Small Refrigerator Blew the Inverter

[Owner]

I hope you didn't have to pay for that repair? They have a $1 fuse that is supposed to protect the inverter and associated wiring and as long as your device puled less then the outlets were spec'd for you didn't abuse or cause the equipment damage.

No, the repair itself was at no charge.

Took a fair amount of time/hassle to figure out what was going on while on the road and having plans altered without any cold food storage, starlink or the ability to make coffee (I heat up water in a kettle). Then a wait for the service and a week in the shop.

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[NY_Rob]

You might be onto something. The Rivian person who I spoke to was one of the mechanics, but he may or may not have been one of their electrical people. From what I understood at the service center they only have two people who work on any electrical problems. One who works during the day and one who works at night. So the simple solution could perhaps be to just plug in the refrigerator (its not a cooler technically) into the 12V DC outlet.

As a lifelong boater I can 100% guarantee that all these appliances internally run on 12V DC power, some do include an internal 120VAC to 12VDC rectifier/transformer as a convenience so you can run the cooler at your house or in your hotel room, but it draws more current to do that vs. running it on straight 12DC power skipping all the conversions. You will also save a good deal of your main 400 volt battery power if you don't fire up that 120VAC inverter to begin with.

Regarding advice from Rivian technicians (or Tesla or Jeep or BMW, etc.. technicians) if you ask them something that's not covered on their laptop service app... you're basically asking a "man in the street" type question where their answer could be completely wrong.

 

[Owner]

Regarding advice from Rivian technicians (or Tesla or Jeep or BMW, etc.. technicians) if you ask them something that's not covered on their laptop service app... you're basically asking a "man in the street" type question where their answer could be completely wrong.

I completely agree with you on the standard question thing. I often ask complicated questions about things, and I get the 'standard' answer that isn't really the question I asked. It can be a bit frustrating particularly when texting.

The service technician was the first person I talked to in person who was not a service advisor and actually worked on the cars! So I was valuing his words more seriously than those in the front of the counter, who are generally doing the best they can. But it doesn't mean a mechanic knows everything either.

 

[SwampNut]

It is very unlikely that any portable refrigerators could actually damage the system. Now, I run my onboard fridge from 12v, since it natively is a 12v compressor. But I've run large things from the inverter including air conditioners.

As a lifelong boater I can 100% guarantee that all these appliances internally run on 12V DC power

As a lifelong boater who has had two onboard fridges that internally run on 24v....ummmm....

 

[NY_Rob]

As a lifelong boater who has had two onboard fridges that internally run on 24v....ummmm....

I'm referring to carry-on gear capt., all single battery stuff.

 

[NY_Rob]

I completely agree with you on the standard question thing. I often ask complicated questions about things, and I get the 'standard' answer that isn't really the question I asked. It can be a bit frustrating particularly when texting.

The service technician was the first person I talked to in person who was not a service advisor and actually worked on the cars! So I was valuing his words more seriously than those in the front of the counter, who are generally doing the best they can. But it doesn't mean a mechanic knows everything either.

Old time Mechanics were pretty much proficient in all systems excepting maybe automatic transmissions. The "technicians" we have now read off a computer screen, every step is detailed for them which is why Rivian sometimes has to fly one of their factory engineers to various SC's to troubleshoot because the "technicians" ran out of computer screens to read

 

[Owner]

Just an update, the refrigerator has been running over 24 hours in the house without breaking the fuse. I now suspect it was the Rivian...

 

[hammick]

We have taken numerous 2,500 mile trips running this behemoth off the rear 12v.

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And a small Alpicool K25 running in the back seat off the 120v inverter plug.

No issues.

 

[KBabione]

Just an update, the refrigerator has been running over 24 hours in the house without breaking the fuse. I now suspect it was the Rivian...

Thanks for the update - I think you've confirmed you had a faulty inverter. Happy travels.

 

[dubaigary]

Is a refrigerator really viable in a Rivian without an external battery? Or did I just get a bad inverter initially?

I replaced my beloved PeaceVans Metris full camper with a R1S thinking I could ‘camp’ when needed as I’m not a hard core camper - more of a stay one night in the vehicle because it is more convenient than a hotel and simple food is just fine. The R1S has sufficient roof height to make this comfortable and I was hoping to be able to plug in a tiny refrigerator into the vehicle for carrying small amounts of food.

I bought a really small refrigerator. https://www.bougerv.com/products/12v-portable-fridge that conveniently can be put behind the seat on the floor.

Rivian sells a much larger electric cooler. https://gearshop.rivian.com/products/cfx5-35l-electric-cooler

The short story it didn’t work for more than a few hours and I pretty much toasted the system. Everything in the car worked except for the 120V outlet. Nothing would power on them including a phone. When attempting to turn the outlets on, they would stay on for less than a minute on the screen and turn off.

In talking to support and service I still have no clear answer why this happened all I know is what got fixed. I had been told it was the wiring initially but the service record states the inverter was removed and replaced along with a fuse. The service took a week.

I’m wondering if more than one or two people out there have attempted to use their Rivian with a refrigerator or cooler plugged in and for what length of time? I already have a 1kWh Jackery power station that is flawless but I had not brought it on my last trip. I searched in some remote locations for alternative solutions and only found the Predator brand at Harbor Freight, and I didn’t care for the branding at all. I was hoping to avoid the space required for both a refrigerator and a battery.

I ended up buying a small dometic cooler I found on sale as a short term solution. I’m trying to minimize space usage as having an uncluttered vehicle makes ‘camping’ much easier.

Please tell me your fridge stories that work. I have to admit the inconvenience of turning on the outlets is a pain too.

Well I’ll be gosh darned. Got the same Bouge RV fridge (draws like 100 watts) for the Rivian after replacing our tricked out Metris camper with the R1S. Two days into our trip, 110 v outlets stopped working. We stopped for service at the mothership in Normal (in the middle of a cross country trip) figuring if anyone could fix it, they could. They kept it for the day, but no. Now we have Rivian mobile service supposedly coming to fix the fried inverter next week, so we’ll see.
Interesting side point, however…the fridge works fine on 12v. We’ve used it pretty consistently as a freezer, so it runs a lot, and there’s been no problem. 12v is on by default when driving, and putting the car on hold keeps the 12v on when stopped, so it stays cool.

 

[dubaigary]

I'll second @antimatter in that something else is going on (for example, a bad inverter). I've run three BougeRV fridges constantly for 15 hours along with a number of other devices when we have a long tailgate day and haven't had any problems. I keep one of those BougeRV fridges in the subtrunk of the R1S all the time and have had it on for 48 hours without an issue - but I usually plug it into the 12V in back.

I would think the lack of air circulation in the subtrunk would tax the fridge compressor. No?

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