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Big 110VAC Problem Turns Into Non-Problem

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OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3368 Posts

Initially Posted - 10/09/2008 : 22:49:13

Last Thursday after work, I wanted to check if any issues hooking up a small portable heater to my 110VAC outlets, as I was planning on leaving on an overnighter starting Friday and wanted to be prepared in case it was a cold night. As it turned out, Friday was fairly warm and no need for the heater.

But in checking out the heater, I found that after not using the 110VAC since last year, none of my outlets had any juice ! I thought back at some of the electrical improvements I had done during the past year and mostly it was to the 12VDC side - putting in a new 8 breaker switch panel and then transferring many of the circuits to it. Looking behind the 110VAC circuit breaker area, certainly is a pile of wires there and was not looking forward to figuring out the problem. Sort of looking for a needle in a haystack.

So...for starters, went to Home Depot and picked up a $8 15Amp outlet tester. Then from West Marine, purcahsed a 15Amp-30Amp adapter so that I could first use the tester to check out the dock shore power connection and then work my way from there to the boat outlets. The adapter from WM was $52. Then decided to pick up a longer 30 Amp shore cable because I noticed at the marina where I stayed overnight, my 25' cable would not have been long enough, so I bought a 40' one (w/LED indicator for when "live")...at WM cost $69. The adapter and cable received 10% off due to a weekend sale they were having but still...$8 + $47 + $62 + 5% tax.....I was ready to do battle !

Dock shore power connection - Tested SAT.
40' cable - LED was "on" and tested SAT.
Connected live cable to boat 30Amp Connector and then tested each cabin outlet. Tester indicated....No Juice ! So what gives....... Then I looked a bit closer at the GFCI Outlets I installed the other year in place of the std outlets...Hmmm ! Let me press the reset button all the way in and see what that does ? "Click"...then the other outlet "Click". I couldn't believe I overlooked this step the other day when I was preparing for the overnighter. Retested with the tester - SAT. Plugged in the portable heater - No Problems !

Then for jollies, I fooled around with my Smart Charger which is hard wired to the AC power. I turned off my solar panel, turned on all loads - lights and fans (high power). Once battery voltage started to drop a bit, the Smart Charger charging light came on. Then I turned on my solar panel from the controller and turned off all the loads - The charger indicated "Ready" but the charging light went off since battery was fully charged. Everything checked out okay !!

So....what I thought was a big problem was after.....$110 spent...turned into a non-issue ! But I look at this as a "Good" story !

Have any of you had some issues thought were big and turned out to have easy or non-fixes required ?

Larry
'89 Robin's Nest#5820, Potomac River/Quantico, Va
http://catalina25.homestead.com/olarryr.html

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 10/10/2008 : 00:44:38

I had an extensive AC problem I could not figure out. I was afraid I would have to rewire the boat. I even changed cords. I tested this and that.

Finally I determined that my boat was plugged into Gary's plug (Classical Cat, in the next slip). His boat was plugged into my socket. His switch was off. No matter what I did with my switch,cord, breakers, ... my boat had no juice.

Good for me finding the answer did not cost any $

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britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 10/10/2008 : 07:00:29

Ha! about a dollar a volt!

Glad I'm not the only one that gets caught like that!

Paul

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.