ICECO fridge issues (1 Viewer)

[staffaction]

we recently bought the 2 zone iceco fridge.

After it worked inconsistently in the GX 2 instances in a row we were able to get a replacement from them. It took awhile but got it done. Phew.

But that didn't solve the problem. The new one is still inconstant [It won't reliably cool the zones to what they are set at. It may cool one zone far cooler than set and may cool the other not enough]. And I've narrowed down that it only has the issues when powered through the car 12V connection. The fridge adjusts temps in the zones just fine when plugged in to the house.

So it must be something either with the power supply from car or internal to the fridge with using that particular power supply (differing plug, obviously). I am at my whits end on this and this is so tiring and a let down given that it was so expensive. I'm going to call them about this but wanted to hear from you all if you have any ideas as to what could be causing this.

Their initial support wasn't that helpful and based on last time it would go the same - take time stamped pictures with both zones set to "0", then send us the pictures. So maybe I just got a bad product again that can't cool to set temps on car 12V connection? Odds seem low but who knows.. It is Chinese after all... throwing it out here for ideas.

(car power is fine. new deep cell battery, electrical work done by someone who knows what he's doing. So I highly, highly doubt the issue is on 'our' side.)

 

[DasBeast]

Is the wiring for the 12V connection at least real 10 gauge wire? What is the connection point? My experience with ARB fridges is the wire must be 10 gauge all the way from the battery to fridge or there will be issues. The connection point must also be secure and tight so it won't wiggle loose during driving. Is the fridge's cord different between the house (AC) and the car (DC)? It is on the ARB fridges. Could be the DC cord?

 

[peesalot]

In my experience if runs/cools on 110v then it is a supply issue on the 12 v since the 110 is converted to 12v in the Iceco's.
With nothing hooked up/ plugged in what is your batt voltage ? Plug in cord to vehicle, unplug at fridge, test voltage, plug fridge in, what voltage it say ? Does fridge have a low volt cut off ? did it kill the battery ? if so, how long was it on without running vehicle ? did the fridge lights and controls function properly when it exibihted the symptoms ? Did it show any codes ? Were you able to see the fridges voltage dispay ? was it different when sitting vs. when running ? Is it plugged into a dedicated circuit or an oem vehicle circuit ? I run mine direct to batt, since they added the low voltage cut off tech it is really the best way to insure what voltage the fridge is getting and it isolates it. Possibly run a Jackery or similar, power that off where you currently power the fridge. That in essence adds a second batt, it gives a buffer or surge tank if you will to the fridge power supply. Thats just an improvement, it should run fine on the vehicle batt provided it is sized accordingly and in good shape. What size fridge ? and FWIW its running draw is say 5 ish amps maybe 7 so a 10 amp circuit at minimum, whatever its plugged into when exhibiting the symptoms, what was the amp rating on that circuit ? Is the low volt cut off protection "ON" ? The symptoms you describe are a low volt issue so either it aint gettin enough or the ground is bad. Maybe not your ground, I have taken those control boxes apart and lets just say that the assembly is not perfect and sometimes the connections/wiring in there is just loose, I had a diff manuf. with same controls and I knew they were suspect so I opened it up and found the fan was completely loos laying on the coil. Just sayin it may be inside but sure sounds like a supply prob.

 

[Corbet]

Wire it temporarily direct to your vehicle battery and test it’s performance. If fine then you know it’s the 12v supply circut in the vehicle. In my experience OEM 12v outlets lack the power needed to run a fridge. Running a dedicated circuit with appropriate guage wire is probably your solution.

 

[Mauser]

I bought an Iceco fridge a little over a month ago and have the same problems.

I did run a 10 guage wire to the the outlet for the fridge hoping it was the problem. It didn't help.

 

[Corbet]

I’ve only had mine a week and haven’t done anything other than turn it on. Only thing I noticed is that it cooled the left hand side (fridge) side before cooling the right set to freeze. I didn‘t take any temp measurements manually. Everything seems to work fine.