1990 Westy Fridge Electrical Questions

[SoquelDude]

Hi!

I have 2 questions that I hope folks can give me some help with:

1. I haven't used the Dometic RM182 in the two years I've had the van, so I wanted to try my luck in getting it to work. I first tried starting it up off of the house battery. No luck.

Then I tried starting it up off of 110v AC - success! The fan came on and the fridge was (slowly) starting to get cold. I then switched it over to battery, and it stayed running. I unplugged the 110v line and it still stayed on. I left it on for an hour and it didn't shut off.

I then started the van up and the fridge stopped working and wouldn't start up again until I plugged the 100v line back in and switched to 119v AC.

Any ideas of what the problem could be or where to start looking?


2. While I had the 110v AC power hooked up, I checked out the house receptacle by the circuit breaker. The top outlet was hot, but the bottom one was not.

It could be wiring but more likely that the receptacle is bad. Are there any advantaged/problems if I replace the old receptacle with a GFCI receptacle?

TIA!
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'90 Vanagon Westy GL, AT, EJ22E conversion (1993 2.2L Legacy Engine)

[MarkWard]

The fan you hear is not supposed to run all the time. It is on a temp switch on the back of the fridge. Ideally it would cycle, but during the day, it can get quite hot behind the fridge especially when it is running.

Its also a very slow process cooling off. You need to basically turn it on and walk away. The 12 volt feature was wired originally so it only worked when the engine is running.

I use our fridge mostly on propane. On 12 volt, its a power hog. If I'm trying to stretch propane, I will switch to 110 if we are camped with power.

Hope that helps some..

[PDXWesty]

Here's the owners guide on how to operate the fridge: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/87campersupplement/1987_Bus_Camper_Supplement.pdf

And a more technical manual on trouble shooting: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/87wes...Manual.pdf

These will give you more information that needed on operation.

There is a relay under the drivers seat that I believe prevents the fridge from running on 12v unless the van engine is on. If someone has altered the stock wiring it could be doing weird things. Check out page 19 of the camper manual linked above.
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89 Westy 2.1 Auto

[Sodo]

Perhaps a better title would be "Electric Westy FRIDGE Question, 1990"
You might pique the interest of more readers who know about the fridge wiring.
Most readers would not even click on a thread called "Electrical Questions"

[MarkWard]

Don't hold me to this, but my BMS showed 9amps drawing with just the fridge on 12 volt.

[DanHoug]

[cmayna]

I never run my 182b on DC. Start it on AC the night before. Next day, load up the fridge and then switch it over to propane and it remains on gas for the entire trip. Never wanted to have to remember to switch from DC to gas back to DC again.
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'90 Westy / automatic.
If I'm not working on the camper or my '50 Chebbie truck, I'm either fishing with the wife or smoking Salmon.


Craig

[jimimeg]