No Power To Some 120 VAC Outlets

[lbcsafari]

Hi I need some advice.

About half of my power outlets don't work and the fridge does not work. I checked fuses and found one blown large fuse under the bed in the rear. I replaced the blown fuse, but still found no power.

Then I checked beakers in the breaker panel and on the inverter, and found none blown.

Then I checked the power switch by the front entry and found still no power. Where do I go next?

2001 safari zanzibar

[abyrd]

If you have a 50 amp power cord, It sounds like you have lost one of the hot legs. I would disconnect your power cord and check the voltage at your power source.

Jim

[lbcsafari]

I am just running my generator, I am looking to run the fridge while driving before plug in at a park.

[wolfe10]

Look for a GFI that is tripped.

If not a GFI, look ON, repeat ON the inverter for a breaker.

Can you confirm that all the outlets that do not have power are off the inverter?

[huffypuff]

Had the wife plug in the coffee maker, a tea pot and a toaster at the same time. Yep it popped a breaker on the inverter. There are 2 of them outgoing and one incoming power.

[lbcsafari]

I checked the one GFI that I could find, it was OK.

I have read that some coaches have two, I can only find one, I check the inverter and the two breakers were OK.

And I don't know how to tell if outlets are from the inverter.

[RodgerS]

Sounds like it is time to switch from plug and play, to doing some troubleshooting.

So, you may want to consider calling in a mobile technician, unless you are in

Northern California, and can swing by my place. RodgerS.

[wolfe10]

Concerning "are these all things supplied by the inverter": If, in the past they have worked when you are not on shore power or generator on, they ARE supplied by the inverter.

What you are looking for is "WHAT POINT ALL THE OUTLETS THAT DO NOT WORK HAVE IN COMMON".

[lbcsafari]

The outlets that are out are all down the pass side, the fridge, on pass side and the two lights on the slide out in the rear

[abyrd]

Please clarify if have power when on the generator but not when connected to shore power of if you have no power at all on the affected circuits.

Jim

[lbcsafari]

I have never been connected to shore power, only running the generator

[wolfe10]

Again, your job is to determine what all those circuits have in common.

Do both A/C's work? If not turn OFF and back ON the two breakers on the generator.

If they do, keep going "downstream" until you find the common failure point.

[lbcsafari]

I agree I need to find the common point. Both a/c work, I have cycled both breakers on the inverter.

[abyrd]

Without having a wiring diagram it is difficult to trouble shoot. I found on my 2004 Holiday Rambler Endeavor that they uses outlets that where the wires just pushed in the back of the outlets and overtime some of the connections failed. You may find a high resistance connection in one of the outlets closest to the circuit breaker causing all outlets down stream to fail. You might want to invest in one of the wire testers that imposes a signal on a wire and you can chase the circuit unit you no longer detect the signal. You can purchase them from Home Depot or Lowes, not too expensive.

Jim

[lbcsafari]

Thank you for all of the advise, we are leaving on a road trip tomorrow morning, I don't have time to look into it right now, we just bought a mini fridge for the trip. I will update this once I figure out what's going on, thanks again

Kevin

[wolfe10]

Kevin,

You should easily be able to run 12 VDC to the back of the refrigerator. Then your RV refrigerator can at least run on propane. And, with extension cord on 120 VAC as well.

[HaroldRice]

Check for gf recept. In bathroom

[grmtrad]

I had a similar problem when I ran my generator after an oil change while plugged into 30 amp shore power. After I shut the generator down, I had no refrigerator ac power. Also, there was no ac power to the inverter. I'm not sure what other ac functions were dead. Most of them were working. This is in a 1998 American Tradition which has a Heart Interface inverter which also handles the switching function between generator and shore power. What I found was a stuck relay that does the switching between generator and shore power. The relay apparently pulled in when I started the generator to switch over to generator power. When I shut down the generator, the contacts were "welded" together and did not release to allow the relay to switch over to shore power. I manually broke the contacts lose and all was well.

Look for the generator/shore power switching relay and see if it is stuck. If you find it, you can shut down the generator and be disconnected from shore power and use an insulated screw driver a non-conducting probe to manually engage the relay to see if it is stuck. If it is, you should be able to break it loose. If it was stuck, you might want to get a burnishing tool and clean the contacts. BE CAREFUL LOOKING AROUND THAT AREA, IT IS HIGH VOLTAGE (120 V).

Jerry

[wolfe10]

Jerry,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

Yes, the ATS (Automatic Transfer Switch) could have failed.

And as you mention, there is a built-in ATS in the inverter (called "pass through feature" by most inverter manufacturers). That is why I asked if only inverted-supplied circuits are out or if everything supplied by one of the hot legs is out.

[grmtrad]

I made an error in the description of the problem that I had. I said that I did not have ac power to the inverter. What I should have said is that I did not have ac power to the battery charger (which in my case is an internal function of the Heart Interface inverter). Sorry about the error. I hope it did not cause any confusion since inverters do not need ac power, they produce ac power.

Jerry

[RodgerS]

I'm pretty sure the responders understood that the power is provided by the DC source, otherwise

they would not have been providing advice to you.

They would have also understood that 12 VDC is the source for smaller consumer and commercial inverters and

that they typically run from a rechargeable 12 V lead acid battery.

Should have been a minor error.

A few future contextual thoughts.

​Your MH has three electrical systems, and multiple actual and potential power sources. Not only should you

have a basic understanding of electricity, you need to understand these three systems and the potential power sources to

power these systems.

You should be able to draw these out for yourself so you have a basic chart to refer to when you have problems. This

would be much more simpler than your relevant wiring diagrams. See some examples on the internet.

It can be very hard to do troubleshooting via emails relative to the owners knowledge and electrical skills, and yes their problem statement.

I prefer being there with the owner so I can ask some contextual questions before I starting thinking about solutions.

I try not to assume that the problem statement is good enough to start with - that what the owner was doing, for example, before the

problem started may change the solution path.

An example of the difficulty of email consulting was where an owner stated he had checked the fuses. Later on it turned out the problem was with one of the fuses. It is a lot easier to ask someone to orally explain how they checked the fuses and what fuses they checked and the location of the fuses they checked, than to do the give and take in an email...and then recheck them if appropriate.

But, I applaud those who want to be helpful and provide email advice. I hope you have found the responders advice helpful.

Note: it can take quite a bit of writing to explain how to check fuses and the various tools you can use and how to use those tools.

[manholt]

grmtrad.

Have you charged your batteries by a external charger, if not do it. Then see if Inverter works as intended.

Carl

[wolfe10]

Jerry,

You do not say what Xantrex inverter/charger you have, but the majority work like this:

120 VAC in from main coach breaker panel. When the inverter/charger sees 120 VAC (shore power OR generator), it does TWO things:

1. "Pass through" feature-- it passes that 120 VAC along to all circuits wired from the "out" side of the inverter (often, but not always through a sub-panel). There are two breakers ON THE INVERTER itself that can be tripped. And, if the circuits powered by the inverter are GFI protected (i.e. there are one or more GFI outlets) the GFI can be tripped as well.

2. The other thing the inverter/charger does when it sees 120 VAC is activate the battery charger function-- starting in bulk mode (14.0- 14.5 VDC), then tapering off to float mode (13.2-13.5 VDC). Yes, if batteries are very deeply discharged (below high 11's) the charger section may not work and you may need to use an auxiliary charger to bring voltage up.

Assume you have a Xantrex remove panel. Please tell us what information it gives you and what the readings are on each.