Forum Discussion

DinTulsa's avatar
DinTulsa
Explorer
May 26, 2021

30 to 50 adaptor hot?

Currently have the rv at the house and I have the 1 ac running and the fridge at this time. The 30 to 50 adaptor is hot at the 50/50 connection, not where the 30 plugs into the wall. Is this normal, or due to a faulty adaptor?

And by hot I don’t mean burn you hot, as I can hold onto it without pain, just really warm.
  • Unplug. Use 2 pair of pliers to put a little twist in each blade. This will tighten the contact
  • Yes heat in the adapters is common. Not going to say normal as many are poorly made. Keep a watch on it. For best results set the fridge and water to propane when running the A/C for extended periods.
  • A little heat is common. if it is hot there is a loose connection.
    Have you noticed heat when plugged directly into a fifty amp receptacle? If heat is not present, then female receptacle on adapter is issue.
    Molded receptacles are harder to fix. some you can use small screw drivers to squeeze them tighter. One on each side and prior outward.
    The male end may have "wafered" blades. Look closely at them. If they are use a knife or small screw driver to separate slightly so it fits into the adapter.
  • How many amps are pulling? However it Sounds like you have a loose connection.
  • Bad contacts or bad wire connection in one of the other. Bad connection equals resistance equals heat.
  • I appreciate the feedback. After a little more research I found that my outside fridge was running as well. So I had my outside fridge, inside fridge and ac pulling on the 30. There may be a little bit of a loose connection as well, but it had a pretty good load on it. Normally if I’m in a park and I don’t have 50a to grab, I’ll
    Plug the outside fridge into a 110 extension cord.
  • Yeah, if you were already putting load than capacity, there are possibility of heat. still, unplug other appliances and test the adaptor only with your ac and fridge.
  • lenr's avatar
    lenr
    Explorer III
    Lots of good advice on cutting the load on the adapter. However, to be clear if the 50 amp end is warm and the 30 amp end is not there is a problem with the 50 amp end that must be fixed. If left unattended, warm connections usually turn into hot connections that will start deteriorating the 50 male prongs. Most likely the problem is in the 50 amp female as covered above.
  • Older rv a/c pull more current than newer ones. Like everyone telling you. Either put everything but ac on separate extension cord or on propane. Plus need good contact! Also, need an adapter that is the same or bigger Wires size than the one of the rv has. Some adapters are slightly smaller cord. Those will be hotter then rv cord. How the house breakers? One too hot? What amps size of hot breaker? Is rv plugged in only at house outlet, dedicated wise? Just following the trail from rv to breaker box...