Breaker and Hot Water Heater Trials

[bncinwv]

In the spirit of keeping everyone informed:
Last night our monitoring panel (tanks, battery, etc.) dimmed considerably, the hot water heater would not turn on and the water pump likewise would not turn on. After staring intently at the water heater (by flashlight) and puzzling about the battery only showing one light on the panel, visually checking fuses, visually checking breakers and finding no apparent cause, I was dumbstruck and wuickly consulted the forum archives hoping to find a clue as to what the heck was going on. We still had full electric power and dc lights. Forum led me to the 30 amp fuses on the left (converter) which were okay, but by deductive reasoning (mainly being out of ideas and not knowing what to try next), looked closer at the breaker box, in particular the breaker for the converter. It appeared to be okay, but a quick reset restored all lost functions. Lesson learned is that all that appears okay is not necessarily so. Always double-check your breakers as they apparently do not fully kick to where they are noticeable. I assume others have experienced this first hand, (By the way, a fellow does get a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when the lucky repairs work and you can look at DW and brag about your expertise in such matters - AFTER AN HOUR!!!! LOL!)
Bingo

[dsprik]

Great heads up, Bingo! Thanks. This forum is so invaluable...

[rickety]

Thanks for the information. Isn't this a great place to learn?!?!?! Will keep that little tidbit of information in the old file box.

[richfaa]

The breaker for our converter trips frequently, at least 3 or 4 times a week..we have no idea why but it is on our trouble list for the service center..Will ket you know if the y7 find a reason???

[ols1932]

A lot of times when you think a breaker may have tripped but it is not readily apparent, just touch the breakers with your finger. If one is tripped, the handle will readily move. If not tripped, the handle will remain in place.

Just an experiential thing from working with the Escapees RV Club Electrical Staff.

Orv

[dsprik]

Thanks, Orv! Rich, I had this problem with my converter when we were in a part of this CG where we were having trouble of a neutral ground somewhere underground. When we moved to another to area with good electrical, the problem went away. We were throwing that breaker 3-4 times a week - sometimes a couple time a day...

[richfaa]

Dave..What you are saying makes sense but ours will trip anywhere any place any time...Not to mention the furnace thermostant that switches modes when it feels like it. We are off to the service center this afternoon with a very long list.

[ols1932]

Our converter breaker never tripped. Now we have it disconnected since we are using an inverter and the batteries are being charged by solar. I'm wondering if there isn't some kind of difference between the converters being installed in the rigs now as compared to the ones installed back in the 2000 year rigs.

Orv

[dsprik]

Dosen't sound unreasonable to believe that the converters now are different from the 2000 models, Orv. I don't know why I am not having the converter breaker trip now, when it was such a frequent occurrence over that short period of time. Has to be related to the frequent voltage drops we were having.

With a loose neutral, the drops were very brief - sometimes less than a second before recovery. Many times I could not even catch it on my Kill-A-Watt meter. Lights would flicker, if the meter was not sampling at that split second, it never moved. It was during this 2 week long period, that I had a rash of converter trips. Hasn't happened before or since...

[simonsrf]

Bingo,

Darn, now I have to hide this topic from the DW!

Robbie