takesiteasy
Senior Member
Tacking on another twist for this: on a recent trip, I went into the camper for something while we were enjoying a late evening campfire. I heard an unusual sound and after listening a bit noticed the fridge was running on high. I checked closer and saw that the internal temp readout showed 44 degrees! Getting a bit anxious, I opened the fridge to check the thermometer we keep inside- it read 32 degrees. Now I figured we had a malfunctioning fridge. Wondering how long this might have been going on, I checked the camper battery voltage. It had dropped to 12.2 volts. I unplugged the fridge and figured we would be alright until morning since the air temp had already dropped to 45 degrees and was heading south. Driving the next day would recharge the battery and we could get some ice to keep the food cold.
I returned to the fire and mentioned the problem to my wife. We had a brief conversation about the pain it would be to try to get the fridge fixed and then dropped the subject. After a bit of fire gazing, my wife mentioned she had put dinner leftovers in the fridge and they were still hot. Maybe that had something to do with it. Lightbulb! I went back and checked the fridge contents. The container with dinner was sitting on the bottom of the fridge and was still warm. I figure it was sitting right on top of the temp sensor and was causing the fridge to keep running even though the actual temp in the fridge was quite cold. So in spite of evidence to the contrary, the fridge was working fine. If I hadn't noticed it though, it would have drained our battery trying to cool that hot food. Lesson learned.
I returned to the fire and mentioned the problem to my wife. We had a brief conversation about the pain it would be to try to get the fridge fixed and then dropped the subject. After a bit of fire gazing, my wife mentioned she had put dinner leftovers in the fridge and they were still hot. Maybe that had something to do with it. Lightbulb! I went back and checked the fridge contents. The container with dinner was sitting on the bottom of the fridge and was still warm. I figure it was sitting right on top of the temp sensor and was causing the fridge to keep running even though the actual temp in the fridge was quite cold. So in spite of evidence to the contrary, the fridge was working fine. If I hadn't noticed it though, it would have drained our battery trying to cool that hot food. Lesson learned.