Refrigerator problems

[Scott and Colleen Miller]

Green horn James here again! So, just purchased our Endeavor and the former owner put a residential Samsung refrigerator on board. Worked awesome with generator running. Plugged in at home (used the dryer plug 30 amp) now not cooling. Lights work but not cooling. Nothing else seemingly damaged. I looked up possible problems, but not sure why this happened. Is there some hung I need to do prior to plugging in. 
 

thanks everyone! BBQ on me if your ever in the neighborhood!

James

[birdshill123]

Your dryer plug is 220. You may have fried something. 

[Dr4Film]

I agree with Bruce. Dryer plugs are generally 220 amp unless you specifically installed a 30 amp RV plug which you are mistakenly calling it a "dryer" plug. Also, If you didn't have a Progressive Industries EMS unit installed to protect from errant electrical problems, chances are that you have destroyed some stuff inside the coach due to the 220 VAC causing damage and the refrigerator may have been one victim of many.

Have you tried running the generator to see if the frig still works?

Edited February 1, 2021 by Dr4Film

[Jim Byrd]

19 minutes ago, birdshill123 said:

Your dryer plug is 220. You may have fried something. 

I concur, most likely you have damaged the control board and/or the  compressor.

Your best option is to contact your local authorized Samsung repair facility. 

It is difficult to troubleshot or repair the unit with it in the RV. When I has an issue with mine I was told that they would not attempt to work on it while it was in the coach. The control board is only accessible after removing a cover from the top of the refrigerator. Fortunately for me the problem was contributed  by not getting the doors properly closed and it caused the evaporator on the refrigerator to freeze up.

Sorry to hear of your wounds.

Jim

 

[Scott and Colleen Miller]

44 minutes ago, Scott and Colleen Miller said:

Green horn James here again! So, just purchased our Endeavor and the former owner put a residential Samsung refrigerator on board. Worked awesome with generator running. Plugged in at home (used the dryer plug 30 amp) now not cooling. Lights work but not cooling. Nothing else seemingly damaged. I looked up possible problems, but not sure why this happened. Is there some thing I need to do prior to plugging in. 
 

thanks everyone! BBQ on me if your ever in the neighborhood!

James

 

😵 just went in a trip and did not notice any other problems. When we run the generator, the lights come on inside the fridge, but it does not cool.... thoughts?

[klcdenver]

I think the fridge is plugged into the inverter and when plugged into shore power you don't have inverter selected. Take the outside access panel off behind the fridge and you will have two receptacles plugs there. One for shore and one thru the inverter. Try switching to the other plug or take a meter and check which is hot or not.

[Dr4Film]

The Inverter should have a 120 VAC bypass such that when hooked to shore power the 120 VAC shore power passes through to the coach.

I wonder if by chance the OP has inadvertently set the fridge into demo mode where the lights will come on but the fridge does not cool.

Edited February 1, 2021 by Dr4Film

[OhReally]

James, just to close the loop on differences between your dryer plug and the RV wiring. The dryer takes 240 volts to run and your RV does not. The RV takes two 120 volt ines, splits them inside the RV breaker box and runs a 120 volt leg to some plugs and appliances and another 120 volts leg to others. Nowhere do the two 120 volt legs feed any single plug or appliance like in your dryer. Unless your RV has been rewired in some fashion (highly unlikely), you DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES 240 volts. This is the easiest way to describe the difference between plugs without getting deep into electrical theory. As others have said, you may have damaged the refrigerator or you may have damaged the onboard Electrical Management System (EMS). Any good RV tech can figure it out.

Do yourself a favor and either get a dedicated RV type receptical installed or use plug adapters to get only a single 120 volt input into your coach for limited power while parked at your home. Good luck!

-Jamie

[Scott and Colleen Miller]

Thank you! Will set up a dedicated line at home for the Coach! 
 

