Did I blow my converter?

[rpetritsch]

I just bought a 1997 Winnebago Adventurer 34RQ. When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator. I connected the mh to the outlet.
The ac worked fine, one unit at the time, the microwave worked, the tv blew up and the refrigerator did not work and showed a warning that the voltage was too high. I checked out the voltage and it was240 volts. I blew the tv out and now the converter does not seem to be working. The house batteries was 12.7 when I plugged my into 15 volt outlet it did not change. Refrig worked ok.
What voltage should a converter put out, was it just happy with the voltage in the bank.
How do I change the garage outlet to be 120 volts. Someone told me to take off the double strap to the 30amp outlet and use one at a time.....that did not work at all .

[Bobbo]

drsteve wrote:

Bobbo wrote:
We are all missing something here. We are all so attuned to 30 amp RV outlets, that is what we are discussing. That is NOT what was said in the first post. Here is what he actually said (edited down to the pertinent lines).

rpetritsch wrote:
When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator. I connected the mh to the outlet.

He did not have a 30 amp RV outlet installed. He had a 30 amp outlet installed to backfeed his house from a generator. (Illegal and dangerous way to do it, but that is another discussion.) Now, whoever wired this up assumed that the generator would be a 240v generator so they wired up the outlet's current carrying wires to feed both sides of the panel, probably with the third pin attached to the neutral buss bar in the breaker box (although attaching it to the ground buss bar would have identical results).

The lack of electrical knowledge demonstrated in using an outlet to backfeed a generator into a house indicates that the lack of electrical knowledge could cause a 3 wire outlet to be used, and wired as 2 hots and a neutral (or ground). Of course, the RV expected to see 1 hot, 1 neutral, and a ground.

Now, he had a 30 amp 240v outlet wired up, and hooked his 30 amp 120v RV to it, with predictable results.

The question is, why a 30A 125V RV outlet, which has a different pin configuration than a 30A 250V outlet of any sort, was used? The OP should not have been able to plug his RV cord in to this outlet, since it was meant to backfeed a 240V generator.

This is the answer to the question of "Why?".

Bobbo wrote:
The lack of electrical knowledge demonstrated in using an outlet to backfeed a generator into a house indicates that the lack of electrical knowledge could cause a 3 wire outlet to be used

I suspect that all of this was done by someone who didn't know what they were doing.

Dusty R wrote:
A device to plug a generator into in not an "outlet" but an "inlet".

Yes, but the OP stipulated that he had a "service" installed to power the house from a generator. If he had installed an actual power inlet, he would never have been able to plug his RV into it. I suspect he installed an outlet and planned to use a suicide cord to backfeed it.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The OP has not responded...

[Dusty_R]

A device to plug a generator into in not an "outlet" but an "inlet".

[Cydog15]

rpetritsch wrote:
I just bought a 1997 Winnebago Adventurer 34RQ. When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator. I connected the mh to the outlet.
The ac worked fine, one unit at the time, the microwave worked, the tv blew up and the refrigerator did not work and showed a warning that the voltage was too high. I checked out the voltage and it was240 volts. I blew the tv out and now the converter does not seem to be working. The house batteries was 12.7 when I plugged my into 15 volt outlet it did not change. Refrig worked ok.
What voltage should a converter put out, was it just happy with the voltage in the bank.
How do I change the garage outlet to be 120 volts. Someone told me to take off the double strap to the 30amp outlet and use one at a time.....that did not work at all .

Call these folks at Best Converter and they will let you know and fix you up probably with a better unit than you have now.

[drsteve]

Bobbo wrote:
We are all missing something here. We are all so attuned to 30 amp RV outlets, that is what we are discussing. That is NOT what was said in the first post. Here is what he actually said (edited down to the pertinent lines).

rpetritsch wrote:
When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator. I connected the mh to the outlet.

He did not have a 30 amp RV outlet installed. He had a 30 amp outlet installed to backfeed his house from a generator. (Illegal and dangerous way to do it, but that is another discussion.) Now, whoever wired this up assumed that the generator would be a 240v generator so they wired up the outlet's current carrying wires to feed both sides of the panel, probably with the third pin attached to the neutral buss bar in the breaker box (although attaching it to the ground buss bar would have identical results).

The lack of electrical knowledge demonstrated in using an outlet to backfeed a generator into a house indicates that the lack of electrical knowledge could cause a 3 wire outlet to be used, and wired as 2 hots and a neutral (or ground). Of course, the RV expected to see 1 hot, 1 neutral, and a ground.

Now, he had a 30 amp 240v outlet wired up, and hooked his 30 amp 120v RV to it, with predictable results.

The question is, why a 30A 125V RV outlet, which has a different pin configuration than a 30A 250V outlet of any sort, was used? The OP should not have been able to plug his RV cord in to this outlet, since it was meant to backfeed a 240V generator.

