No power to outlets on Essex

[Jim]

I have a friend staying at the park and today they lost all power to the outlets in their 2017 Essex. They do have power to the stove and the HVAC.

Sindy has reset all of the breakers with no success.

It does seem a bit strange but she has one outlet in the bathroom that is working, so she plugged the refrigerator into that outlet. Anyone has any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Kevin D Pem]

To many people think they have reset the breakers when they haven't flipped them into the off position first to reset them.

 

[TheLooks]

Look for Ground Fault outlets. Check the neutrals in the breaker box, plugs, and pedestal. Check the hot side also.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

Check the shore power breaker - be sure that one side of it hasn't flipped.

 

[Sealyn]

Check push button circuit breakers on inverter. This is a common issue when too many appliances are plugged in. Portable heater, coffee maker, hair dryer etc.

 

[Jim]

Most of the above I have checked. Have not checked the circuit breakers on inverter but I'll do that tomorrow morning.

So here is where we are, and it's a bit strange.

I had Sindy turn off the power at the pedestal to see if the outlets would work with the inverter on. But the inverter wouldn't come on. Turned on the generator and got power to the coach, all except for the outlets. HVAC works, but no outlets. Well, no outlets except the one in the bathroom, which for some reason was and still is working.

Turned off the generator and plugged back into the pedestal and suddenly the Bully Dog gives us a red light to indicate a bad or missing natural. Unplugged the Bully Dog and plugged into pedestal next door, and now Bully Dog is happy, but still no change inside the coach.

The owner of the Essex spoke with a friend, who is an electrician, and he seems to feel that there is a fried appliance that is sending power back down the neutral wire.

So that's where we are. I tested the pedestal and I'm getting 115 off each leg, but even so, the Bully Dog is still unhappy. I will pull the 50 amp breaker out tomorrow and take a look at it.

I'm wondering if the appliance theory is possible, and if so, maybe the 110 going through the neutral could have shorted/dislodged the neutral where it connects to the breaker, causing the Bully Dog grief.

 

[TheLooks]

Given that you have plugged into another pedestal and it worked, you have not ruled out the original pedestal yet. Go to the outlets that don't work and test them to a known ground. Test both sides of the outlet. There should be no voltage on the wider blade side as it is the neutral. If wired correctly. Do you have one of the cheap plug in testers? The ones that light up and tell you the status of the plug and wiring? What is the voltage on the hot side of the outlets to a good ground? There is a clue somewhere in there.

 

[Jim]

Given that you have plugged into another pedestal and it worked, you have not ruled out the original pedestal yet.

No, not completely. But I'm doubting that the pedestal is the problem with the inside outlets or they would have come on when we plugged into the pedestal next door.

But yes, all good stuff above. Too late tonight to go any further but I will regroup in the morning.

 

[Kevin D Pem]

The one bath outlet is on one GFIC but we know there is more than one. If an appliance fails to ground the GFIC would trip. The electrician may be spot on, but the problem would be more likely GFIC issues, not neutral issues.

 

[MemoriesByTheMile]

We had an issue with our bully dog complaining about a pedestal. Tested pedestal with DMM and it appeared to be fine.
But bully dog would shut it down. So I had a new unit shipped under warranty. It would not work either (so I sent the new one back).
Also noticed that one of our inverters was showing an error red light.

Could not determine what was wrong - so I added this to my list of things to be fixed on the next trip to the mothership.

After leaving that campground a couple months later, bully dog was happy but that red light would not go away. A bit later due to some other maintenance we decided to shut EVERYTHING down and reboot it all. Shutdown the Coach lithium battery system and BMS, inverters, truck battery, no shore power, even the salesman switch.

After the full reboot, that inverter red light went away.

After reading more about our load balancing switch and how it was configured, I realize that if it weren’t for that load balance we would have had many outlets not working. But that load balancer took the load on the single inverter. Which made me realize why the breaker blew on an inverter once.

The key learning for me - disconnecting from that campground power was not enough - the inverter would not reset itself until after a complete power down.

Don’t know if that helps in this situation or not.