So I had a situation over the weekend that still has me completely baffled. Get ready for a bit of a lengthy post...
My wife and I are on a seasonal site. Got to our trailer Friday afternoon and I was about to put some food in the fridge when I noticed that it was way too warm. The light was on inside the fridge. The lights above the fridge indicated no problems (check light was not on). It is a 3-way fridge so it should've kicked over to gas or battery if it had a problem. I know I didn't lose power because the clock on the microwave was still set.
Now here's where it gets weird. The last time this happened, it was discovered that we lost power on one leg of our shore power. We had to have the CG come and change the breaker on the pedestal.
The difference in that situation was that half the stuff in our trailer didn't work. So I started going around checking everything thinking I might have the same problem here. Every single light and outlet in the trailer was working fine. Well, except for the one our TV was plugged in to. The outlet had power, but the TV wouldn't turn on. Also the lights on our ceiling fan were very dim. The fridge in our outdoor kitchen was also not running.
So we started flipping switches and tried turning on our WH. We have switches for both gas and electric. The second I flipped the switch for the electric WH, the lights in the ceiling fan got brighter, the TV turned on and the fridge in the outdoor kitchen started running.
I've had odd things happen when the electric element in the WH goes bad so my initial thought was that maybe that was the culprit. I did make the mistake of trying to run the furnace before we left to get a new element. It kicked on with no problems but the lights went dim and the TV shut off while it was running.
So I went out, got a new element and replaced it. Same situation. Everything worked as long as the switch was turned on.
So I just ended up going to bed and figured I'd look at it in the morning.
The next morning we get up and for the hell of it, my wife flips the switch to OFF. Everything works fine.
I monitored everything throughout the day periodically checking the TV and both fridges. By Sunday morning, both fridges were nice and cold again and everything was working as it should.
My question is, what in the world happened? I have a theory that we may have been getting low voltage from the CG pedestal. That would explain why the TV outlet was getting power, just not enough to turn it on. The fridge was getting enough power to run the lights, but not enough to kick on the condenser.
What I don't understand is why did flipping the switch for the WH make everything work?
Thoughts?