Electrical question - Reverse Polarity

[furtrader]

Originally Posted by donhillphoto

2nd time out. My surge protector shows our 30amp is using reverse polarity. Is this okay and should everything run normal? If not, what to do? I don't know enough about electricity.

I ask because everything is running but our fridge is warm now. It was cold in storage and we only drove 40 minutes to campground. The propane was on but it's having a hell of a time trying to get cold again. Freezer is struggling to get cold but fridge is nowhere near cold.

Thoughts? Thanks.

You mentioned you leave the fridge on all the time, these fridges are not like a house fridge. RV fridges should be turned off, and defrosted something like every
30 or so days. It will explain this in the manual for the fridge.

[Myrle]

Originally Posted by donhillphoto

2nd time out. My surge protector shows our 30amp is using reverse polarity. Is this okay and should everything run normal? If not, what to do? I don't know enough about electricity.

I ask because everything is running but our fridge is warm now. It was cold in storage and we only drove 40 minutes to campground. The propane was on but it's having a hell of a time trying to get cold again. Freezer is struggling to get cold but fridge is nowhere near cold.

Thoughts? Thanks.

Absolutely no reverse polarity can wreck havoc on computer parts and burn ou LED lights. A lot of campgrounds will hire help with very limited electrical experience and don't know the importance of wiring these pedastes correctly. I bought a 30 amp plug in and an electrical circuit tester fast easy way to check the wiring whole thing cost about $8.00.

[lbrjet]

I have a Norcold fridge and it cools the freezer first, sends nothing to the fridge until the freezer is cold.


2010 F250 5.4L 3.73
2011 Flagstaff 831FKBSS
Equal-i-zer 4pt 12K

[donhillphoto]

Originally Posted by furtrader

You mentioned you leave the fridge on all the time, these fridges are not like a house fridge. RV fridges should be turned off, and defrosted something like every
30 or so days. It will explain this in the manual for the fridge.

Hmm... different than what I was told. Need to check the manual again. I was instructed to keep it going all the time because it's electric/propane. Explanation I was given was that when run on propane, the gas plays havoc somehow with the metal in the back when defrosting and corrodes over time. I'm a relative newbie, so I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just going with what I've been told. But, that person could be wrong.

Sigh... so many things to consider!

Thanks for the help all. Our fridge ended up getting cold again hours later. The guys assured us reverse polarity wasn't the case but my surge protector never deviated. So, I don't know what to believe. So far, I've not noticed any obvious damage. Just hope they were right and my protector was wrong. Then might need to protector.

[fonzie]

Most likely your protector is right, you will know when you try another pedestal either there or another campsite......

[schybolt]

Forgive my electrical ignorance but doesn't "AC" mean "alternating current"? Does that
Not mean the hot and neutral are constantly reversing?

[msbilton]

Very afraid.....please Help.

[Evereddie]

Originally Posted by schybolt

Forgive my electrical ignorance but doesn't "AC" mean "alternating current"? Does that
Not mean the hot and neutral are constantly reversing?

Actually, no. There is still a hot wire and a neutral or return.

[ChooChooMan74]

Originally Posted by schybolt

Forgive my electrical ignorance but doesn't "AC" mean "alternating current"? Does that
Not mean the hot and neutral are constantly reversing?

Hot and neutral are named that for a reason. Properly wired circuit, you touch a hot and you are grounded, you get zapped. You touch a neutral, you are fine. Neutral and ground have the same electrical potential, because at transformer, neutral connects to ground (per my google electrical license).

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 using Tapatalk.

[jmsokol]

Originally Posted by ChooChooMan74

Hot and neutral are named that for a reason. Properly wired circuit, you touch a hot and you are grounded, you get zapped. You touch a neutral, you are fine. Neutral and ground have the same electrical potential, because at transformer, neutral connects to ground (per my google electrical license).

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 using Tapatalk.

The "Hot" wire is also known as the "Line", and it is indeed energized with 120 volts AC (in the USA). The Neutral wire is "bonded" to the earth ground rod(s) at the incoming service panel (from the power company), so it should always have a voltage potential very close to earth (maybe 1 or 2 volts). The AC thing is Alternating Current, so 120 times a second the voltage between Hot and Neutral wire changes from a positive swing to a negative swing. Since a full cycle is both a positive and negative swing, that's 60 cylces per second, also known as Hertz or Hz.

All modern electrical appliances (and your RV) should have the incoming Neutral wire isolated from the chassis. The Chassis is connected (bonded) to the incoming Ground wire in the power cord, officially known as the EGC (Equipment Grounding Conductor), and also know as the Safety Ground.

Getting the Hot and Neutral wires swapped in your extension cord is known as a swapped "Polarity", even though that's a poor choice of words which causes much confusion. That's because the AC voltage itself reverses polarity 120 times a second (see above). However, because the incoming wires are known as "poles", and electricians definition of "polarity" where the Hot (black) and Neutral (white) wires are reversed is different from an engineer's definition of "polarity" where the Voltage on those wires reverses itself 60 times a second from the AC current itself.

Hope this helps clarify how this works.

Mike Sokol

[jmsokol]

Originally Posted by jmsokol

The "Hot" wire is also known as the "Line", and it
All modern electrical appliances (and your RV) should have the incoming Neutral wire isolated from the chassis. The Chassis is connected (bonded) to the incoming Ground wire in the power cord, officially known as the EGC (Equipment Grounding Conductor), and also know as the Safety Ground.
Mike Sokol

One additional thing to note is that since the Neutral is supposed to be isolated from the Ground inside of your RV, even if you connect to a pedestal or power cord with swapped Hot and Neutral, that can't cause a hot-skin voltage. However, if someone has incorrectly bonded the neutral and ground together inside of your RV's breaker panel AND you have an open ground (EGC), then you'll energize the chassis and skin of the RV with a high-current 120-volt potential. Note that wiring an RV with an internal G-N bond is a violation of all NEC and RVIA codes, so you should never see this on a modern RV. However, I've seen this incorrect G-N bond done with DIY wiring, and some older (60's) RVs had this dangerous wiring condition from the factory.

[msbilton]

Thanks to all for your replies and explanations. It would appear that this is a serious safety issue. I reported this to the RV Park Manager.

I monitored the Analyzer throughout the night and it did eventually return to a normal (green/green) reading.....

I'm going to purchase a Voltage Regulator to protect me from this happening in the future....I believe this should resolve the safety concern for me....If anyone knows any different resolution outside of waiting for the Electrician... please feel free to chime in.