Surge guard polarity warning

chiefly1 · 09-30-2013, 07:04 PM

I plugged my rig in today at home and my 50 amp surge guard said I have reversed polarity. So I started checking... Power at the pole/switch was correct, cord was OK, turned out a little electrical spray to clean the contacts was all that was needed. Would have saved some time if I started there...

BarryD0706 · 09-30-2013, 07:09 PM

Hmmm. Shoulda got the Progressive Industries EMS unit. Reverse polarity means that the white (neutral) wire is swapped with the red and/or black wire. Not something some contact cleaner is going to fix.

B47 · 09-30-2013, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiefly1

I plugged my rig in today at home and my 50 amp surge guard said I have reversed polarity. So I started checking... Power at the pole/switch was correct, cord was OK, turned out a little electrical spray to clean the contacts was all that was needed. Would have saved some time if I started there...

Chalk it up to experience - start there next time.

chiefly1 · 09-30-2013, 08:02 PM

A volt meter verified the power and polarity was checked at the pole and was spot on. With the change in weather and moisture in the air a bit of corrosion occurred between the 50 amp to 30 amp connection. While it is easy to clean the male parts you need the electrical spray to help clean and make a good connection on the female connectors. There are various blogs about the subject and even one on this site. Might save some time for some if you have checked the source power and it is good.

R1campr · 10-28-2013, 06:52 PM

I have a 30 amp surgeguard protector. Last time i went camping and hooked up the surge protector, all was good. The next day another camper plugged in a fan to the 110 outlet on the same camp pole. Later in the day my surge protector was showing reverse polarity. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, no change. I plugged into the other 30 amp outlet on the same camp pole and all was good again. Im pretty sure the wiring wasnt messed with, could it have been just corrosion in the outlet? If so why would a surge protector display reverse polarity if it is a not so great connection?

BarryD0706 · 10-28-2013, 07:03 PM

Sounds like it's defective to me.

jimh · 10-28-2013, 07:08 PM

mine did that after a thunderstorm. switched outlets and it came back. the original outlet already had an open ground so i don't know what else happened. that outlet is a pain to try and kill so there is another thing on my to do list.

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