Running the fridge

Most likely you have one or two removable plastic vent grilles on the outside of your camper directly behind the refrigerator. If so, the controls are located there.

 

Your fridge is probably a 3-way. This means it can run off electricity, or gas or, your PUP's battery.

The electricity is when you are plugged into shore power at the campground or at home.
The gas is anytime except when you are traveling.
The battery is only when you are traveling. It will drain your battery quicker than you can spit.

Note: The fridge takes a SUPER long time to get cold. We always add large frozen containers in it to help speed up the process.

Electricity is the least efficient and will take the longest.
Gas is super efficient. It only uses a trickle of propane and can get pretty cold. It will still take a long time to get cold. We usually light it the night before we leave. Then shut it off until we arrive. We haven't traveled too far to need to run it off the battery in travel.

Now how to turn it on:
Go to the outside of your PUP and open up a door that is directly behind your fridge. There is where you will choose which method to run your PUP on. There will be a switch and you turn it to the one you will be using.

If it is shore power electricity turn it to that and wait at least 12-24 hours for it to get cold.

If you want to use gas, turn the switch to gas. There should be a button you hold and one you pump or press 3-5x. It is like a lighter on a gas grill. We've never been able to get ours to work that way. What we have had to do is hold the button that opens the gas line and use a lighter. The flame (pilot light in a cylinder kind of thing) is a tiny little bugger. We also found out we have to light our stove inside first to draw the gas in the line. Kind of a pain, but it makes it work.

If you are going to be traveling a long distance you will need deep cell battery that is charged before you go and the correct hook up on your TV to charge it while in travel mode.

Once you are able to use your fridge, here is what I have found that works to keep it organized.

http://www.popupportal.com/index.php?topic=102653.0

Good Luck!

 

I was a lot like the Miisc99 and didn't use my fridg on gas and since I always had shore power I never used the gas feature. then one day I was talking to a friend and he said he used his gas all the time. even while transporting the camper from site to site CG to CG . so I went back to my owners Manuel and re read that portion. it says nothing about not using the gas feature while traveling. in fact I think it cools off so fast in gas mode because the camper is traveling down the road and disturbing the air around it and so may use a little more gas but cools down real fast. this is just my opinion but I've had no problem with mine.enjoy.

 

Yea!!! Glad I could help. Unstable Tripod helped us one night before a camping trip. I figured I could pass it along when I could.

There is much debate about (many threads) traveling with the fridge running on gas. Some say it isn't safe, especially if you stop to fuel up. We've never had to worry about it.

Have fun camping!!!
Misc99

 

This should help a bit.. This is the typical rear controls of a 3way fridge used in pups..

The RED button and Grey knob on the left are for the propane operation of the fridge (the best and fastest way to cool the fridge down) The knob is for setting the temp. of the fridge (off, low, med. and high) the button is an igniter like the cheap ones used on many bbq's..

There is a method to manually light the flame for the propane if need be.

The controls on the right side of the picture, the GREEN switch is for when your connected to shore power and is the 120 volt ac switch (off and on), the RED switch is for the 12 volt da operation of the fridge (off and on) and lastly the grey knob is for setting the temps while using either ac power or dc power (similar to the temp knob on your house fridge, higher the number the colder).

Note the warning sticker on the control panel... Only select one energy source at a time..

It should also be noted that running the fridge on 12 volt dc, is 1 not efficient and takes for ever to cool down and should really only be used when plugged into a running tow vehicle, if the vehicle is properly equipped to charge the pup battery.. In 12 volt mode the fridge will drain and kill a fully charged battery in very little time, so even if your vehicle is equipped to charge the pup battery, the trailer should be unplugged from the vehicle if you are stopping anywhere for any length of time.


Helps if I post the picture that I found on the interweb and have borrowed for the purpose of illustrating the controls. credit of the picture belongs to the original poster of it on another interweb site..

 

Once I start the propane in the fridge...I keep it going. It is never easy to start.

 

Ok, where in this picture is the peephole to see if the light has been lit or to light it manually?? Am I blind? I have been looking all over for it on my PUP


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

^^ See the grey box right below the silvery looking chimney ... see that silver dot on the grey box ... that is the screw that holds the peep hole cover... If you look real hard you can see the cover in the picture... This is the same location to manually light the furnace ..

 

Awesome, thank you! I don't know how I missed that.

 

Thanks, I probably would have been posting this same question this weekend.

 

To extend on this question..... is that control panel only for the fridge??? I was thinking it was for the whole trailer--- like when I have in plugged in that I needed to go put it on AC for the batteries to charge and electricity to work.... but what I am getting from this thread is that I don't need to do ANYTHING with that panel unless i want to turn the fridge on?!?!
If that is the case, will anything happen if I leave it on AC but I'm not actually plugged in besides that the fridge won't work?
Also I have not been able to properly been able to cool down my fridge when dry camping because the pilot won't stay lit (gas)-- is that a common problem to have?

 

Yes it is just for the fridge.

That is correct, this panel only controls what power source you want to operate the fridge on ..

Nothing will happen other then as you said the fridge won't work .. Nothing wrong with leaving on AC so it turns "on" as soon as you plug into shore power.

Fairly common to have this time of year, the small orifice is prone to having spiders build a nest in them since spiders lover the smell of propane.. I haven't had that happen so maybe someone who has more experience on this problem will chime in ..

 

Just in case you don't know, don't expect to hear it running.

 

Don't know if leaving the AC switch on would interfere with the LP operation or not. In any event you have to take the cover off to light and operate the LP function, why not just turn off the AC mode switch at the same time.