Forum Discussion

cannesdo's avatar
cannesdo
Explorer
Oct 28, 2013

Electrical "surges" -- converter damage?

My neighbor is hyperventilating. They're from Italy, their first fifth wheel. I've had the same analog meter plug for 7 years and it's always worked well. It's showing a very steady current, haven't had any light/tv blinking to suggest there's a disruption. I took my meter over to his place and it's showing the same over there but his digital multimeter is doing some blinking and he lost power today, has it back but now his converter is making strange sounds. They have had some blinking of lights. Later I found my large multimeter with the two probes and tested my own rig again. It was rock solid.

He says that a very small change in the current can cause a converter to blow -- is that the case? It's clear something happened but could the converter have just been bad? He took his digital multimeter around to all the unoccupied posts in the park and says they're all blinky. It's a 2011 Cameo.
  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    First, I am 100% convinced you folks are confusing current and voltage.. 2nd, Sometimes digital meters.. Can be confusing.

    Finally a SMALL (+/- 10%) change in voltage likely won't hurt the converter.. A major one (say 50%) sustained will.. And spikes which are of very short duration (Too fast for either your analog or his digital meter to measure) can easily hit several hundred volts (over 1,000) but only for a small period of time, MANY electroincs contain protection against this kind of thing, however that protection does wear out over time.

    A RV Surge Guard protects against both SPIKES (Using MOV's which are the protection devices I just mentioned) and SURGES (by shutting off power)


    You said his lights are flickering..

    Most likely he has a bad battery (Shorted cell) and a self-resetting circuit breaker somewhere that is doing just that.
  • 30 Amps coming in from the post. Could be confusing that as I don't know anything about electrical. He just said lights and tv were showing dimming and then power was lost at some point and the converter was making noises after that. He said he was told he needed something bigger more involved than a surge protector, I guess they run about $600. ? I was here all last winter and didn't have any problems he says his meter is showing that every post in the park is affected. I'll try to get more info today.

    Thanks...

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