Published on
Last month we noticed that the batteries weren't getting charged by the converter. Fridge was displaying "low dc" error, fridge light wouldn't work or was very dim, the light over the stove was very weak and the monitor displayed the battery level at "poor". To suppliment things, we ran the engine for a while to give the batteries enough power to get us through until we could have it fixed.
We just had the feeling that the converter was shot. Rather than monkey around with meters and troubleshooting, I just ordered a new one off Amazon. It came with a seperate circuit board. Don was surprised and said that we probably wouldn't need it. I said that it would, it's a different converter. Not using it wouldn't make sense. He had a look at the instructions and what was intailed and we decided that he just couldn't do the work so I called a tech.
Tech come out and he confirmed that the converter was bad. He, too, said that he wouldn't need the circuit board so set that aside. Got the converter working and the batteries came up to charge, but right after he left, it was getting dark and when I tried to turn on the lights, nothing happened.
No lights. Oh, great. I pulled down the panel and sure enough, everything listed on the panel that's attached to the original circuit board isn't working: Front lights, Rear Lights, Water Heater, Furnace, Propane. Another case of "I told you so.".
Tried calling the tech before he got too far away, but he must have turned off his phone. I got his voice mail. I left a message and also sent a text. Hopefully he can come back in here and finish the job, soon. Charged us $325 to do this ($150 for the service call and then $175/hr labor). My goodness, we've been in the wrong business all our lives! They kind of have us by the short and curlies when it comes to this kind of thing. Getting old sucks.
Good thing it's not 28°F outside anymore, we would be screwed without the furnace and propane.