Which wire is positive on the Dometic CFX series?

KSL22

Adventurist
Went to hard wire my fridge and cut off the cigarette lighter end before confirming pos / neg. Any one know? One of the wires is stamped with wording and the other is blank.
I attached a picture of the fridge side plug.
20180113_171015.jpg
 
If uou have a meter or tester the positive wire is the one connected to the center connector on the 12v plug.

Mike
 
But I cut off the 12v plug before tracing the wire.
@BlkWgn can you pull apart your plug and tell me if it is the wire with or without writing that is in the center (i.e. positive).
 
Take the cut off plug and just test continuity between each of the wires and the center pin? Not rocket science?
 
Great, but I still dont know which wire on the rest of the loom to the fridge matches with that wire on the cut off plug.
 
You said one of the wires had some type of writing on it? Somehow I'm not grasping the problem here. You could email the mfg. also
 
It is stamped into the wire every 6" or so not constant printed or white striped. I think I have it answered from IG. He said his was the printed wire as positive. Thank you for trying to help.

I am dumb when it comes to multi-meters and such. I know wiring basics, just not the trouble shooting parts. I should probable sit down and play with one at some point and figure it out.
 
A multimeter is priceless even those 5 dollar wonders from Harbor Freight and will save your bacon. Glad you were able to identify the hot lead.
 
Touch it, if it tingles while touching a ground, you have the right wire...much better test with a dual battery set up. Old school buddy of mine crossed a dual battery set up from the hot post to a ground with a metal watch band... the watch didn't work anymore and Bud had a bitchin' burn around his wrist for a few days!
 
Just went out and double checked mine. The printed is positive, the ridge is negative. Most of the time in anything but Theatrical wiring, the ridge is the negative.
 
I think the problem is that he cut the cigarette adapter plug off RIGHT AT THE EDGE, so there's no figuring out which wire is which, because there's no printed wire left attached to the plug. Happens all the time.

In this case, it's almost impossible for a layman to figure out the polarity. Either purchase a replacement plug, or look at someone else's hardwire installation.

Many times, hardwiring really isn't necessary, just mount a cigarette lighter adapter port near the fridge, and hardwire the port to your fuse block.
 
I think the problem is that he cut the cigarette adapter plug off RIGHT AT THE EDGE, so there's no figuring out which wire is which, because there's no printed wire left attached to the plug. Happens all the time.

In this case, it's almost impossible for a layman to figure out the polarity. Either purchase a replacement plug, or look at someone else's hardwire installation.

For future reference, with 12 volt DC, what would most likely happen if you hooked it up backwards in a trial-and-error effort?

The fridge would just fail to run? The magic smoke would be released?
 
Many times, hardwiring really isn't necessary, just mount a cigarette lighter adapter port near the fridge, and hardwire the port to your fuse block.

If I weren't using locking plugs and ports like Blue Sea, I'd be afraid the plug would vibrate out on rough roads, so the food wouldn't stay cold.
 
For future reference, with 12 volt DC, what would most likely happen if you hooked it up backwards in a trial-and-error effort?

The fridge would just fail to run? The magic smoke would be released?
That all depends on how smart the folks who designed it were. Was reverse polarity protection designed into the circuit or not?

Generally the rule of thumb is to assume that it IS NOT, and proceed with caution.

You could try using a multimeter set to continuity mode and put one test lead to the case of the power supply, and then use the other lead to test the prongs inside the terminal on the fridge, the one that tones is the ground. If no tone is heard on either prong, then you'll have to dig deeper with the other test lead and find the ground internally.
 
Back
Top Bottom