[k7jv]

Take a look at that drier receptacle or plug.  Does it have two vertical slots/prongs opposite of one another, kind of an upside down doghouse or half-round looking slot/prong in the middle-top and an upside down "L" slot/prong on the middle-bottom?  If so, you should have 120 VAC between each of the two "hot" terminals (the vertical flat ones) and both the neutral (the upside down "L") and the ground (the top, half-round) if your adapter is properly configured for that application, and your failure or damage should not have come from an over-voltage situation.  You should see 240 VAC between the two vertical flat terminals.

I have a few short questions for you.  NOTE:  If you don't know the answer to some of these, DO NOT plug it back into the drier receptacle to get the answer for me, just tell me that you didn't check to see or you just don't know.

When you were plugged into your drier receptacle, were the lights in the refrigerator working?

Could you hear any fans or the compressor in the refrigerator running or trying to run?

Did EVERYTHING else in your coach that operates on shore/generator power work properly while you were plugged into your drier receptacle?  (I'm not talking about lights, as they are all 12 VDC)

Did you run the microwave, or any of your roof AC's, or any of your entertainment equipment while you were plugged into your drier receptacle?

Did you purchase or did you make the adapter yourself that you used on the end of your coach shore-power cable to allow it to plug into the drier receptacle?

If you purchased it already assembled, exactly what (Manufacturer, product description, etc.) did you purchase?

Those answers should help to determine whether you have a lot of damage or the coincidental failure of your compressor and/or control board in your refrigerator.  I hope that what the folks above are fearing isn't what actually happened, as that could get pretty complicated.  Fingers crossed.

[wamcneil]

20 hours ago, birdshill123 said:

Your dryer plug is 220. You may have fried something. 

 

15 hours ago, sjamiejones said:

James, just to close the loop on differences between your dryer plug and the RV wiring. The dryer takes 240 volts to run and your RV does not. The RV takes two 120 volt ines, splits them inside the RV breaker box and runs a 120 volt leg to some plugs and appliances and another 120 volts leg to others. Nowhere do the two 120 volt legs feed any single plug or appliance like in your dryer. 

-Jamie

What????? 
He doesn’t say what kind of dryer plug it is, so potentially there’s a problem if he’s got an old 3-wire dryer plug with no neutral conductor . Or if he somehow connected the old 3-wire 240v dryer plug like it was a 120v 30a RV plug.
But if he’s got a 4-wire plug in his laundry room... there’s no difference between a NEMA 14-50R 240v outlet in your laundry room and the same NEMA 14-50R outlet in the RV park power pole. Except maybe the dryer circuit has a 30a breaker in it. (Which won’t hurt anything)

True, there’s nothing in the RV that uses BOTH legs of 240v power, but make no mistake, 240v power is most certainly coming in to the RV through the 50a connector. 
Cheers

Walter

[k7jv]

1 minute ago, wamcneil said:

 

What????? 
He doesn’t say what kind of dryer plug it is, so potentially there’s a problem if he’s got an old 3-wire dryer plug with no neutral conductor . Or if he somehow connected the old 3-wire 240v dryer plug like it was a 120v 30a RV plug.
But if he’s got a 4-wire plug in his laundry room... there’s no difference between a NEMA 14-50R 240v outlet in your laundry room and the same NEMA 14-50R outlet in the RV park power pole. Except maybe the dryer circuit has a 30a breaker in it. (Which won’t hurt anything)

True, there’s nothing in the RV that uses BOTH legs of 240v power, but make no mistake, 240v power is most certainly coming in to the RV through the 50a connector. 
Cheers

Walter

You are right, Walter.  And when you talk about the "old" 3-wire plug, that actually could actually be ok, too, as that should be configured in the receptacle just like the typical 30 amp receptacle in the RV pedestals we enjoy in the RV parks.  On those, the two angled, flat blades will have each of the two 120 VAC lines present,  and the "bottom"-center terminal should be the neutral.  In that case, there isn't a ground provided to the "appliance".  But a lack of a ground shouldn't bother the coach systems unless his incoming power protection devices trigger on the lack of a ground being present.  I'm really hopeful that if he didn't use a mis-wired adapter and actually get L1 or L2 onto the neutral of his coach power cable.  Like you, fingers are crossed that the worst that could happen isn't what did happen.

