C-28 Fridge switch

Joined
Oct 9, 2019
Messages
6
Fluid Motion Model
R-21 EC
Vessel Name
The Adventure Continues
Is there an external switch to just turn of the fridge while still keeping the house batteries "ON"? Other than the internal one in the inside back corner of the fridge. When at anchor and needing the anchor light all night, I would like to be able to conveniently turn off the fridge so as not to draw down the house battery.
 
Check your DC (12V) breaker panel and I believe you will find a separate breaker for the fridge.
 
There should be a temp dial inside the fridge. You can rotate it to "0" and it should turn the fridge off.
 
You can also just pull the fuse. However, I found that once I upgraded the anchor light to LED it wasn't necessary to shut down the fridge. LED saves a huge amount of power.
 
If you have a good 2 battery bank of house batteries you should be able to run the refrigerator and the anchor light all night without depleting the battery bank. The 0 setting will not shut off the refrigerator you must turn it past until you feel it detent. Even then for some reason I have had it stay on. If I want to shut the refrigerator off I pull the 15 amp fuse located in the head behind the mirror. When I want the refrigerator off during winter I pull the fuse for the refrigerator at the same time I pull N2K 3 amp fuse. I don't want that powered over the winter.
 
Dave, When we bought our C-28 last June ('21) I inquired to the fridge factory about adding a switch. For the 12 volt version which is standard, you just pull the fridge out and cut the Positive/+ DC wire to the fridge and add a switch. (Extend the wire to wherever you want the switch).

It's somewhat difficult to assure the the fridge is really OFF. The internal wheel thermostat will do that but if you leave the door open to keep mold from growing, on ours, the LED inside light stayed ON which can slowly drain the battery over a long period of time.

As noted, just pull that 15 amp fuse behind the helm, tape the fuse to the compartment door with a note of what that fuse is used for and where it is supposed to go. We just did that. We will use a simple cooler for our day trips and turn it back ON if needed for longer trips.

Bob/Bradenton

PS: I downloaded the full C-28 manual and color printed the Fuse box locations/diagrams (and schematics too). Plastic laminated them so that we can locate the proper fuse easily. (By the way, if you do that and keep a copy in that helm fuse compartment, there is a slot toward the back of the compartment where the fuse diagram can slip down into and be gone forever. I'm going to seal that slot with spray foam since I like to keep the diagram in there for ready use).
 
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