Lead from mh to yr home to cool fridge over night

W

WITCHY

Joined
Aug 13, 2024
Posts
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Funster No
105,473
MH
CI Auto Roller
Hellobto all..as I'm a newbie..this is all mind boggling..what lead and where to purchase one..to connect mh on drive to electricity from my home to cool fridge..have no instructions on this or anything on my very first mh she fiat ducato CI year 2000...also do I turn the gas knows off before sending electric to fridge..at the moment they are all turned on
1000006129.jpg
also help on any other switches etc would be very helpful thank you all in advance.

20240729_151344.jpg

20240729_143647.jpg
 
w2f

You need one of these to connect to the cable that (should have) come with the motorhome. Assuming your fridge is 3 way (mains, gas or 12v) there's no need to turn the gas taps off simply turn the fridge setting to mains.

1725624419134.png
 
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You can leave those red manifold taps on all the time unless going on a ferry. Your gas cylinders will also need to be turned on before they can be used. Many of us turn cylinders off before travelling.
Electric hook up - you need a special cable, usually 25 m, which, if one wasn’t supplied, which it probably should have been, you can buy from a caravan accessory shop or on line. Usually orange. Probably worth finding your nearest accessory shop for a mooch round. That lead will hook up from your van to a socket on a camp site. To connect at home you need one of two things. Either a camp site socket on the outside of your house wired into your domestic supply, or an adapter cable to go from the orange cable to an ordinary 13amp socket at home. Then you can turn your fridge onto the mains power setting.
Use mains electricity for fridge when on a hook up at home or on a site, gas if no hook up available, and 12 volt ONLY when driving. Some three way fridges have an auto selector which selects mains power if available, if not gas. With older fridges you need to make the selection your self.
 
WITCHY. :pink:

Some good advice above. (y)

Whereabouts are you (roughly) located? As Jabstatt suggests above, maybe a fellow Funster is close enough to assist you.

Owning a MH can be a huge learning curve, especially if not coming over from the caravanning fraternity.

Enjoy your new acquisition. (y)

Jock. :)
 
hja said:
You can leave those red manifold taps on all the time unless going on a ferry. Your gas cylinders will also need to be turned on before they can be used. Many of us turn cylinders off before travelling.
Electric hook up - you need a special cable, usually 25 m, which, if one wasn’t supplied, which it probably should have been, you can buy from a caravan accessory shop or on line. Usually orange. Probably worth finding your nearest accessory shop for a mooch round. That lead will hook up from your van to a socket on a camp site. To connect at home you need one of two things. Either a camp site socket on the outside of your house wired into your domestic supply, or an adapter cable to go from the orange cable to an ordinary 13amp socket at home. Then you can turn your fridge onto the mains power setting.
Use mains electricity for fridge when on a hook up at home or on a site, gas if no hook up available, and 12 volt ONLY when driving. Some three way fridges have an auto selector which selects mains power if available, if not gas. With older fridges you need to make the selection your self.
Click to expand...
Thankyou for you help..
 
Hedgewitch said:
You need one of these to connect your EHU (electric Hook Up) cable to the house:



View attachment 945365
Click to expand...
Thank you do much for your help..Will be getting one now I no what to look for...not been away yet in my witch mobile...very apprehensive...trying to learn everything including her size etc...she only a 1.9 diesel.. so she plodds along which suits me fine..not so great for speed freaks behind though😄
 
Just so you don't buy the wrong thing - the cable that should have come with your motorhome has a round blue connector at each end, and made of flexible cable with a cross-sectional area of 2.5mm². Usually the length is 25 metres. Many UK campsites insist on it being orange in colour, to show up against the grass as the ride-on mower charges around.

Standard mains extension cables are thinner, usually 1.5mm². The reason they specify 2.5mm² for camping cables is that a long 25 metre cable carrying the full 16A current from the hookup post has excessive voltage drop if it is 1.5mm², but is within the limits if it is 2.5mm².

If the cable is shorter, say 15m, or the amps is limited to 10A, then a 1.5mm² cable will be fine. I have a special 10 metre cable from the plug in my garage to the motorhome mains inlet. It stays at home in the garage while we are away, and the big heavy-duty 25m cable stays in the motorhome.
 
We don't bother cooling the fridge overnight before travelling. Most things come from inside the house fridge / freezer, so are cold enough to cool the fridge themselves. Even if we did cool the fridge overnight, we'd lose all that coldness while the door is open, loading it. I just fill it with the food we want to take and then switch it on, just before we travel :)
 
EDIT - Duplicate post, due to off / on internet! :)

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autorouter said:
Usually the length is 25 metres. Many UK campsites insist on it being orange in colour, to show up against the grass as the ride-on mower charges around.
Click to expand...

And if you are staying on a Caravan & Motorhome Club (CAMC) site they will not let you use two shorter cables linked together if your pitch is a distance away from the electric bollard.