[wamcneil]

34 minutes ago, k7jv said:

You are right, Walter.  And when you talk about the "old" 3-wire plug, that actually could actually be ok, too, as that should be configured in the receptacle just like the typical 30 amp receptacle in the RV pedestals we enjoy in the RV parks.  On those, the two angled, flat blades will have each of the two 120 VAC lines present,  and the "bottom"-center terminal should be the neutral.  In that case, there isn't a ground provided to the "appliance".  But a lack of a ground shouldn't bother the coach systems unless his incoming power protection devices trigger on the lack of a ground being present.  I'm really hopeful that if he didn't use a mis-wired adapter and actually get L1 or L2 onto the neutral of his coach power cable.  Like you, fingers are crossed that the worst that could happen isn't what did happen.

No, the 30a RV plug is 120v. It’s one hot, neutral and ground, just like the 3-prong outlets in the house.
The one hot leg is jumpered to both hot legs inside the 30a-50a adapter. 
I doubt he could have done anything bad here unless he kludged his own adapter with kitchen utensils and tinfoil. 
And even if he did... I think the transfer switch will catch the hot neutral and not engage. 
Cheers

Walter

Edited February 2, 2021 by wamcneil

[k7jv]

You are absolutely right!  My head was momentarily in a "bad" place.  Dang, I hate it when that happens.  I do know better!  I hope no one stops reading after reading that post, but search on to get your catch.  When the typical RV pedestal 30 amp source is used, the splitting of the single 120 VAC leg from the 3-wire 30 amp plug is actually done in the adapter to tie the hot leg of the 30 amp source to the otherwise normally two hot legs of the 50 amp cable plug, in the adapter.  As a result, when our coaches are plugged into a 50 amp supply we should see 240 VAC across L1 and L2 in the coach.  When we are plugged into a 30 amp supply we should see ZERO VAC across L1 and L2, because they are actually tied together in the 30 to 50 amp adapter.

Fortunately for us, the NEC defines the configuration of plugs and receptacles and tries to protect us.  Manufacturers of approved devices can generally also be relied upon to produce cords, adapters and devices that also meet those standards.  As a result, I believe that the only way a person could mistakenly plug something commercially made into a receptacle and have damaging voltages  become present would be if the "in between" device was either self-made, or was commercially made, but modified by someone along the line.  Kind of explains why there are so many different receptacle and plug configurations that are dictated by the voltages, number of hot legs and amperage ratings for the circuits they serve.

[johncvandoren@gmail.com]

On 2/1/2021 at 10:02 AM, Scott and Colleen Miller said:

 

😵 just went in a trip and did not notice any other problems. When we run the generator, the lights come on inside the fridge, but it does not cool.... thoughts?

You’re lucky if all that got fried was your fridge control board!  I’ve read some horror stories. In one, an adult son had a 50A RV outlet at his house for his parents’ rig installed by a licensed electrician.  Unfortunately he was not an RV electrician, so: Poof! 240VAC fried everything in rhe RV—Fridge, TVs, ACs, & more!🤮

[Dave Pumphrey]

You could take the outside cover off the fridge compartment & plug the fridge into an extension cord & see if it works.

Also did you check, as posted above, that it was not accidently put in "demo Mode",

this is what they use in the store that allows the lights to work, but not the cooling.

[dl_racing427]

10 hours ago, johncvandoren@gmail.com said:

You’re lucky if all that got fried was your fridge control board!  I’ve read some horror stories. In one, an adult son had a 50A RV outlet at his house for his parents’ rig installed by a licensed electrician.  Unfortunately he was not an RV electrician, so: Poof! 240VAC fried everything in rhe RV—Fridge, TVs, ACs, & more!🤮

Not sure how he could do that, short of wiring a hot leg to the neutral.
There's nothing "RV special" about the NEMA 14-50R receptacle.

[Dave Pumphrey]

19 minutes ago, dl_racing427 said:

Not sure how he could do that, short of wiring a hot leg to the neutral.
There's nothing "RV special" about the NEMA 14-50R receptacle.

