Bob Jones

It's very easy to determine shore power was present - all the other electrical outlets in the unit work, ie, the clothes washer was still running, the hot water tank was still on etc. Only the *inverter* outlets had no power. I agree that it could be a solid state error, ie, that control of the pass-through relay may have an issue. But, since it's intermittent, and the unit is 20 years old, my guess is that relay has performed yeoman service and probably needs a break 🙂 (pardon the humor) The refrigerator is a Norcold. The only reason I knew the issue was occuring was because I heard it beeping about no AC. Right now I'm tripping the breaker to the inverter every 30 minutes or so (cutting and resuming power) to exercise that relay but I suspect replacing them would not be expensive and probably stand a high chance of solving it. I will take a look in the owner's manual shortly as I think it describes the operation and may help narrow it down.

Thanks for the replies people! As I said, this appears to be a new intermittent issue. The only clue I had that something was going on was coming home to see that the microwave had been power cycled for some reason.. until last night when the issue happened while I was in the unit. So, to keep it simple, last night all the inverter circuits lost power despite the fact that shore power was present. I don't know (yet) what caused them to come back on. I am guessing this is what has been happening when I've been away and come home to see that the microwave has power cycled. The inverter is a Trace Engineering Legend Series 1500 watt MSW inverter. As part of maintenance I had already tightened connections in the transfer switch box (shore/genset/inverter) and also at the breaker panel inside the unit. I had also tightened the strip that holds the romex wire in the inverter itself (I knew that vibrations can cause those connections to loosen). @jacwjames "If that isn't the problem it the inverter may be developing a problem with the internal transfer switch (pass through power relays)." This was the first thought that crossed my mind, even though I know little about how the inverter actually works. If AC is present at the Inverter and then power drops to the inverter's outlets on an intermittent basis, that would make perfect sense. I would guess that other than the fan, the relays are probably the only moving parts in the unit. @Joel & Suzanna "Weak connections start fires so I would not ignore this issue." Agreed. I don't like it and it seems serious to me. I still have an account at DigiKey, it may be time to pull the inverter, read the numbers on the relays, and order some in.

Hi folks! I have an odd inverter issue that seems to be cropping up. For some time now I've seen that the microwave resets and goes back to displaying 'Simply the Best' and looses the clock. Ie, it's as if the microwave was power cycled even though I am plugged into GOOD 50 amp shore power. Tonight the fridge started beeping saying 'NO AC' at the same time the microwave display was off. Same with the TV. What I realized was that all the inverter outlets were dead. I went outside and checked the inverter. Both breakers were OK and the fan was on. I tripped them both anyway. The green light on the inverter was blinking very fast. I verified that the 50 amp plug at the receptacle was tightly seated. Neighbors all had power and so did I (on other outlets) so it was not a power failure. I went inside and turned the inverter on and the power came back to the outlets. I then turned it off and at some point, not sure when, normal operation resumed....inverter outlets were powered whether or not the inverter was on (normal behavior). It behaved as if power was cut to the inverter (power failure). Is there anything that comes to mind that could cause that even if the power to the inverter has not been cut? I realize it's an odd issue but this is the first that I was able to witness it. I hope my inverter is not going south...if it happens again, and I think it will, I will be able to watch it more closely and hopefully ascertain exactly what it's doing. But it seems to be, intermittently, thinking that the power going to the inverter has failed...even when it hasn't....

