Small Refrigerator Blew the Inverter

[Owner]

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.

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[justinkitswa]

The trouble with using inverters to power other inverters, which is pretty much how some of these small appliances work, is that harmonics and power quality can really become an issue.

I suspect the power electronics in the cooler power adapter created a harmonic issue with the output of the Rivian inverter, which damaged the inverter.

Generally speaking, more expensive appliances tend to have better power supply performance, and operate better on inverters.

There are a lot of imported devices now that have power supplies that are not up to snuff...

 

[Owner]

There are a lot of imported devices now that have power supplies that are not up to snuff...

Thanks so much for this knowledge. It would be nice if I knew what was 'up to snuff' or not. I guess I could go out and buy some kind of measuring devices (I do have an electrical engineering degree after all )

Guess the tiny refrigerator will be saved for just a power outage usage with the battery. Back to ice as I don't really have a great place/system for both the battery and the fridge as my TRI has a spare.

 

[justinkitswa]

Could you use the 12 volt plug that came with it instead of the 120 volt power adapter?
I bought a 12 volt extension cable to run from the cig lighter plug in the back to run my radar detector (since Rivian only put a 12 volt plug in the back)

 

[Owner]

Could you use the 12 volt plug that came with it instead of the 120 volt power adapter?
I bought a 12 volt extension cable to run from the cig lighter plug in the back to run my radar detector (since Rivian only put a 12 volt plug in the back)

I asked the service center that same question and they strongly suggested to use the standard household plug. I had brought the refrigerator to the service appointment so there wasn't any question of what I was trying to do. Exactly why I didn't get a detailed explanation.

 

[justinkitswa]

Interesting, the fridge manual says it draws 45 watts, so at 12 volts that'd be 3.75 amps - I'd certainly think that's less than the fuse rating for the 12 volt plug in the back?

 

[justinkitswa]

For reference, I've run my house loads during a power outage on the R1S inverter (about 1200 watts peak to run a couple fridges and lights) - I did this for about 8 hours.

I've also run a small shop vac for 45 minutes vacuuming up dog hair.

So I think generally the inverter can handle the rated load, so long as there isn't some other power quality issue.

 

[Owner]

Thanks Justin, that's what I was expecting as this tiny thing just is well nothing special. I had tested it on the Jackery as I got it about a month before the R1S and it worked fine for 24 hours off the Jackery. Sounds like your right -- power quality issue.

 

[freshpow]

I've run a larger BougeRV fridge many times without any issue. https://www.bougerv.com/products/12v-23-quart-portable-fridge-black-for-travel

 

[antimatter]

I ran my whole RV (InTech Sol Dusk) for 30-ish hours off the plug in the bed of my R1T. I didn't use the air conditioner, just two refrigerators, a small fan, an exhaust fan and the water pump (briefly to flush the toilet), as well as charging my phone and I didn't have any issues. FYI, that was running an extension cord from the truck outlet to a 15 Amp (standard outlet) to 30 amp adapter, and then into the RV. Inside, that goes to a load center that distributes it between the 12-volt system that runs the two refrigerators, the water pump and the exhaust fan, and the 120-volt system that powers the outlets (small fan and phone charger). So, something else is going on.

 

[KBabione]

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.

 

[Owner]

Wow this seems like it is either a 'bad' refrigerator or a 'bad' inverter I had. I don't want to test the refrigerator in the R1S and risk blowing the inverter again, I wonder if there is any easy way to test it?

 

[Doug]

I am curious what year the op Rivian is? I just got a 2025 Tri in January and the outlets randomly quite working and so far they checked wiring and replaced the inverter. Now they are going for the fuses to try to fix it. I did not run anything that should have caused this so am thinking it is a Rivian issue. I just dropped it off at service today. Last week they worked on it most of a day and could not get to the issue.

 

[KBabione]

Plug it into a GFI for a couple of days and see if it trips. When my garage freezer died I plugged all three BougeRV fridges into a GFI in the garage and set them to -4 and had no issues.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Plug it into a GFI for a couple of days and see if it trips. When my garage freezer died I plugged all three BougeRV fridges into a GFI in the garage and set them to -4 and had no issues.

GFI: home outlet with fuse/breaker that one could reset if tripped?

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