonia absorption fridges cool very slowly. Common practice is to let it run a full 24 hours before loading, an then only with precooled food. While traveling it's in/out quickly and infrequently. It's very different from your household motor compressor fridge.
------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: danmarkian
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 8:54pm
| When I say Failed to turn on it just doesn't do anything, no light inside, no indication on the front panel, I tried holding the power button for 10 seconds, nothing happens. When I got home today I went out to plug a house fan into the outlet the fridge uses to see if there was power and there is. I also tried to turn on the microwave, no luck. I checked the circuit breakers, all are on! Air, heat, tv, stereo, pump all work. I'm not sure what's going on, when we got it I know the micro worked, now nothing. I'm going to explore the wiring under the couch end to see if something pulled loose while the slide extends. |
Posted By: Podster
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 9:07pm
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Check the GFI plug inside the POD. See if it has tripped and need to be reset. ------------- Cliff & Raelynn Ranger 4.0/178 (1/2 ton 5,800lb tow capacity) |
Posted By: danmarkian
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 9:19pm
| Thanks CharlieM, I'm used to rv fridges taking a long time to cool, this one just won't turn on at all. is there a way to post a pic? I have a pic that shows what a working unit looks like with the indicators glowing blue, mine does not do that... |
Posted By: danmarkian
Date Posted: 14 Apr 2015 at 9:21pm
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Podster,
I checked and also ran a indoor fan from the outlets to test, power works. |
Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 7:42am
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The fridge requires good 12 volt power to operate in any mode. All the controls run on 12V. Except fort the dim glow I'd say lack of 12V. Check the 12 volt fuse in the power panel. Don't rely on
the fuse marking - very unreliable. Best thing might be to pull several
fuses around the marked one at night. Maybe you can see the dim display go completely out. Replace the fridge fuse. There should be a terminal for the 12V connection in the fridge compartment outside. I don't know what model is in the 179. Maybe a present owner can jump in and help. If the fuse is good and no or low 12V at the fridge I'd start tracing 12V connections from the fuse panel to the fridge. Not easy. Take a blood pressure pill or a beer before you start. Good luck.
------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: HuronSailor
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 8:33am
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As CharlieM said, it sounds like low battery to me. Low battery = no fridge in any mode. If you noticed this half way home it also sounds like your tow vehicle isn't sending charging voltage through the trailer harness back to the pod. The fridge only runs a few hours on battery power. ------------- .: Mark & Beth :: Silverado 5.3L :: 2018 rPod 180 :. |
Posted By: danmarkian
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 11:33am
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Thanks CharlieM and HuronSailor. I looked at the fuse panel and didn't see a marking for the fridge, so I will go back and check each fuse. The no 12 volt = no fridge makes sense, but the RPOD is plugged in to 30 AMP outlet at my house, so shouldn't it charge the battery? I will also take a meter to the back of the fridge to see if there is any dc current. The air conditioner, TV, stereo, pump. and lights work.. but now I also have to figure why the microwave is not working! I don't understand how a week old camper can have this many issues, and of course I'm 800 miles from the dealer I bought it from. |
Posted By: furpod
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 11:52am
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The breaker to the converter could be tripped. On ours, all the breaker/fuse markings are on the door of the distribution center.And agreed the 12v no fridge seems weird at first, but it's 12v that runs the brain of the fridge, so when boondocking, you can run on gas. The microwave on our 177 has the plug hidden in a different cabinet. The one where we put canned fruit and such, the cans of which are JUST tall enough to unplug the microwave while on the road once and a while.. lol. Might be the same on a 179. ------------- |
Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 2:18pm
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Yes, the fridge 12V system should work if plugged in to commercial power IF the converter is working. Furpod's breaker suggestion is valid. However, if other 12V things like lights and fan work, that's not the problem. And don't worry about no labels on fuses and breakers. If you had them they would be wrong. On the micro, it has its own breaker and outlet. Check that it's plugged in. You can run the same test you ran on the fridge outlet to check power. You may have to remove the micro to get to the outlet. I did on my 172. ------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: danmarkian
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 2:31pm
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Thanks CharlieM, Very helpful, I will consider the labels as wrong (until I re-label them!) and check all the fuses. I'm glad you told me the Micro has it's own breaker, I will remove the micro after work and test it out. I think I will take some pictures to post on this forum, that may help other owners... if I'm successful!
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Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2015 at 7:18pm
You will be successful, just maybe not tonight  ------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: danmarkian
Date Posted: 16 Apr 2015 at 9:21am
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Thanks all for your help! So here's what I did; On a 2015 179 the microwave and fridge are part of the slide out along with the dinette seating. I pulled the microwave to follow the power cord, it goes through a hole into the overhead storage above the dinette, and yes, it was unplugged... Thanks Furpod, we did have some things stored in there that might have knocked out the plug, works much better when plugged in! Per CharlieM, I did check each fuse with a meter, they were all ok. Then I pulled the outside panel and used a volt meter to see if 12vdc was getting to the fridge, and it was, I was about to give up at this point thinking it must be a bad circuit board. I went back inside and pulled the control panel out, and there are two connections, one being a ribbon cable and the other a very small white wire, it looked like the type of wire you would find inside a computer powering a cooling fan. I pulled that wire from the circuit board and hooked it to a meter and there was no power! After wiggling the wire I found that the meter would jump. Conclusion: The white wire looked ok on the outside, but the actual metal wire inside the wire cover must be broken, this would explain why i could get a voltage read when I wiggled the wire. My guess is that during the installation of the fridge that wire must have got pinched or stretched to a point that broke the wire inside the sheath. When they QA tested at the factory it may have worked then, but after moving it the connection was lost. RV Nation warranty calld me this morning and is sending me a new power wire, problem solved! Thanks all for the help, maybe this post can help others in the future!
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Posted By: CharlieM
Date Posted: 16 Apr 2015 at 9:33am
I love it when we find our own problems and the fixes are cheap! Kudos to you.  ------------- Charlie Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
Posted By: techntrek
Date Posted: 16 Apr 2015 at 10:50am
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ditto ------------- Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ http://www.rpod-owners.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1723 - Pod instruction manual 
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