reverse polarity

[Don B]

It is always possible that you may just have a faulty indicator. Check with your neighbors and see if they have experienced the same problem - like you say the Marina is old.

Good Luck !!!!

-Don B

[Catigale]

Dave - Im a can do kind of guy but if you are getting this kind of intermittant thing get a professional to go over your wiring with a fine tooth comb....this is the sort of thing that fires are made of.

I did my own shore power but given I sleep with kids on board I had it inspected...got a "nice job" comment from guy too!

Fires on boats suck.

Catigale

[Sloop John B]

Polarity.

What are your guys talking about? I have fat prongs and thin prongs on my plug ins to keep me straight.

Some stuff, like my 3/8 drill I was using today has two thin prongs. Guess it doesnt make any difference which way the polarity is flowing through that sucker. Seems to work either way.

But, for hooking up things: what should a multameter read for checking out the open wires?

[Don B]

"But, for hooking up things: what should a multameter read for checking out the open wires?"

Do you mean if you placed a multimenter on 200 vac setting and stuck the leads in the socket ?

-Don B

[Catigale]

No offense meant, but asking these kind of questions means you need help to troubleshooting shore power. 30 Amp 120 VAC mistakes are spectacular.

I sell 60 kW equipment that fails sometime..really spectacular...

Stephen

[dclark]

Thanks for all the thoughts. They are all helpful. I'm not sure who the last reply was addressed to. As for my particular situation, I see it like this...

I did the installation myself. I'm not a pro, but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing. I used only quality parts (BlueSea Panels, Marinco SS inlet, Anchor triplex wire, etc.). I triple checked everything and am confident there is no wiring errors.

So my opinion on it is this...its really is nothing more then a fancy extension cord that feeds a few outlets. I could accomplish the same thing by plugging in an extesion cord to the shore outlet, running it into the boat, and attaching a power strip. But I went the fancy and expensive way. Which is to say I added protection to the fancy extension cord consisting of a 30 amp Main with reverse polarity feeding three 15 amp breakers, each feeding a single GFCI outlet.

All I'm going to do is wait and see. Calling out an electrician to quad-drupple check my extension cord seems pointless and the idea that I have something wired backwards not possible. Faulty panels or parts don't seem very likely either.

I've used it for months

[Sloop John B]

By checking with a multimeter, I was referring to 12 v DC wires. By switcing the black and red leads around the needle acts differently.

[Don B]

dcclark,

If your referring to my post from above about "It is always possible that you may just have a faulty indicator"

I meant no offense.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sloop John B,

You confused me when you were talking about your two thin prong 3/8 drill. I thought you were talking AC not DC multimeter Testing.

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Note to myself "Stay out of these electrical discussions"

-Don B

[dclark]

dcclark,

If your referring to my post from above about "It is always possible that you may just have a faulty indicator"

I meant no offense.

Not at all, that is still a possibility. I was referring more to catigale's post.

[Catigale]

Dave - as usual in e-land one can jump to erroneous conclusions about people so if I offended I retract and apologise.

Electrical problems give me the heebie jeebies though...

Stephen

[Don B]

Shore Power not a sure thing.

After using the Marina supplied grill the better half and I sat down to eat dinner in the Mac only to find that there was no AC power to light our AC ships lantern we use.

Resorted to the DC lights but I find them rather harsh for just eating dinner plus I had visions of "Reverse Polarity" dancing in my head as per this thread.

So.. not being able to enjoy dinner I did some investigation. Found all connections to be correct but what happened was someone had turned off the switch to our power receptacle on shore side.

And no it was not in the fault break position, but was completely off. I asked around later but got no good answer as to why it was off.

But at least it was an easy problem to solve and I was than able to enjoy the culinary delight of a "Hotdog" !!!!!!

-Don B

[jklightner]

While this may not be what's happening to you, some food for thought. I was having very strange goings on and intermittent oddities while on shore power. Bottom line was the neutral ( white ) wire was loose in the box. This would give me fluctuations in my AC that drove equipment nuts. The marine enviorment is tough on electrical and electronics. Soldering is better than crimping, heat shrink is better than tape, No-Ox anything that plugs in... and still pray that it will work when you need it to.

[TonyHouk]

JKLightner and Others,
According to the ABYA or is that ABYC, they recommend that wires are crimped not soldered. I think it has to do with vibration and the solder breaking down. Happy sails, Tony