FISHY smell can mean electrical problem
I have smelled the ozone smell before but a bad breaker was giving off a fishy smell.
Forum Discussion
- If you have a laser thermometer, put the dot onto the terminal connections of each breaker. If there is a loose wire, it will show up as heat to the thermometer. The fishy smell could be from the bakelite in the breaker giving off as it heats up.
- All done with that part. Just sharing info.
- Is it common for the AC connections to be exposed on an RV electrical panel? I see it often suggested to measure or inspect these connections.
On my RV, these connections are inside the wfco panel. It has to be almost completely disassembled to get at the high voltage connections. - The front cover should come off exposing the connections.
Get an electrical person to help if need be.
It can be dangerous in there. - There is a front cover held on with six screws. To troubleshoot, I didn’t need to remove it.
With both AC s running, the front (the one tripping) measured 130 degrees with the infrared gun and the rear ac was more like a few degrees above ambient; 85 or so.
When I pulled it out, it was melted and cracked. Big Katuna wrote:
There is a front cover held on with six screws. To troubleshoot, I didn’t need to remove it.
With both AC s running, the front (the one tripping) measured 130 degrees with the infrared gun and the rear ac was more like a few degrees above ambient; 85 or so.
When I pulled it out, it was melted and cracked.
Yikes. Good catch on the funny smell.- Or you're near the Salton Sea.
Artum Snowbird wrote:
Just remember that the red dot does not have anything to do with measuring temperature. Most infrared temp guns "look" at a 3" diameter circle at a distance of 12" from the front of the gun. Larger areas the further away the gun is. Just a heads up that the bad connection/breaker could be tho one on either side of the one that the red dot is on.
If you have a laser thermometer, put the dot onto the terminal connections of each breaker. If there is a loose wire, it will show up as heat to the thermometer. The fishy smell could be from the bakelite in the breaker giving off as it heats up.
