Hi All. My brain is confused. I'm new to the AES fridge and something doesn't gel can you help.

I had my 12 pin socket wired (as instructed) however "they" put the AES wire direct to battery. I asked why...They said because of safety - if the fridge is on Auto, and the AES wire is on ignition, as soon as the car stops the 12v stops and the fridge starts looking for gas (activating the Peezo spark) Not good in a petrol station... But..  If its constant 12v and we park for a while (hooked up) the car battery will drain.

My Caravan yard "Sparky" wired the AES to an ignition wire and said this is how it should be done..  Now I need to run another ignition wire for the Bcdc trigger.

What is the common practice for these AES fridges noting what I've just been through and how does one stop the fridge looking for gas when I turn the car off (going to manual on the fridge would be a pain..)

Thanks

Peter

There is a safety delay of 15 min. before switching from 12volt to gas.

Thanks for that, I'll do some testing to make sure there is a sufficient delay. I apreciate you taking the time to attach the files.

I might try to find how many Amps that AES wire draws,

Peter

This can be a tricky answer. Our caravan was purchase secondhand and it had a faulty wire loom which I needed to replace.

We do not use a 12 pin plug. My preference is a round 7 pin plug plus a Anderson plug for back up.

Running the frig on 12 volts with a draw of 23 amps from the car about 9 metres, is along way though a couple of connections.. We run ours off the caravan battery about 2 metres of heavy cable to the frig. Perfect.

My system has been working for about 5 years now with a slight hiccup once, the fuse I placed in system failed but it has been very reliable.

As Radar says, these fridges can pull a lot of Amps, and you don't want that coming out of your battery - car or caravan - when it's not connected to a charging source as it will flatten it pretty quickly.

If your AES fridge is like mine there are three 12V inputs to it.

1. Permanent 12V feed from the caravan battery to power it's control electronics and internal light. Pulls a couple of Amps at most.

2. Heavy gauge 12V feed to power the actual heating element. Can pull between 20-30 Amps depending on the wattage of the heating element in your particular fridge.

3. A 12V ignition signal wire from the car. This doesn't itself power anything, it just tells the fridge when the car is attached and the ignition on. Current draw is insignificant, milli-Amps.

So then your choices are:-

A. A heavy duty wire (I'd recommend 16mm2 to reduce volt drop) run direct from the car battery (via a fuse) to the fridge heating element (input 2) through an Anderson plug, plus an ignition signal wire from the 12 pin trailer plug (pink wire pin 9) to the ignition sense input of the fridge (input 3). This will mean the fridge will run off 12V from your car when the engine is on, but switch to gas (if available) when the car is off to avoid running the car battery down.

OR

B. Do as Radar and I have, and connect the wire for the fridge heating element (input 2) direct to the caravan battery, and in this case 10mm2 or even 6mm2 wire would be adequate as the run isn't anywhere as long as from the car. You will still need the the ignition signal wire (input 3) to switch the 12V element off when the car is not charging the caravan battery through your DC/DC charger to avoid running the caravan battery down.

Note:-

- The same Anderson cable direct from the car battery to the caravan can be used for both the fridge heating element and the feed to your DC/DC charger in scenario A, it just branches in the caravan.

- The same ignition trigger wire from the 12 pin trailer plug can be used for both the DC/DC charger and the fridge as it's just a signal wire and doesn't pull any significant current.

- Because the trigger wire is in the twelve pin trailer plug and the fridge and/or DC/DC charger main feed is on the Anderson plug, you need to ensure BOTH plugs are connected for the fridge to run and the caravan battery to charge. 

- If you don't want to run a separate ignition trigger wire from the car to the caravan via the twelve pin trailer plug, an alternative is to have the main Anderson feed wire ignition switched under the car bonnet by an ignition triggered relay, then tap off this main feed inside the caravan to go to both the DC/DC charger and fridge ignition trigger inputs. It will then operate the same as if you had a separate ignition trigger wire from the car.