Has anyone ever used a 45 AMP adapter?

[holstein13]

I usually require a 50 amp outlet to power my coach but sometimes, all I can get is 30 amps.

A year ago I saw this nifty 50 amp adapter that had two ends, a 30 amp male plus a 15 amp mail leading to a 50 amp female. The problem is, it doesn't work.

Every time I plug it in, it trips the 15 amp breaker on the pole. If I only plug in the 30 amp, I get an "Open Leg" fault" on my display. I've tried it at 3 different places always with the same result. Do these things even work? How can I test it with my voltmeter?

And I'm sure that someone will mention that 50 amp power is actually 100 amps total. I realize this so there is no need to mention it. But I'm sure it will get mentioned anyway. Few people read to the end of these posts.

ON EDIT: I should have mentioned that I have two adapters, this 45 amp and a 30 to 50 amp adapter. I use the regular adapter every time I have 30 amp available but not 50 amp. I was just hoping to use the 45 amp adapter occasionally.

EDIT #2:Thanks to the very informative tips, comments and suggestions on this post, I have decided to ditch my 45 AMP adapter and I switched to a 60 amp adapter (two 30 amps for a total of 60 amps). I am writing this comment from the glorious comfort of my coach cooled by two air conditioners. It's not as good as 100 amps, but it's better than 30.

Thank you all for your input. This is why I love this forum so much.

[holstein13]

Thanks to the very informative tips, comments and suggestions on this post, I have decided to ditch my 45 AMP adapter and I switched to a 60 amp adapter (two 30 amps for a total of 60 amps). I am writing this comment from the glorious comfort of my coach cooled by two air conditioners. It's not as good as 100 amps, but it's better than 30.

If I'm ever confronted with a situation where I can only get a 30 and a 20 and that 20 is non-GFCI, I can adapt down to it using a 30 to 20 adapter. I suppose I could have done the same thing in reverse with the other one, but I don't like pushing too much power through small wires.

Thank you all for your input. This is why I love this forum so much.

[holstein13]

Bobbo wrote:
If you plug into a GFCI outlet with that, it will trip EVERY time. Buying it was a waste of money.

Yeah, that is becoming painfully obvious to me as I read these explanations. Too bad they don't tell you that on the box. I could have saved some money.

[DrewE]

RoyB wrote:
IVYLOG - guess you are correct with no LIVE male plugs. Each of those two plugs go to either side of the 50AMP zones and not tied together...

Schematic would look something like this one from DMBRUSS


DMBRUSS image

The 30A and 20A Male plug to 50A Female socket adapter is probably wired the same way.

I think it is illegal for companies to sell the adapters that could have live open male plugs...

Roy Ken

The main ways you could get a live male plug would be to have a 240V device (in which case current can "leak" through the device from one hot to the other), or to have one side plugged into a miswired outlet (hot and neutral swapped, or neutral open) in which case the neutral of the other plug could be hot.

If you don't have any 240V appliances, which is the vast majority of RVs, and you never plug into miswired outlets and your RV wiring is correct, you would not get a hot male plug from the adapter.

[Bobbo]

If you plug into a GFCI outlet with that, it will trip EVERY time. Buying it was a waste of money.

[beemerphile1]

Instead of that adapter use your 50/30 adapter and then plug some loads into the 15a receptacle using a separate cord. Refrigerator comes to mind as one that would be easy to power directly from the 15a.

[RoyB]

IVYLOG - guess you are correct with no LIVE male plugs. Each of those two plugs go to either side of the 50AMP zones and not tied together...

Schematic would look something like this one from DMBRUSS


DMBRUSS image

The 30A and 20A Male plug to 50A Female socket adapter is probably wired the same way.

I think it is illegal for companies to sell the adapters that could have live open male plugs...

Roy Ken

[RoyB]

This is a typical campground wired pedestal.



Note that the 50A service uses both HOT lines from the split phase.

The 30A is only using one side of the split phase. In most cases the 20A service is using the same side for its power. i.e. you have both the 30A leg and 20A leg using the same phase leg of the input power. If the pedestal is doing this then you will not be able to add your 30A and 20A together to make 50A service using the adapter you have mentioned. The 30A service and the 20A service has to be fed by the two separate hot wires to be able to add them to get a 50A service.

This would be the same as plugging two 20A plugs in a regular 120VAC receptacle and expect to combine the two circuits and get 40A service... Ain't gonna happen...

The big problem I am always afraid of with having any adapter that has two male plugs on them out in the open is when you plug one side into a power source then the other male plug is energized at the same time. You may touch something with it before you plug it into the second source. Just too dangerous to have around IMO...