@Steven P - Nice job, and thanks for the post. While I could do it with the Samsung the issue for me is it's a lot bigger so it's also a lot more hassle getting it through the door. It's more $$ and I really don't need that much fridge as it's just me in here 🙂 Also, availability in my area for that fridge is a little harder. @Dennis H - that too is a really nice job! I have to keep my furnace as it gets cold up here in the winter (up to -7c or so). Nice to see the person behind your blog. I have read almost all of it from start to finish over several weeks. You did such a nice job on the posts that I felt like I didn't even have to go to any of those places ! 🙂 My Norcold actually works very well. The freezer is typically -15c and the fridge is typically 1.8c or lower. And that's in the summer (ambient of 27-35c) and on setting #3 or 2 !! I installed a row of fans across the cooling fins and then a second fan on the bottom blowing air up to the cooling fins (these are all inside fans). That is what got me the great cooling from the Norcold and I can have frozen ground beef in the freezer unit for more than a month and it will still be red when I pull it out. But...it's ~22 years old. Sooner or later the door hinges will go out. But I find the electrical cost for the motorhome per month to be quite high. Typically ~$100 per month. The Norcold draws 450-500 watts and I'm quite certain it's accounting for probably $40-$50 of that monthly bill. As such, it's a power pig. The Frigidaire Kevin listed above looks like it's more/less Plug 'N Play, it's cheap at ~$850 CAD ($600 USD) and....it apparently costs $40 per YEAR to operate. I am quite certain it costs the same to run for one year as my Norcold costs to run for one month......At that rate, it does not take long to recoup the costs of the fridge. So, efficiency is really what I am after because, other that that, I love the Norcold now that I have tuned it up. If I set the Norcold to setting 5 it will easily freeze everything in the fridge compartment! I never use the gas side of it as I don't want to burn the unit down. When I think about the efficiency of a modern fridge, such as Kevin's Frigidaire, I wonder if it even would cost $40 per year in my locale. Given that the rear of the fridge is more/less open to the ambient temperature, which up here is probably averaged out to 15c over a year, my guess is it might even be more efficient. The flip side is, the Norcold will run for about 12 hours on the inverter/batteries at 500 watts draw. I bet the Frigidaire would last days and probably closer to a week! From the looks of it, the Frigidaire, in whatever their ambient temp testing is, will use a LOT less power. 332Kw per year = .90 Kw per day = .12c X 30 = $3.54 per month!! Assuming my math is correct that would be a massive savings in power to the extent that it would pay for itself in probably 1.5 years. I have a kill-o-watt, I'm going to hook it up to the Norcold and see exactly what it is using in power in a 24 hour period.

I'm liking that fridge a LOT and I've been looking for some time. The one thing that puts me off of a Samsung RF18 is the amount of work required to install it. I have a 2000 Diplomat and it looks quite similar to yours. I have the furnace in the compartment underneath the fridge. Was it literally just replace the Norcold and fill the gaps? (Other than the obvious like disconnect and cap the propane etc). I can get that fridge locally too...and...what's bugging me about the Norcold is the amount of power it uses. Pretty sure it's costing me about $40 per month whereas that one you show costs $40 per year.....So if you're still out there, please confirm the fitment for me 🙂

That's what I thought but all of them are non-returnable so if you get the wrong one you have to fire it back through the auction. Is it hard for you to determine the part # on the spare you have lying around? Also, I thought I saw somewhere that if you have two AC units you have to use different part numbers for each one. Don't know if it's true or not....

I looked into some of the part numbers Microair supplied but was not comfortable they were correct. Some of them seemed to track back to other AC units and that caused me concern that they may not be correct. In my case, the two units are not heat pumps. They are the original Penguin I units with the metal condenser shroud. It's sad that Dometic seems to refuse to provide help with purchasing their products. At least, for these old units. I did contact them on behalf of a neighbor for her Brisk II unit and they responded very quickly with the right part numbers...just not for mine... I certainly don't want to replace my AC units unless absolutely necessary. I'm of the opinion that these 20+ year old units are much higher quality.

I used Flex Seal, the one that comes in a gallon can. I was just up on the roof washing/cleaning it. It worked very well and I would not hesitate to use it again. Bear in mind, the stuff in the gallon can is not the same as the spray stuff. I went over every seam and cutout with it. It's holding up very well, probably two years now?

The Ubiquiti M5 is the dish I used. It mounted to the batwing, which I removed. I used to have them both on there but then you had to physically remove the dish before you went down the road. Now that I got rid of the batwing you can raise, lower and aim it from inside just as with the batwing. The dish only does WiFi in the 5Ghz range. It reaches out very far, miles and miles and miles if you need it to. Ethernet cable to the dish, down through a sealed hole in the roof into the area behind the speaker and then over to what I call the media bay, the three compartments above the windshield. From there it goes to the WAN port on a router and there is also an access point in the unit above the driver's head. It works very well, given the range. It's also very cheap and extremely durable. Fully water and wind proof, it's really carrier grade equipment put into use for the motorhome. So, it's not cellular, it's Wifi and only on the 5Ghz band which today is pretty much standard. On the other site, everyone that bought one loved it - and lots of people bought them. Up here (Canada) we have a cable company that provides WiFi access pretty much across the country from the left of Ontario to Vancouver Island. It's included in your cable package so it's very easy to get access as long as you can reach their access point. Given the dish's very high gain, it will likely do 30 KM's or so if you have a matching dish on the other end. But that's not the point, the point is it can easily go a mile or two which is probably all most people need.

I wanted to get this thermostat but I still have the 4-button CCC in my unit (along with the original 22 year old AC units). Apparently I need to install two new boards that support the 5-button Dometic thermostat in order for the Microair to work. The problem is, Dometic will not tell me what boards I need! Same with Microair. 6 emails into Dometic and not one answer with a part number!

That was my post. I left that site for this one 🙂 The Ubiquiti dish works like a top. This is my first post here 🙂