Edgestar Problem: Fridge Not Functioning Properly on 12v

[AndrewP]

It's all about voltage drop, which is huge in a 12volt circuit supplied by a 24 (12feet there and back) foot 18 ga wire. Just your extension wire alone is dropping the the voltage on start up 7.5%. And that's not to mention the drop in the actual cord, the connections and the too small wiring of the vehicle. So just the wiring extension alone was dropping almost a full volt to your fridge's power supply.

So all the advice about getting heavier gauge wiring closer to the fridge itself is spot on. I have even gone as far as trimming the factory fridge plug to about half it's normal length so that most of the run to the fridge is 10 ga wire.

Cigarette plugs are nearly useless. It's a very poor power connection and anything else will be better. I terminate my fridge circuit in Anderson Power Poles, but there are lots of good choices out there.

My advice is to run a fused dedicated circuit of 10ga to the rear of your vehicle, and plug your fridge into that. If the power cord is really 18ga, I'd shorten that by at least half as well.

I have a friend with a Dometic in his tear drop trailer and due to inadequate wiring (from the trailer company who supplied the fridge), on start up would trigger the low voltage cut off. Too funny. A 15 foot length of 10 gauge wire solved his issue permanently.

 

[Livnxxl]

Had the same problem on a 65 quart edge star about 2 years ago. Called their tech support and there were 2 kinds of transformers that you may have. One is adjustable, The other , not so. I was lucky. I had too turn an adjusting screw a turn and a half and all was made well. I wish I remembered more detail but it was a while ago. It took longer to disassemble everything then to do the actual "fix"