Pulling refrigerator

[lewpopp]

I don't want anyone in this group telling us you can't pull the rfrig out and fix behind it.

My wonderful Kathy and I pulled, pried, rocked, tipped, slid and whatever to get the refrig into the aisle to repair a leak in the water supply hose to the solenoid controlling the flow. Repaired it and found we needed the solenoid switch controlling flow. Leave it to my wife to find the 19 year old part on line and in about a week it came. In the meantime we had to slide the frig in about 2/3rds of the way to reach the back. The job is finally completed and the ice is harvesting again and no scratches on the floor.

Installed new start batteries today and found that my Guest charger was defective. Am working on the replacement.

If my house batteries are Geldell and have lasted over 6 years, if I replace them, should I put in the same thing seeing I had such good service?

If I were to install Lifeline AGMs, how much of a problem is it to readjust the system to charge them propperly?

[truk4u]

Louie,

Good job on the fridge, I can hear the cubes hitting the glass all the way to GA.

You got good service out of the batteries, but are you sure they're Gel and not AGM? My understanding is the Gel is less forgiving to heat, but if you got 6 years cooped up in that compartment, that's pretty good.

You will have to tell us what inverters you have and then someone can tell you the procedure for setting up the correct charge settings if you change to AGM.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Holy moly Lew. Are you joining the gearhead gang?

This is a general answer about batteries and not specific.

We have two sets, chassis and house. I suspect you are talking about both kinds, but you switched gears so fast I want to make sure you are in fact speaking of both.

The guest charger is typically dedicated to the chassis batteries. Because of the engine heat those four have been lead acid, usually Delco 1150 (OEM equipment for your vintage) or direct replacements. They are "sealed" or "maintenance free" batteries. When you say the Guest charger has failed I will presume you tested it's output and verified that. A charger can fail to maintain batteries because the batteries have puked, but that does not mean the charger is bad.

The geldell(?) batteries I assume are Gel Cell house batteries. Depending on their location and how your inverters (do you have inverters?) are set up may be good replacements. A gel cell battery can take more charging cycles than an AGM, but gel cell batteries are very susceptible to heat and high voltage. Based on how you use your coach with little dry camping and almost constant shore power I would say that either would work just fine. AGM might be more expensive and if you did switch to that type you would have to reset the charging protocol on your inverters to AGM. That is not a big deal and involves programming or moving dip switches on the back of your monitoring panel. My recommendation is to do a direct replacement and not change, although that is not necessarily what I would suggest for all owners.

[phorner]

Good job Lew! I know what a job it is to pull that fridge out. We have to do that to clean one of our Cruise Air filters.... just another challenge!

I would say that if you are happy with the performance of your house batteries, I would stick with the same type. Adjusting the inverter/chargers to properly charge whatever batteries you select should only be a matter of dip switch settings or something similar.

You did clean behind the fridge, while you were in there, right?

[lewpopp]

Paul,

Now, come on! Do you really think I would pull the reefer out, replace the water switch and hose and not clean behind the damn thing. Anything I missed with the brush, vacuum, and rag, I got on my clothes while struggling in the small area putting the water soleniod on. But thanks for asking anyway. If I had not cleaned it, I really would not want to pull it out again even tho it's an absolute necessity to do so.

[lewpopp]

I expect at this time to replace the present "Gelcell" because of the long service I have received. The local service man looked at the batteries(house) and told me they were Gel and not AGM.

It will happen as soon as we save up for the replacement and I will be plugged in here for a while so there is no hurry. The present batteries are working well when drycamping, they just need charging with the generator more often. I am certain they will be okay if I have to move out of ORA in case of a hurricane.

Jon, I didn't make myself clear when jumping from the start batts to the house batts. Sorry! The Guest Co is sending me another charger and all is well, I think.