Reverse polarity issue

J

JZ

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exMember
Joined
Feb 21, 2003
RO Number
11176
Messages
117
Left the dock and everything was fine. Came back after a day on the water and the RPI is on.

Pretty sure nothing changed on the dock. Tried different receptacles and a different shore power cord. 4 slips down someone is running their air conditioning w/o issue.

Where to look next?
 
You have to have a test meter or plug tester to confirm how the dock's wiring is setup. Only then will you know for sure who has the problem.
 
You can buy a circuit tester at your local home center for about $10.00 that will test the outlets on your boat. Buy one and test the outlets. Report back what you find.

BTW An air conditioner will work just fine with the AC polarity reversed. Everything will. The problem with reversed polarity is that it can kill you if you touch the wrong metal part.

Keeping that in mind, if you can't figure this out, unplug the boat and have a marine electrician figure it out.
 
+1 on the circuit testers. Mine fits in the palm of my hand. Plug it into an outlet, and LEDs light up to tell you whether you have open ground, open neutral, open hot, hot/ground reversed, hot/neutral reversed, or a correct circuit. ~$10 at Lowe's, RS, etc. It helped me find where someone had wired the ground to neutral on an outlet. All worked fine on that circuit, but I kept getting an "open ground" reading on the circuit tester. It's a great little device. I highly recommend getting one.

V/R
 
quote:
Originally posted by williamabernathy

+1 on the circuit testers. Mine fits in the palm of my hand. Plug it into an outlet, and LEDs light up to tell you whether you have open ground, open neutral, open hot, hot/ground reversed, hot/neutral reversed, or a correct circuit. ~$10 at Lowe's, RS, etc. It helped me find where someone had wired the ground to neutral on an outlet. All worked fine on that circuit, but I kept getting an "open ground" reading on the circuit tester. It's a great little device. I highly recommend getting one.

V/R

Click to expand...


Thx.
 
A plug-in circuit tester is only $3.99 at Harbor Freight. I just bought the top-of-the-line plug tester that also has the button to test GFCI's. That one set me back $5.99...but I'm worth it and I will put it to good use. I also bought a clamp-on voltage/amp/ohm tester since my $60 Sperry tester from Home Depot took a crap. That set me back a whole $12, but I had a 20% off coupon so that was justified. I also bought a package of shrink tubing-contains 5 boxes each with 48" long shrink tubing in sizes ranging from 1/4" to 1". I think that was $4. If you ever bought shrink tubing at West Marine, you can't even get 4" of shrink tubing for $4. Gawd I love HF!!
 
quote:
Originally posted by rawidman

You can buy a circuit tester at your local home center for about $10.00 that will test the outlets on your boat. Buy one and test the outlets. Report back what you find.

BTW An air conditioner will work just fine with the AC polarity reversed. Everything will. The problem with reversed polarity is that it can kill you if you touch the wrong metal part.

Keeping that in mind, if you can't figure this out, unplug the boat and have a marine electrician figure it out.

Click to expand...


Thx. Yeah, I unplugged it right away.
 
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