Just about the time I figured I knew everything there was to learn and know about an RV, I found out I was mistaken..... We are about set to take off for the coast for a few days and yesterday I turned the fridge on so we could start putting things in it. In that we are hooked to shore power at home it was set to the 110 side. I went on about my business checking a few other odds and ends and about five minutes later happen to glance over at the control panel and saw a big green letter A shining brightly. Had never seen that one before. Long story short I shut it off and went outside to check to make sure the plug hadn't come loose. All fine out there. Went back in and pulled out the manual and couldn't find so much as a single sentence describing what that A was about. I switched it over to the propane side and it came on and remained on. After checking to make sure there was power to the 110 outlets nearby I called our local mobile repair guy. He told me to check the GFI outlets in both the bathroom and kitchen. I did, and the one in the bathroom was displaying a red LED meaning the circuit had tripped. I reset it and whalla, the fridge works......... I never knew that a fridge would be connected to a GFI circuit and now knowing so still wonder why it wasn't the one in the kitchen rather than the one in the bathroom that it is connected to? Anyway, another tidbit of knowledge I now possess. Anyone experience this happening with their fridge before..........??? BankShot (aka Terry)
Which circuit the fridge and other devices are connected to is usually a function of balancing loads so one circuit is not carrying a disproportionate share.
I would think that the fridge would be on it's own circuit, not a GFI especially the one in the bathroom. Hairdryers and fridges draw a lot of juice and GFI's pop quick. If it works in your rig, I guess that's how they wired it. I'm not an electrician,by the way.lol
An absorption fridge's 110 volt heater typically only draws about 400 watts, and putting it on a shared GFI circuit is pretty common. Putting it on a circuit other than the one with the other kitchen outlets is also pretty standard, since the kitchen is often where higher draw appliance like toasters, electric fry pans, etc. get plugged in. In both our previous and current coaches, the satellite receiver and TV are on the same circuit as the bathroom GFI which gets tripped frequently when my wife bumps the "Test" button as she unplugs her hair dryer. To eliminate the annoyance of waiting for the sat receiver to reboot, and since none of the outlets are near a water source besides the GFI itself in the bathroom, I simply removed the pass through wires from the protected "Load" side of the GFI, and moved them to the "Line" side where they're not under GFI control. The entire string is still on the same breaker of course. If the string had included an outside outlet, I could have changed that to a second GFI to maintain the same safety level there. In our case, the fridge is on a third GFI controlled circuit that has the bedroom and outside outlets on it.