[Bobbo]

We are all missing something here. We are all so attuned to 30 amp RV outlets, that is what we are discussing. That is NOT what was said in the first post. Here is what he actually said (edited down to the pertinent lines).

rpetritsch wrote:
When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator. I connected the mh to the outlet.

He did not have a 30 amp RV outlet installed. He had a 30 amp outlet installed to backfeed his house from a generator. (Illegal and dangerous way to do it, but that is another discussion.) Now, whoever wired this up assumed that the generator would be a 240v generator so they wired up the outlet's current carrying wires to feed both sides of the panel, probably with the third pin attached to the neutral buss bar in the breaker box (although attaching it to the ground buss bar would have identical results).

The lack of electrical knowledge demonstrated in using an outlet to backfeed a generator into a house indicates that the lack of electrical knowledge could cause a 3 wire outlet to be used, and wired as 2 hots and a neutral (or ground). Of course, the RV expected to see 1 hot, 1 neutral, and a ground.

Now, he had a 30 amp 240v outlet wired up, and hooked his 30 amp 120v RV to it, with predictable results.

[wa8yxm]

There is good news and possibly good news.
First have a Decent RV tehcnician go through and check EVERYTHIGN electrical/electronic. I agree with the upgrade to a prograssive dynamics converter.> The model number are 4 digits. match the last two as close as you can to the unit you have now (IE a xx45 to xx 45 or xx60)
THe first two If you have an intergrated power distribution/Converter Like a Magnetek 6300 or Parallex 7300 series. Go with teh 4600 series (just replace the electronics) if the converter is a box. by itself 9200 series or 9100 WITH the optional Wizard (The two are almost identical for most Rvers.. I find the button on the wizard useful. most do not).

OF course you need a new TV. if you have a radio or other electrionc device that eats 120 volts it will likely need replacement. Refrigerator and water heater may have suffered.

And the electrican.. LIABLE in many cases

you see the outlet says right on it 125 volts maximum. He failed to read.

[drsteve]

rpetritsch wrote:
When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator.

Who did this work? A competent, licensed electrician would not install an outlet to backfeed the system with a generator.

[Bobbo]

Check EVERY 120v item in your RV. There is a GOOD chance that you have more destroyed stuff.

[Johno02]

Lucky that you didn't burn the whole thing to the ground.

[time2roll]

rpetritsch wrote:
I just bought a 1997 Winnebago Adventurer 34RQ. When I built the house I had the electrical install a 30amp service in order to connect to a generator. I connected the mh to the outlet.

Generator must connect to an inlet and the system should have a transfer switch or lock-out device to prevent back feed to the grid.

An RV outlet should be wired to a single breaker to get 120 volts. This is written right on the NEMA TT-30 outlet.

The electrician did both wrong and should be held responsible. Have the items inspected and permitted by the city or at least a real electrician.

Generally a converter should have 120 vac in and gives 13.6 vdc out. Yes, converter is probably shot.

Not too soon to get a PI EMS to protect the RV from over voltage, under voltage, bad ground, reverse polarity, and poor service.

[KD4UPL]

There are so many problems here I don't know where to begin but I'll try.
An "outlet" to connect a generator should actually be an inlet, that is, male connection. Otherwise you need a cord with 2 male ends to connect your generator and these are dangerous.
A generator connection should have an interlock or transfer switch to prevent the generator connection from ever being connected to grid voltage. Without this grid voltage could fry your generator and/or your generator could power the lines on the otherside of your transformer with thousands of volts and kill an unsuspecting lineman.
No generator connection should ever involve a 30 amp RV outlet. Your RV plug shouldn't have fit into this connection in the first place. Even though he used a female he should have used something with 4 prongs, the best choice would have been a twist-lock configuration.
IF, and that's a big IF, your RV uses a 50 amp service then you WOULD measure 240v between the hot legs. Why stuff blew up? Well, perhaps your idiot electrician also mis-wired the outlet and put the hot on the neutral or ground.
Either way, I would say anything in the RV is now likely damaged.

[ScottG]

The only good part of this is your orig converter was junk to start with. Now you can get a good 3 stage converter (Progressive Dynamics) and enjoy all its benefits.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Never ask a car mechanic to work on your airplane...

How many now does this make? Three dozen listed on this site?

My recommendation is that you yourself personally let a professional who knows what they are doing do the install for you.

You need to examine the socket. Obviously there is a 2nd LINE voltage connected to where a neutral should go. Not only does a line connection have to be there it has to be in the right place. So does NEUTRAL and so does earth ground. And all three circuits have to be connected to the right pin for it all to work.

Do you know what neutral is? How to find it in the circuit box? It has to by code be a white wire. Your breaker is most probably a ganged double breaker at the moment. You need to switch it to a single breaker. Have you any experience doing work like this?

Do you have the aptitude to disassemble your converter and check continuity through soldered on tube glass fuses?

"Someone told me's" have caused fires and fatalities.

It is highly likely your converter is irreparably damaged.