Forum Discussion

Goldencrazy's avatar
Goldencrazy
Explorer
Mar 15, 2018

Electrical outlets dead

I have 2013 Itasca Elipse. Today two outlets have stopped supplying power. I suspect we tripped a breaker with a slow cooker on high. The two oulets are one under table and other at end of fireplace cabinet. I looked at circuit breakers but can’tmake sense of it. Some aremarked for specific appliances and 3 say gen. Nothing that identifies recepticles. Any help before i start resetting everything?
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    I agree, when a Kitchen area or dining table (High level) outlet goes "Dark" (no power) first suspect is a GFCI, not a breaker.
    Then check breakers
    Then if you have an inverter check for a second set of breakers (often on the inverter, Mine are not)

    Short story. Got a HELP request, half the Outlets dead (including TV) as we walked to his RV I ask about an inverter. First he opened the access for the batteries, TOld him to try next door, There sat a lovely Tripplite Pure sine wave.. with one tripped breaker.

    He went inside to check and his wife said "Can he help us?"
    The reply was "He's already fixed it!"

    How do I learn all this stuff... Well, read the above. only it was nly the inverter was a Prosine, and the breaker was on the sub panel.
  • The third breaker-gen purpose did the job. I think a switch with a usb outlet was shorted. All is well. Thanks to everyone.
  • Thanks. Those are the ones. I got caught on generator not general purpose. That is what i needed. Thanks everyone.
  • The breakers marked "gen" are probably for "general purpose" circuits, or in other words the normal convenience outlets scattered throughout the RV.

    If you have a permanently-installed inverter, there are often circuit breakers on it for the circuits it powers (when in inverter mode), and these circuit breakers are active even when it's operating in pass-through mode rather than when inverting.
  • Flip all the breakers in your converter one at a time. Just start from the top and go right down. If, after flipping them all, nothing changes, check your outlets for a GFI outlet and push the button there. If that doesn't help, then there's other issues going on.

    Sometimes it really is hard to see which breaker is actually flipped. But more than likely, this is all that happened. Next time, you'll know which breaker it is, and you also know not to run both appliances at the same time.

    We all learn this, and learn to manage our power, because there really is only so much you can run on one circuit before the breaker pops.

    Good luck!

    Edit:
    Just re-read your original post. In my current camper we can run 1 electric ceramic space heater, but not 2 at the same time, even on different circuits.

    We can run the microwave and air conditioner at the same time, but if we plug in an electric skillet or our electric griddle, or a toaster, (with) the water heater running, the main breaker blows.

    We have since decided to use the water heater on gas all the time. This prevents the main breakers from blowing, especially when adding a toaster or something else.

    What we started doing was to plug in another electric cord (we have a 100 foot cord) and plug it into the shore power outlet for a regular household plug (15-20 amp plug). We run the other end of the extension cord into the camper and plug in our extra appliances there. We use that extension cord for the toaster, or the electric griddle, or the 2nd ceramic space heater.

    When camping and we are outside, the same wire is used to power the electric griddle, electric skillet, or toaster outside on the picnic table. If we bring the television outside, we use this same cord to power it outside too. All this to prevent plugging directly into the camper and running power through it's system to prevent breakers from popping.

    This works.
  • You may also want to reset the circuit breakers on your inverter/charger. These will be on the inverter itself, not in any electrical panel.
  • GFI outlets will have 2 buttons on the face... "Test" and "Reset". I'll bet you'll find the "Reset" button is sticking out a little. Push it in (with the crockpot unplugged).
  • Try resetting all the breakers from off to on, you wont hurt anything, then as said, check for a GFI plug, often in the bathroom.
  • Sounds like a Ground Fault problem to me....check your other outlets for a GFC reset button