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Residential Refrigerator Winterizing?

Yahoo Message Number: 66126
On the electric/propane refrigerators the ice maker line is exposed to the outside elements due to the vent opening and has to be protected or it can freeze. Some wrap their ice maker line with electric insulated protection and some put a light bulb in the vented area to keep it warm. With the residential refrigerators, do those of you who have them have to do anything special or is you ice maker line protected with the bay heat and/or coach heat?

R. D. Vanderslice
06 Allure 470 31294

Re: Residential Refrigerator Winterizing?

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 66154
I blocked off both vents with thick foam board tha covered them with plywood. The waterline is completely subejected to the heat of the comopressor and the inside room temperature. No problem with freezing the waterline. Lastnight was the first night camping off grid at pulman WA in 22 degree temps with the new Samsumg Refrigerator, 2812 Magnum Pure sine wave inverter and (4) 8D batteries. No generator for 10 hours until the voltage dropped to 11.9 (preset). No frozen pipes. bays kept at 57 degrees. Inside temp set at 65 degrees. Hydro hot flipped on every 20 minutes for the heat.

The smasumg refrig took about 13 amps, 20 minutes an hour.
So to answer your question, there is no way that water line will freeze unless the bay and inside drop to freezing.

Dallas 2004 ovation c12 11688

Re: Residential Refrigerator Winterizing?

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 66156
Dallas:

I am wondering about the advisability of dropping the AGM's down to 11.9 volts consistently. I had read that 50% charge would be about 12.2 volts.
The most recent FMCA magazine has an article which states that flooded cell batteries are 50% at 12.2 volts and AGM's are 50% at 12.4 volts ??? Of course, this would be a no-load charge so they would have to sit for a while to accurately determine the real discharge voltage.
Just curious - it wouldn't be good to cause premature failure at those prices.

Our practice has been to keep the AGM's at 12.2 or above.
We don't have auto start on the generator (and don't want it) but I have heard talk on this board of setting it at 12.2 volts if you have it.
Monitoring on our coach is done manually.

Richard Owen '05 Inspire 51442

Re: Residential Refrigerator Winterizing?

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 66158
I agree, 11.9 will kill your batteries where they will not hold a charge.

Leonard Kerns
97' Magna 5418

Re: Residential Refrigerator Winterizing?

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 66180
The 11.9 was with a 158 amp + draw on it (hair dryer and refrig) The battery sat at 12.6 volts with no draw . Turns out that the charger was not working on the inverter sometime after noon of friday. I think I have a loose connection on the AC IN to the inverter so it did not recognize the generator was on. The outside temp was well into the 20's and I am pretty sure a wire on the AC side lost a connection just as the the coffee pot and microwave and perhaps a hair dryer went in tandem, (That certainly deserved the faulty code it threw). I reset the inverter and everything seemed ok but I fogot to check the charger to see if it was charging.
I did not notice this till the next morning (today) so I guess the 4 AGM's went for 36 hours on the inverter and by this morning it was at 12 volts with no load, so I cranked up the C12 and ran it most of the morning to keep the batteries at 13.4 volts using the alternator. The Auto Gen works great but it was not recognized by the inverter.
Thanks for the info on the minimum volts. I will make sure not to go past 12.4 volts. This was the first discharge on the batteries since they were installed new last week. I have my BatterMINDer hooked up the batteries right now topping them off until I have time to find the problem.

Dallas ovation 11688

Re: Residential Refrigerator Winterizing?

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 66181
Thanks Dallas. No one else responded so I guess they either don't know or are maybe too busy to comment. Unless I am missing something, it seems as though the factory all electric coaches should have the ice maker water line in the bowels of the coach and thus protected (as long as the Aqua/Hydro Hot is functional) from freezing weather. Sounds like you are doing a nice job of customizing your coach to your specs. Way to go.

R. D. Vanderslice
06 Allure 470 31294

From: Dallas Evans

Subject: [Country-Coach-Owners] Re: Residential Refrigerator Winterizing? To: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, December 4, 2010, 12:33 PM