reverse polarity

Black_Diamond

Glad it was simple.

raybo3

Hey everyone keep in mind how dangerous reverse polarity is on a boat. This causes very bad corrosion and it could kill people swimming near the boat. It is very important that you make sure you correct the problem if you do indeed have a reverse polarity issue.....

Dream_Inn

Good new ras! you actually did a good job getting is all stirred up!

Hamdog

Glad to hear it ras!! You'll be a Master before you know it!!!

OldDogNewTrix

Glad to hear you finally found resolve, what a relief. Sometimes things happen on the boat that are not normal and it takes a lot of trouble shooting to find the problem. Congrats, you've learned a lot through this whole issue.

rasbury

Yep, this has been a very good learning experience as I never really paid attention to it- saw it on the panel and hoped I never saw it light up kind of thing but it did force me to learn about it and really had no idea how serious it could be. Also, from a trouble shooting viewpoint, it should be noted that although the reverse polarity was on, I don't think I really had the reverse polarity, more of a warning I suppose...since nothing really worked on the AC side of the current, it apparently was not getting enough power and throwing the light on??? Since nothing else was working it really made me focus on the connector and the cord which looks like it paid off!

Thanks for all the input!

Ian

Its likely it had a faulty ground.  When mine was on land for winter at the boat yard I got reverse polarity too when I plugged in to do some work and so I  checked the outlet and found the ground was not connected correctly.

frodo13056

Wish I would have seen this thread when it was happening. I saw a similar issue a few years back and on a friends boat (not a Rinker). Out of no where, he got a reverse polarity when he connected up to shore power after a day on the water. We checked several things including panel wiring thinking that something must have come lose after being out on Lake Michigan for the day. Eventually, I went and got my spare shore power cord and went to disconnect his shore power cord from his boat and the connector felt a little warm. So when I disconnected, I checked the connector on the cord and on the boat and saw signs of arcing - turns out that the cord had worn so bad over the years that the female connections on the cord were very loose from doing the "twist to lock" maneuver and had a very weak connection which caused arcing. I connected my newer spare cord and the reverse polarity did not occur. He bought a new cord and a new boat socket and no issue. I have not been able to figure out exactly why the reverse polarity showed up but it was a good thing since we found the bad cord / boat inlet otherwise I'm sure that there would have been a fire at some point. Here's a good article on shore power issues from BoatUS http://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/magazine/SeaJul10.pdf

Michael T

Frodo, that is an excellent article. I printed it last year and have shared it with many fellow boaters. I have a friend who is an electrical engineer and he shudders when he sees shore power cords in the water. I have had discussions with boaters who have said "So what, why does it matter to have my cord in the water?". Short answer: the electrical field in the cord of a 30 amp circuit will actually draw water into the cord sooner rather than later - not to mention the dangerous possibility of significant electrical leakage into the surrounding water. MT