Although a 25m cable is heavy it's more cost effective to just buy one, then it's the only one you will need, rather than try to save money with a shorter length

.
 
If you only want to cool the fridge I would use gas, it is by far the most efficient way to cool your fridge and will hardly use any gas overnight 👍
 
hja said:
You can leave those red manifold taps on all the time unless going on a ferry. Your gas cylinders will also need to be turned on before they can be used. Many of us turn cylinders off before travelling.
Electric hook up - you need a special cable, usually 25 m, which, if one wasn’t supplied, which it probably should have been, you can buy from a caravan accessory shop or on line. Usually orange. Probably worth finding your nearest accessory shop for a mooch round. That lead will hook up from your van to a socket on a camp site. To connect at home you need one of two things. Either a camp site socket on the outside of your house wired into your domestic supply, or an adapter cable to go from the orange cable to an ordinary 13amp socket at home. Then you can turn your fridge onto the mains power setting.
Use mains electricity for fridge when on a hook up at home or on a site, gas if no hook up available, and 12 volt ONLY when driving. Some three way fridges have an auto selector which selects mains power if available, if not gas. With older fridges you need to make the selection your self.
Click to expand...
Thank you for all you help
 
Lots of people have more than one EHU cable. I have three - one from inside the garage to the van with a 13amp 3 pin UK socket at one end and a van socket at the other. That get unplugged from the van on my drive when I am ready to go then a 10 meter and (I think) a 20 metre EHU cable. The reason for two? You should always completely uncoil you cable when in use otherwise it can heat up.

Always plug in at the van end first and then at the EHU point. Do the reverse when unplugging.

Re gas you will likely want to leave it on throughout a trip likely with your Truma boiler set to 40C for warm water for washing hands, washing up etc. I only put it on the higher temp if I am showering in the van.

I suspect , like me you will have a three way switch on your fridge. It is a bit of a pain! I am for ever leaving it on the mains setting when leaving a site and only realising an hour later that I should turn it to 12V!

Did you buy from a dealer? If so I am surprised that things like the above were not covered on handover. You will find some videos online of a handover of a new van. They will not exactly match your van but should give you an idea.
Subjects which will be covered of which you may have no knowledge:

Gray water discharge
Boiler frost protection.
Emptying the loo
Checking clean water and waste water levels.
Leisure and engine battery health and state of charge.

On the last of those it is important to be aware that your van will have two entirely separate electrical systems - 230V and 12V. The 12V is NOT fed by a transformer when on an EHU. Lights, water pump etc, etc run off the leisure battery. That is topped up by a battery charger from the EHU and/or a solar panel and/or the engine alternator. If you light you van up like Blackpool illuminations you may take more out of your leisure battery than the charger can put in and it will eventually cut out with permanent damage to the leisure battery.

Hope the above helps?!!

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The 2013 moho that we had stolen and the 2019 one we've replaced it with, have both had an Automatic setting on their fridges - the elec setting depicts a plug, the gas one a flame and auto is an A - so the default on ours has been A for 10 years plus. I'm always surprised when other people's fridges aren't that easy.
 
Hedgewitch said:
And if you are staying on a Caravan & Motorhome Club (CAMC) site they will not let you use two shorter cables linked together if your pitch is a distance away from the electric bollard.

Although a 25m cable is heavy it's more cost effective to just buy one, then it's the only one you will need, rather than try to save money with a shorter length

.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your information..20240726_112545.jpgas you can see she is a little older than yours..but she's all mine..and my first ever time of owning one..my pride and joy..just got to try and learn about everything as no user manual or how to guide for habitation or fiat ducato yr 2000 came with her..as previous owner in his eighties and only owner of her from new... unfortunately couldn't find them..shame but couldn't be helped..did buy from a second hand dealer who was brilliant I might add ,but you can't remember everything all at the same time....so am so glad I found you all here on this site...
 
WITCHY said:
Thank you for your information..View attachment 946089as you can see she is a little older than yours..but she's all mine..and my first ever time of owning one..my pride and joy..just got to try and learn about everything as no user manual or how to guide for habitation or fiat ducato yr 2000 came with her..as previous owner in his eighties and only owner of her from new... unfortunately couldn't find them..shame but couldn't be helped..did buy from a second hand dealer who was brilliant I might add ,but you can't remember everything all at the same time....so am so glad I found you all here on this site...
Click to expand...
You should be able to get the Fiat Ducato base vehicle manual on line.
 
agree it’s a long & winding learning curve with every MH you get. We had a rushed and then curtailed handover ( when they discovered some things we had ordered hadn’t been fitted). Our first night away we needed help from guy parked next to us just to get the gas & oven on - although he enjoyed seeing inside our new beast!
I put fridge on home EHU night before we leave to get the freezer cold enough. Then load it in morning - as once we had an overnight power cut, so woke to find it all defrosted anyway…
I wish there had been a nearby site we could’ve visited with a few old hands to help explain it all to us newbies.
 
