Installed a Blue Sea LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect)

[JCruse]

I thought I'd post this up in case anyone was thinking about one.

After getting a real 40qt fridge and only having one battery at this point I thought I should play it safe and install something to limit how low the battery can be pulled down. This Blue Sea m-LVD unit is adjustable from 11.5 to 12.1 volts and is small enough to mount right on the battery box and simple to wire. + to the battery, - to ground, and two wires to the load, in this case a 40QT Engel fridge.









Here you see it was easily fit right on the side of the battery box, mounted with two ss screws and fused at 15A with two 10awg wires running to the back as called for by the fridge manufacturer.

Here you can see that I just slit the rubber gasket to slide the factory supplied fused power wire through.

And the reason for the installation, a new Engel MR-040 40qt fridge:

 

[e9999]

does the fridge not have a disconnect built-in or did you want the adjustability -which is nice indeed?

How much power does the switch use?

 

[JCruse]

The fridge like all Engels has no cutoff.


The specs on the LVD:


Nominal Voltage 12V DC
Amperage Operating Current 95mA (Connected)
4mA (Open)
Continuous Rating

65A
Intermittent Rating

115A (5 Min)
Maximum Cable Size 1/0 AWG (50mm2)
Terminal Stud Length 7/16 in (11.11 mm)
Terminal Stud Size 1/4" - 20 (M6)
Terminal Stud Torque 60 in-lb (6.78 Nm)
Weight 0.77lb (0.35 kg)

https://www.bluesea.com/products/7635/m-LVD_Low_Voltage_Disconnect




I havent hooked it up yet, don't know if I will, but the unit comes with a dash mounted switch that both sets the cutoff voltage as well as overrides the function. It both blinks and has provisions for connecting an alarm to alert the user of both low voltage and impending (5min) load cutoff, giving you 10 minutes to to rectify the situation or in this case get your perishables into another fridge/cooler.