Reversed Polarity Issues?

Seldom is it ever an issue but it was good to correct before you did have a problem. In my view it is more for safety. A lot of battery back up for computers will test for this and people did not even know about the wiring issue.

Can be dangerous in the event of a failure in something like the water heater or fridge. Also I don't think the GFCI's will function correctly.
I would open them up and swap the connections on the back of the outlets. It's easy and there's no sense in keeping it wrong.

Reverse polarity on AC power means that the Hot & Neutral have been switched.

Turn off an AC circuit breaker and you interrupt the hot side.........but if reversed the neutral is hot and would still be energized. Not good from maintenance safety point.

Fix it before somebody gets electrocuted working on a hot circuit

Thanks for the input. As noted in my original post, we corrected the issue already. Glad that my voltage monitor came in handy the very first time I used it.

how can you have reversed polarity in a AC circuit? it reverses every 60 milliseconds.

You can have out of phase. where one of the hot legs is attached to a ground. That usually shows up quickly and for a short time. :)

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Reverse polarity on AC power means that the Hot & Neutral have been switched.

In reality, that will blow the circuit breaker as soon as it is connected.

Polarity has a different meaning on AC power circuits than with DC circuits. On the AC circuit, one conductor (white wire) is grounded and does not have overcurrent protection. The black conductor (and red in a 240 volt circuit) is called the "hot" and has overcurrent protection. Reversed polarity does not cause a breaker to trip, and in fact could prevent a breaker trip in some situations. If a white wire gets shorted to ground with correct polarity, little or no current will flow. If a white wire gets shorted to ground with reversed polarity the wire is subject to a large overload which could start a fire.

When an RV is plugged into an outlet with reversed polarity everything will most likely operate normally, but several safety mechanisms will be defeated increasing the risk of fire and personal injury.

Read all about polarity right HERE

And that is a good example of one of the reasons Neutral & Ground are NOT bonded in an RV.
Art.

The reversed polarity condition should be corrected immediately because of risk of shock and fire. It is easy to fix.

Correct, reversed polarity does not cause a breaker to trip.

Receptacles downstream of a GFI recept. will still work and be protected, but the GFI recept. will still work but not provide GFI protection for that recept. only. The test button on the GFI recept. will still work though and will not give any indication that the hot and neutral are reversed. Reversed polarity and GFI receptacles

In AC circuits, the neutral is bonded to ground at the main panel in your house (or at CG) and never downstream of the main panel. You should be able to touch any neutral conductor in your house or RV and be safe. With reversed polarity, this is not the case.

Having the neutral bonded to ground is very important. Nowadays, kitchen appliances, power tools, etc. have a polarized plug so that you cannot reverse the polarity. This prevents the outer enclosure/casing from being hot if there is an internal fault or defect in the wiring. If an appliance or tool does not have a polarized plug, it will have a double-insulated enclosure. If you look at a plug, one prong is wider which is the neutral. Appliances and tools that have a switch on them turn the hot conductor on and off and with reversed polarity, it will still be energized and potentially dangerous. Further, with reversed polarity, some appliances may burn out if it is left plugged

If you have reversed polarity at your RV, you could end up with a "hot skin" condition where the exterior of the RV is at 120 volts. This obviously can be dangerous and has been known to be fatal. The only way to test for a hot skin is to use a non-contact voltage tester. Any other tester will not indicate this condition.

Mike Sokol on the hot-skin condition

Some general info. on reversed polarity:

Reversed poloarity