So we're not gonna talk about the gas manifold not appearing to be fixed to anything? OK...

I think that is potentially really bad, you should have it checked by a gas guy (not the dealer.)

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St3v3 said:
So we're not gonna talk about the gas manifold not appearing to be fixed to anything? OK...

I think that is potentially really bad, you should have it checked by a gas guy (not the dealer.)
Click to expand...

Maybe the plastic box holds it up? :unsure: :eek:
 
In case you don’t already know, it is important that you always unwind ALL the cable from the reel before plugging it in as otherwise it can heat up enough to cause damage.
Even a heavy-duty unwound cable will heat up slightly - see photo



IMG_1811.jpeg
 
WITCHY said:
Hellobto all..as I'm a newbie..this is all mind boggling..what lead and where to purchase one..to connect mh on drive to electricity from my home to cool fridge..have no instructions on this or anything on my very first mh she fiat ducato CI year 2000...also do I turn the gas knows off before sending electric to fridge..at the moment they are all turned onView attachment 945353also help on any other switches etc would be very helpful thank you all in advance.

View attachment 945354

View attachment 945355
Click to expand...
Hello and welcome. If you happen to be from Kent area around Canterbury ish ,pop in to me. I have a spare 3 pin connector.
 
I don't know what type of 3-way fridge you have, maybe you could post a photo of it. It could be manual switching or automatic switching (aka Automatic Energy Selection, AES). It's worth knowing how automatic switching works, even if it's a manual version.

When on hookup, an AES fridge automatically switches to 240V. If not on hookup, it automatically switches to gas. When the engine starts, it automatically switches to 12V. When the engine stops, it automatically turns back to gas. There is a safety delay of about 15 minutes before the gas fires up, to avoid the naked gas flame when you stop for fuel.

If it's a manual switching fridge, then it's best to follow the automatic switching principle, as far as possible. The fridge should only run on 12V when the engine is running and the alternator is powering it, and charging the batteries. Running the fridge on 12V with the engine stopped will quickly flatten your batteries, in a few hours.

Usually, even on manual switching fridges, there is an automatic switch that only allows running on 12V when the engine is running. This switch is called the fridge relay.

I notice that in your pic of the fuses, the fridge fuse looks a bit odd. It should look just like that other yellow 20A fuse. If it all works OK, then fine. But if it doesn't work on 12V when the engine is running, then that's the first thing I would look at.
 
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PlacidoD said:
Lots of people have more than one EHU cable. I have three - one from inside the garage to the van with a 13amp 3 pin UK socket at one end and a van socket at the other. That get unplugged from the van on my drive when I am ready to go then a 10 meter and (I think) a 20 metre EHU cable. The reason for two? You should always completely uncoil you cable when in use otherwise it can heat up.

Always plug in at the van end first and then at the EHU point. Do the reverse when unplugging.

Re gas you will likely want to leave it on throughout a trip likely with your Truma boiler set to 40C for warm water for washing hands, washing up etc. I only put it on the higher temp if I am showering in the van.

I suspect , like me you will have a three way switch on your fridge. It is a bit of a pain! I am for ever leaving it on the mains setting when leaving a site and only realising an hour later that I should turn it to 12V!

Did you buy from a dealer? If so I am surprised that things like the above were not covered on handover. You will find some videos online of a handover of a new van. They will not exactly match your van but should give you an idea.
Subjects which will be covered of which you may have no knowledge:

Gray water discharge
Boiler frost protection.
Emptying the loo
Checking clean water and waste water levels.
Leisure and engine battery health and state of charge.

On the last of those it is important to be aware that your van will have two entirely separate electrical systems - 230V and 12V. The 12V is NOT fed by a transformer when on an EHU. Lights, water pump etc, etc run off the leisure battery. That is topped up by a battery charger from the EHU and/or a solar panel and/or the engine alternator. If you light you van up like Blackpool illuminations you may take more out of your leisure battery than the charger can put in and it will eventually cut out with permanent damage to the leisure battery.

Hope the above helps?!!
Click to expand...
We also have three cables 👍

The original 25m orange cable that came with the van

10m black cable from Tough Leads
15m black cable from tough Leads
toughleads.co.uk

16A 230v premium caravan hook up

Heavy duty 16A 230v 2.5mmsq premium orange rubber H07BQ-F cable caravan hook up CEE IEC 60309.
toughleads.co.uk toughleads.co.uk

When I bought the ‘Tough Leads’ a couple of years ago they only came in Black but this has never been an issue (they now make them in orange so even better). Gives three options of the correct length of lead without coiling as they can be joined if necessary (so far I have only used one or the other in the UK, in Europe there were one or two times when the post was more than 15m away).

These leads are also far superior; heavy duty, rubber, impervious to UV/mechanical/oil/ etc damage. They are more flexible than the standard orange leads so coil up easily and also inspire confidence in reliability.

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