Man That Was Close! Electrical.

[pokerrick1]

First of all, I know NOTHING, NADA, about electricity!! If elecricity is involved, I get an electrician, or at least somebody else!

Today I was down at where my slip will be and I went onto the dock to chat with a newcomer American, who has a 42' Trawler and has been cruising since he retired in 1989 (tough life but he volunteered). He is going to be in San Felipe 4 to 6 months.

Anyway, before he plugged into the shorepower at the dock, he plugged into the 110 directly (at the pole near the shorepower socket there is a regular outlet, which I thought was pretty handy to have) with a long extension cord, and he fried his vacuum cleaner Turns out the 110 was about 240 or something like that. He then had his son, who IS an electricity guy, test the power poles at the docks around him, and it turns out these brand new outlets are all messed up. If he would have plugged into the shore power outlet he would have fried his boat

After his son searched around, he found a pole and outlet that was the correct voltage, amps, etc., across from him and he plugged his boat into that one with no problem, until Fonatur fixes the problem - - - apparently the grounds aren't right, either, and he warned me to stay out of the water?????? (I wasn't going in anyway - - - but now I'll be more careful to not fall in).

So the son is going to check the pole intended for me to see if that one is OK before I plug in. I can just see me plugging in without any thought and frying my boat - - - I would be not only super p i double s e d , but pretty helpless in the situation. Now I will have a clue before I plugin. LUCKY!! WHEW!! Praise the Lord for the Americans down here

Rick

[Uncle Jim]

Rick,
Sounds like good fortune smiled on you this time. On thing I’ve learned from 30+ years installing high dollar machinery is never trust the electrician, or at the very least trust but verify ! I always carry a small cheap multimeter for just such and occasion ( I've got about 5 of them plus the big one for work). Another handy tool to have is a ground fault test probe. Plugs into a 110 outlet and lets you know if it’s wired correctly.

Jim

[Moe]

Besides marine outlets, this has also been a problem for people having residential electricians hook up a 120V-30A "Travel Trailer" outlet unfamiliar to them. It sometimes winds up connected to Leg 1 and Leg 2 (240V) instead of one of the legs and neutral (120V) on the main 2 pins. And in that case, sometimes neutral is put on the 3rd pin instead of ground. Another common problem even when they get the above correct, is that hot and neutral are swapped.

[Kelly Hanson East]

ITs even more interesting when they wire 3 phase 480 with neutral and a hot phase swapped....BTDT

Required cruising tools - pcoket Multimeter and appropriate voltage outlet tester (about 5 USD at Lowes or equivalent)

[tangentair]

I too over the years learned from experience to never trust anything anyone else wired and to expect anything I wired to be wrong. Keeps me humble and alive.

[Gerry the fish]

When you ask an Electrician if its 110 or 120V - you get a long winded, its too complicated for you to understand kind of answer.

Always made me suspicious.

[Uncle Jim]

I went round and round with an electrician once when the machine I was installing would not power up. L1 to ground @117vac L2 to ground @ 119vac no problems yet but when I checked L1 to L2 I had 0, nada, zip. He swore up and down it was the machine and that a current draw was to blame. After he left I opend the box and found he installed both legs of the breaker on the same leg, L1 and L2 were both L1.

I won't even go into the electrician who told be (with a straight face) that the machines would run better at 290vac instead of 208vac and 179vac instead of 110vac.

Jim

[Don T]

Then there was the time I got a phone call from a friend of mine that was playing at a local club. He said he couldn't get anything to work. So I drove down and discovered some DIY owner had reversed the neutral and hot on all the plugs along the backstage wall. Every piece of gear (solid state) had a burned ground trace inside. Only thing left running was the old Fender tweed with the 2 prong plug. They ended up doing an "unplugged" version of their show while I worked on the gear.

I always carry a tester anytime I'm plugging into an "unknown."

[SailDog]

...
I won't even go into the electrician who told be (with a straight face) that the machines would run better at 290vac instead of 208vac and 179vac instead of 110vac.

Jim

"Putting in 220?"

"220, 221 whatever it takes."

[pokerrick1]

Gonzo - Bonzo - Iceberg - Greenberg - It's all the same

Rick

[jcasale]

...Fletch and it is all ball bearing these days...

[puggsy]

Would it be possible for you experts to look at my problem on the mods section...thanks...Puggsy