Small Refrigerator Blew the Inverter

[dubaigary]

An inverter follow up:

Using the 12v runs great with or without the Jackery for an extended time, but I prefer daisy chaining it with the Jackery. I ended up using the outlets on 'auto' so when the car is running, it will fill up the Jackery, and when the car is off the Jackery can easily power the refrigerator. Using the 3 day timer just was too flaky as I would not be the type to remember when 3 days are up. This also frees up the AC plug to make coffee. . For a shorter trip, I would be comfortable leaving the Jackery at home.

At home I tried a few overnight tests with the refrigerator plugged into the Jackery's AC outlet. I put the refrigerator on very low power levels (internal temperature around 65 degrees), and 3 times it stopped the Jackery AC outlet and failed after a few hours. The Jackery itself doesn't die, it just sort of self protects itself. It recovers just fine, just retoggle the switch with no error codes. The Jackery Support has been reasonably helpful but the unit is out of warranty.

My 'final' verdict
-- The refrigerator is sending out an imperfect signal
-- A standard outlet in a home has no problems with the messy signal
-- The Jackery can self protect and turn off the AC outlet with no issues
-- The Rivian struggled with dealing with the messy signal (whether that is a fundamental flaw or just a bad inverter in my car I do not know).

As mentioned by many others, just using the 12V plug is the best way to go.

thanks so much everyone!

For what it’s worth, I have a Jackery that I also use at home to power kitchen appliances during the hours that our electricity price doubles (TOU pricing). I noticed that it turned itself off when nothing was running - to save power, I guess. I was eventually able to go into the settings and eliminate this timeout. I’m wondering if setting your fridge high meant that it seldom came on, and triggered the Jackery to auto shutoff.

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[Owner]

For what it’s worth, I have a Jackery that I also use at home to power kitchen appliances during the hours that our electricity price doubles (TOU pricing). I noticed that it turned itself off when nothing was running - to save power, I guess. I was eventually able to go into the settings and eliminate this timeout. I’m wondering if setting your fridge high meant that it seldom came on, and triggered the Jackery to auto shutoff.

Interesting. Jackery Support did not mention this and I did one research but the timeout is after 12 hours, which my tests were shorter than that.

 

[Owner]

A 'final' update. Got the new AC charger from BougeRV. Did 3 tests. Two with the Jackery AC plug. These tests failed again and the Jackery would cut off power at some point (several hours). The Jackery did not sustain any damage nor provide any errors. The fridge worked fine plugged into the house.

So nothing 'conclusive' -- best bet to just use the 12V DC connections.

 

[KBabione]

Thanks for the update - I wonder if it was just completely cutting off at times and, as someone else mentioned, drawing so little current that the Jackery went into shutdown mode. I know my Bluetti does that if I leave it on.

 

[GwenK]

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.

We purchased the brand and size Rivian Gear shop was selling, but from REI, so we could return it if needed. The DometicCFX5 35 Powered Cooler works like a charm! I've run if for 8 hours in my parked T1 on a very hot day, with the windows veneted, and it had very little affect on my battery (max) less than 1% use, I've put groceries in the cooler, the cooler read at 91 degrees, but was at 41 degrees when I arrived home 1 hour later, my groceries intact. We figured this highly rated cooler (see Consumer reports) worked well with Rivian, so even through there are cheaper units out there, we went with the exact model (on sale at REI for $200 less than Rivian price). I use the timer mode, to ensure the outlet stays on when I am away from the truck, so the cooler stays active when I am not using the car, THis worked well on a long trip (5 hour drive Boulder to Grand Junction) with cool drinks, when we stopped for breaks on a wicked hot day, arrived in GJ it was 106 degrees! Cooler on the whole trip, and I still had plenty of miles left (15%), having driven that route before, I can say the cooler had no effect on my batter operation. I drive a 2026 that is new, only 8500 mile on her.

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