The only games I play at times with my 30A service is I will run a separate extension cord out to the 20A service on the pedestal to run my portable oil-filled heater. The 20A service has its own circuit breaker which will not load down the 30A side... I could also very easily run my air conditoner doing the same thing as it has a separate 20A plug I can get to easily. Like everyone else I usually trip my main 30A breaker if I am running my air conditioner and go kick in the microwave unit... The two together will overload my 30A Main breaker sometimes.

Roy Ken

[Ivylog]

I have a 30-30 adapter that works every time I plug it into two 30A outlets. Rare to find a 15A that's not a GFI that's going to trip. Not sure where I'd find "a live exposed male plug" in my RV.

[westend]

The 45 amp adapter is tripping the breaker because of it's construction and the intrinsic nature of how a typical pedestal is wired. It's not about anything inside your RV.

[holstein13]

DrewE wrote:
I would suggest throwing the "45A" adapter in the trash. IMHO those things are dangerous, or potentially dangerous, especially if there is a fault in the pedestal wiring.

Basically, it connects one leg of the 50A to the 30A plug and the other to the 15A plug. The neutral (and ground) are connected to both. There are several problems or potential problems with this arrangement:

1. As you've found out, it creates (what looks like) a ground fault that will trip a GFCI every time. Since the NEC requires that all 15A or 20A outlets that are outdoors be GFCI protected, the chance of this not happening is quite slim.

2. If there are any 240V devices in your RV (which is not the usual case), you can readily have a live exposed male plug.

3. If there is an outlet with reversed polarity, connecting the adapter creates a short circuit and leaving one end unconnected creates a live male plug.

4. If there is an open or poor neutral connection on one of the outlets, the other neutral may well be overloaded. If the two outlets are on the same phase, it almost certainly will be; and if it's the 30A neutral that's open, the 15A one will carry up to 45A--a quite significant overload, and enough to be more than a theoretical fire hazard.

Thanks Drew, I had no idea. Sounds like good advice.

In the meantime, I think I'll check all my outlets to see if any have reversed polarity. That could be one reason it's tripping. But that would only be the case if something was plugged into the outlet, right?

[DrewE]

I would suggest throwing the "45A" adapter in the trash. IMHO those things are dangerous, or potentially dangerous, especially if there is a fault in the pedestal wiring.

Basically, it connects one leg of the 50A to the 30A plug and the other to the 15A plug. The neutral (and ground) are connected to both. There are several problems or potential problems with this arrangement:

1. As you've found out, it creates (what looks like) a ground fault that will trip a GFCI every time. Since the NEC requires that all 15A or 20A outlets that are outdoors be GFCI protected, the chance of this not happening is quite slim.

2. If there are any 240V devices in your RV (which is not the usual case), you can readily have a live exposed male plug.

3. If there is an outlet with reversed polarity, connecting the adapter creates a short circuit and leaving one end unconnected creates a live male plug.

4. If there is an open or poor neutral connection on one of the outlets, the other neutral may well be overloaded. If the two outlets are on the same phase, it almost certainly will be; and if it's the 30A neutral that's open, the 15A one will carry up to 45A--a quite significant overload, and enough to be more than a theoretical fire hazard.

[time2roll]

Maybe something else is on. Microwave and one air should operate on 30 amps. Mine does.
I put my water and fridge to propane only when running the air.

Could get an adaptive inverter that combines power with the 30 amps to temporarily cover additional loads.

[holstein13]

ChooChooMan74 wrote:
Those adapters work only in certain instances. For one, the pedestal 15/20 amp can not be a GFI. 2nd, This will only give you about 5400 watts of power instead of the 12000 watts of power that a 50 amp 120/240 connection will give you. So, you are still very limited to what you can use.

Thanks, that is probably the answer. I never checked to see if it's a GFCI circuit but that would make sense.

[holstein13]

smkettner wrote:
Will not work in a GFCI outlet. Will trip every time as designed.

Open leg is because one side is not connected. A regular 30-50 adapter will connect the 30 amps to both your main breakers.

If you can find two outlets without GFCI then it will work. No need to test with a voltmeter. I still do not recommend it. Too much hassle. Your EMS should be able to manage power on 30 amps.... or rather what issue are you trying to resolve?

Yes, of course. That's exactly what I do every time the 45 amp adapter doesn't work. I just use the regular 30 amp to 50 amp adapter. I was hoping to get 15 more amps so I could use the microwave at the same time as one air conditioner.