ALDE

melzmelz2

Has any one have their Alde turned on when you shut it off?

dragonsdofly

@melzmelz2, welcome to the forum. But I'm not quite sure what you mean by that question. Please give a bit more detail. What kind of trailer do you have, and what is actually happening?

Sharon_is_SAM

Yes and owners report their Alde fuses blow the next time they connect to power.

Newbomb_Turk

I bought a box of 1.5a fuses.  I can switch those suckers out in 2 minutes flat.

Verna

@Newbomb_Turk, you’ll get quicker

Dpdew

Why do they blow so easily?  We've had to change ours three times in the past month.

ScottG

@Dpdew, the why is hard to answer--it seems to happen frequently to some people and never to others.

Alde does offer a suggestion. The fuses protect both legs of the 12V power to the Alde's circuitry. If it's the negative side that keeps blowing, they recommend disconnecting the Alde ground from the ground bus, and running the line directly back to the battery.

Don't take my word for it. You can hear it directly from Alde tech Spencer. (It's a long video but the Alde stuff is early on.)

Sharon_is_SAM

@Dpdew, not sure if you read the entire thread, but the easiest thing to do that people have had success with is to simply turn everything off before disconnecting AC and make sure everything is turned off when you reconnect AC.  It is a best practice kind of thing and we have done this and have not blown a fuse.  

Dpdew

Thanks, I believe we are turning everything off correctly on the Alde control panel. Should we unplug the system (under the couch) as well?

ScottG

Unplugging the unit from the 120V outlet under the couch only disconnects the electric heating elements. The "brain" of the Alde runs on 12V regardless of where the heat is coming from.

So in short, no. Unplugging the 120V should not do anything to prevent surges on the 12V side from blowing the glass fuses.

SusanT

Sharon, I’m a newbiee and haven’t tackled any of this other than running the a/c. what do you mean by disconnecting and reconnecting the a/c? thanks, susan

Sharon_is_SAM

@SusanT, AC as in Alternating Current (shore power/ 110/120).  Cool you have mastered the A/C (bad pun - I’m allowed one a day - ask @Ratkity.).

The issue with blowing Alde fuses, is that an electrical surge can occurr if appliances with a heavy draw like the air conditioner turn on when you plug into shorepower.   You avoid the surge and subsequent blown fuse by making sure that before you disconnect your shorepower, you have turned off all your appliances, lights, etc.  This way, the next time you hook up to shorepower, you will avoid any surges that can take out the Alde fuse.  So, best practice is to power down everything in the Tab before disconnecting shorepower.  We have not had any problems and this is part of our check list.

dragonsdofly

@SusanT, welcome to the forum. There is no such thing as a dumb question, if you don't know the answer.  Keep asking, someone will keep answering. When I started reading I couldn't understand why someone would store the stabilizer crank in their television until the light dawned and TV meant tow vehicle. We were all newbies once. -Denise

ScottG

According to the official unofficial glossary of camper terms we developed some time ago...

AC = "alternating current" (i.e., 120V from a shore hookup or generator)

A/C = "air conditioner"

TV = "television"

T/V = "tow vehicle"

In the interest of clarity, I usually avoid abbreviations and write exactly what I mean!