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Budsmith's avatar
Budsmith
Explorer
Jul 04, 2019

low voltage in receptacle

I had a power strip catch on fire..Nothing was plugged into it but the strip was turned on...lucky I was in the rv when it happened or all would have gone up in flames...It tripped all gfi and a circuit breaker..It also blew out my convertor...Now on the receps at the refrig and convertor shows 41 volts...The fridge went to gas and I am afraid to plug it back up to see if it works on elec...Why do I have 41 volts on those two recept?? Thanks for any replys
  • As festus would have said, be afeerd, very afeerd... :E Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

    The facts as reported don't seem to add up. If the power strip ended up shorting out, it should have just tripped the breaker on the circuit it was plugged into. So the converter was on the same circuit? You could reconnect the converter to another breaker temporarily. The converter *shouldn't* be damaged.

    If the fridge is working on propane, then the battery only is keeping it going. Even with everything switched off, there's 12 volt phantom loads that will eventually drain the battery. If you're going to be stuck this way for more than a few days, perhaps get a trickle charger?

    I'd maybe shut the shore power off and check the tightness of all wires at the breakers in the panel and the neutral connections too. Maybe pull out the receptacles that aren't working and inspect the connections on the back of them. Check voltage at each breaker. If 120 volts at each one, something is wrong downstream.

    Do you get 41 volts on hot to neutral or also on hot to ground? Neutral to ground should read zero or close to it.

    Has anyone ever done mods to 120 volt things before? Here's an example from another forum where someone worked on a fridge receptacle after it left the factory which eventually led to overheating due to bad connections and improper connection of a 3rd romex cable. Maybe you've got something similar going on in a receptacle somewhere?

  • I have 120 volts in all recepts except refridg and convertor...They have 41.8 volts with all breakers off or on except the A/C and M/W..I used extension cord to power up the refridg....Tried plugging up the convetor on ext cord and had a pop and smoke from the conveter so I guess it will haveto be replaced...Keeping batteries charged with batt charger..
  • Budsmith wrote:
    I have 120 volts in all recepts except refridg and convertor...They have 41.8 volts with all breakers off or on except the A/C and M/W..I used extension cord to power up the refridg....Tried plugging up the convetor on ext cord and had a pop and smoke from the conveter so I guess it will haveto be replaced...Keeping batteries charged with batt charger..


    Between camping trips so can't stay with this.


    Not clear from above if the two receptacles are on the same breaker. If so, suggest not plugging the fridge back into its regular receptacle until it measures 120v. Same with a new converter to its receptacle.

    No idea why the converter problem would back up to its receptacle (and breaker?) to measure 41.8v. New one on me.

    I would suspect the actual breaker, but it is not clear. In the past, I have had a suspect breaker in the 120v panel, and swapped out the black wire(s) going into it to another breaker next door. That showed things worked again on the next door breaker, so that first breaker was replaced.

    The fridge's receptacle outside behind the access panel can get wet from water down from the roof vent or however (not supposed to happen), but that would just trip the GFCI on that circuit.

    Some forum guys better at RV electrical might have a notion what is going on here. ????
  • taking rv to repair center for new convertor and check out the voltage situation..willlet you know