He connected to a 30 amp dryer outlet, not a 50.

We await his response 

..

[wamcneil]

28 minutes ago, dl_racing427 said:

Not sure how he could do that, short of wiring a hot leg to the neutral.
There's nothing "RV special" about the NEMA 14-50R receptacle.

X2.
And NEMA 14-50r is the only dryer plug I have ever seen that an RV could be plugged into without getting pretty creative. 

[Dave Pumphrey]

2 hours ago, dl_racing427 said:

Not sure how he could do that, short of wiring a hot leg to the neutral.
There's nothing "RV special" about the NEMA 14-50R receptacle.

I have never seen a dryer with a 50 amp connection, usually 30 amp.

I believe the OP said he plugged in to a 30 amp dryer outlet...

[wamcneil]

Yeah...  he did say that... I'm really curious to find out how he plugged into something other than a NEMA 14-50R receptacle!

[Dave Pumphrey]

2 hours ago, dl_racing427 said:

Not sure how he could do that, short of wiring a hot leg to the neutral.
There's nothing "RV special" about the NEMA 14-50R receptacle.

My guess is a homemade adapter...

[Guest Ray Davis]

 Hi James,   Congratulations on 27 yrs of marriage,  60 yrs here.   I can hardly believe it, but without a doubt it was the best thing for me even though I didn't realize it   at times.  LOL        I was a wee bit of a wild man way back,  finally ran out of gas I suppose.   Life is sweet, but we need to go somewhere ( travel )

 Regarding your elect problem

 I think you need to approach the problem slowly & simply.

 1st , don't plug into that home receptacle until you are sure what you have there.

 Explain to us what that receptacle looks like or show us a picture.

 If you have a volt meter measure the volts at the receptacle

30 amp rv  120v                                       dryer receptacle   240v  

Are you using something like this at home?    This type of receptacle should always be 120 volts,  a 30 amp dryer receptacle looks very similar but is 240 volts so you can see how a person could get into trouble.    If you accidentally introduced 240 volts without the proper neutral, and the frig is the only casualty that might not be so bad because often many things are burned up.

BTW have you tried unplugging the frig for a while to see if it will reset?               

Edited February 3, 2021 by Ray Davis

[Scott and Colleen Miller]

12 hours ago, Dave Pumphrey said:

You could take the outside cover off the fridge compartment & plug the fridge into an extension cord & see if it works.

Also did you check, as posted above, that it was not accidently put in "demo Mode",

this is what they use in the store that allows the lights to work, but not the cooling.

Thanks for the insights!!!! So, I plugged the fridge into an extension cord and the light and sensor works, but I don’t hear the fan and compressor, so the fridge never cools.

[rpasetto]

 

31 minutes ago, Scott and Colleen Miller said:

Thanks for the insights!!!! So, I plugged the fridge into an extension cord and the light and sensor works, but I don’t hear the fan and compressor, so the fridge never cools.

That's good news so far. but before  you plug the coach back in test the voltage at the outlet you had plugged in to.

Look at the pictures Ray posted above.  Does the outlet look like the middle one or the right hand one?  

The middle one is a 30amp RV outlet.  Voltage between the 2 angled pins should be 120v AC.   If you are plugging in a 30amp RV plug, measure that voltage to be sure.

The Right hand one is a 30amp Dryer outlet.  These are wired so the voltage between those 2 angled pins is 240vAC. Do NOT plug a 30amp RV plug into that.  

On the other hand if you plugged your 50amp RV plug into a NEMA 14-50R receptacle like the one below amd if that was wired for your 240v dryer, it should be OK.  In any event check voltages before plugging in: 

• Voltage between the 2 flat slots at the sides should measure 240vAC. 
• Voltage between either of the side flat slots and the flat slot at the bottom should measure 120vAC. 
• The voltage between either of the 2 flat slots at the sides and the 'Ushaped" one at the top should measure 120vAC.   

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by rpasetto
updated