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Subject:Re: '75 Westy refrigerator question
Date:Tue, 26 Mar 1996 15:07:26 -0500

From: Sami Dakhlia <dakhlia@wuecona.wustl.edu>
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   > If your fridge is similar to mine ('82 westy) the resistance
   > should be just below 2 Ohms (1.9).

   Thanks, Martin.
   I measured 2.5 Ohms, but may need to check again with a more accurate 
   meter before I attribute the problem to the heating element.
   Thanks again,

   Sami

2.5 ohms seem just fine to me. The 12v heating element (and the 110V
one as well I believe) are rated at 75W. Assuming battery voltage
of 13.4V your 2.5 Ohms gives 72W, an insignificant difference. 

A somewhat more foolproof test is to measure the current to the
fridge while running. It should be somewhere near:

	75/13.4 = 5.6 A

What are your symptoms? Fridge just not getting cold on 12V or
have you narrowed down the possible problems? Note that it takes
a long time of continuous running to start getting it cold (> .5h), so the
12V heating works best only for very long trips. Have you seen
the fridge files in the archives?

	gopher://halfdan.med.umn.edu:70/00/Miscellaneous/Vanagon/Files/Refrigerator-Manual%09+Text/plainDate: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 11:38:31 -0600 (CST)

	gopher://halfdan.med.umn.edu:70/00/Miscellaneous/Vanagon/Files/Motorhome--Refrigerators---Avoiding-Meltdown%09+Text/plain

/Martin