reverse polarity light

[Jim Hardesty]

I would like a explanation of the reverse polarity light.  I plug in to shore power, turn on the circut breakers, no light.  OK, so far so good.  I plug in a circut tester, the one with 2 yellow lights and a red one, reads a good circut, but, the red reverse polarity light on the panel comes on.  Also comes on with some equipment, ie, an Airconditioner I just installed.
So, do I have some gremlin or is this normal?
Jim

[Stu Jackson]

Jim,

Here's one good discussion from over on co.com, read Maine Sail's discussions particularly Reply #18, which says:

When a high current or amperage load is dumped into the circuit, like a heater, there may be enough voltage drop in the white/neutral to exceed the resistance in the 25K resistor required by ABYC for the RPI light. When this happens, likely due to under sized wire or a high resistance connection, enough current can be driven through to light the RPI to cause it to faintly illuminate as the OP described..\

http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=903620&highlight=reverse%20polarity

www.bluesea.com also has a good description, a search on their site comes up with:  http://bluesea.com/viewresource/84.

[Jim Hardesty]

Thanks Stu, clears things up some.  I'll scotch bright and check my shore power cord prongs.  Then go from there.

[Jim Hardesty]

I cleaned the shore power cord prongs.  They looked fine to me, no arcing, no corrosion.  Just the cleaning, really just a wipe with scotch bright....problem gone....no more red glow.   Thanks Stu

[mainesail]

Just don't let them get this bad..

Replaced this one on Monday as well as its sister inlet.. Also replaced both 50A 50' shore power cords.. Just be glad you don't own a big boat.

Two 50A Cords = $1400.00
Two 50A Inlets = $350.00
8' 6/3 Tinned Triplex wire = $56.00

+ Labor..........


This guys boat came VERY close to burning down the marina and NO breakers tripped because the resistance and resulting heat was well below the breakers trip point...



ALWAYS try to keep your shore power prongs CLEAN!!

[scotty]

Don't forget to chect the the connector that is mounted on the boat.  Mine also showed some discoloration.  I replaced it.