Shore Power - SmartPlug vs. Circa 1938

[Maine Sail]

Hi All,

I have finally opened up my article on the SmartPlug vs. the circa 1938 twist-lock standard.

I know many had emailed me for access before it was done but wanted to let everyone know it is now open without a password..

Some slight tweaks will still take place but for the most part it is 90%..

Shore Power - SmartPlug vs. Circa 1938 Twist-Lock

 

[Tim R.]

I'm sold. Order me two! Wait, already did this upgrade last year. Living aboard I consider this upgrade a no brainer. How much is my family's life worth? A lot more than the few hundred it cost me to install two Smartplug receptacles and new cords.

 

[Ted]

Looks like a nice product but it seems to address only half the potential problem. Doesn't the SmartPlug still use a Circa 1938 design on the shore side?

 

[justsomeguy]

Looks like a nice product but it seems to address only half the potential problem. Doesn't the SmartPlug still use a Circa 1938 design on the shore side?

Yabutt, it's not on your boat.

 

[Maine Sail]

Looks like a nice product but it seems to address only half the potential problem. Doesn't the SmartPlug still use a Circa 1938 design on the shore side?

The final testing & approvals are underway for the dock side but the process is far longer than the boat side. The NEC, NFPA, MEMA etc. etc. and it just take time. They are hoping to be shipping dock pedestal end later this year..

The SmartPlug now finally got NEC, NFPA and NEMA approvals to move forward on testing on the actual products. This is underway now and is the easy part but just slow. Getting the standards to accept a new plug was the biggest part of the battle.

That said the boat side is almost always the worst offender and the place that would burn your boat not just a dock pedestal. Fixing 50% of a dangerous problem is still 50% better or much better, if it saved your boat from burning up..

 

[Ted]

SmartPlug vs Circa 1938

Yabutt, it's not on your boat.

Yea, I know but I'm just stirring the pot a little. My dock is wood and burns too.

 

[gettinthere]

How does this compare to the 50 amp 220 volt connector also in use today?

 

[Maine Sail]

How does this compare to the 50 amp 220 volt connector also in use today?

Same issues just more current... The 50A 220V is slightly less prone to side loading but they still melt down and have very little contact surface area.....

 

[gettinthere]

Same issues just more current... The 50A 220V is slightly less prone to side loading but they still melt down and have very little contact surface area.....

Oh great.
Well I've been underloading my system from day one with no burning at all...so far.

What amazes me is that in all my travels, I've seen only one dockside pedistal with threads at the 30 amp connector for the locking ring.
All my pedistal end connectors have a piece of line to tie them off so they dont hang crooked and untwisted.

It will take a huge effort to get pedistals at marinas changed over. Interesting dilemma.

Nice writeup MS

 

[Maine Sail]

Oh great.
Well I've been underloading my system from day one with no burning at all...so far.

What amazes me is that in all my travels, I've seen only one dockside pedistal with threads at the 30 amp connector for the locking ring.
All my pedistal end connectors have a piece of line to tie them off so they dont hang crooked and untwisted.

It will take a huge effort to get pedistals at marinas changed over. Interesting dilemma.

Nice writeup MS

Under loading the twist-locks is about the safest way to use them. ... Changing out dock pedestals will certainly be an uphill battle but some insurance companies are now offering discounts to members using SmartPlugs so once the approvals are in perhaps they will be offering discounts to marinas they insure..

 

[justsomeguy]

Yea, I know but I'm just stirring the pot a little. My dock is wood and burns too.

 

[gettinthere]

Lets see,
I have 2 50' 30 amp cords and 1 12'.
I have a 30 amp Y cord
I have a 50 to 30 amp Y cord.
I have 2 30 amp inlets
I have a 30 amp twist on my honda generator

I cruise full time so I will need hubbell twists for a long time to come for all the marinas that don't convert.

Heres an idea...mandate 20 amp breakers at all pedistals with the 30 amp twistlocks as a safety margin because of these obvious problems.

 

[Maine Sail]

Lets see,
I have 2 50' 30 amp cords and 1 12'.
I have a 30 amp Y cord
I have a 50 to 30 amp Y cord.
I have 2 30 amp inlets
I have a 30 amp twist on my honda generator

I cruise full time so I will need hubbell twists for a long time to come for all the marinas that don't convert.

Heres an idea...mandate 20 amp breakers at all pedistals with the 30 amp twistlocks as a safety margin because of these obvious problems.

Sounds like you just need a couple of 30A inlets and a couple of 30A retro fit plugs and the boat end is fixed...

 

[Charles Erwin]

How many shore-side failures vs. boat-side fails?

I cannot find any data concerning shore side fails. Just about all of the chronicled fails (according to the expert d'jour in popular publications and in other forums) are at the boat side.

Can we conclude boat-side fails are a far more serious threat and that shore-side fails are relatively rare?

Anyhow sign me up for the boat side setup - pronto.

Charles

 

[Maine Sail]

How many shore-side failures vs. boat-side fails?

I cannot find any data concerning shore side fails. Just about all of the chronicled fails (according to the expert d'jour in popular publications and in other forums) are at the boat side.

Can we conclude boat-side fails are a far more serious threat and that shore-side fails are relatively rare?

Anyhow sign me up for the boat side setup - pronto.

Charles

I have seen only a couple of melts at the pedestal end. The vast majority are boat end.. If I had to shoot from the hip I guess 80-85% are at the boat end.. People often "wrap" the pedestal with a shore cord thus relieving strain at the plug if the cord gets tugged on. But the boat end rarely gets anywhere near the same level of protection or support to the plug..

The twist lock inlet covers also rarely get properly closed when a boat leaves the dock. It then gets salt misted or doused with ocean spay where the pedestal end dies not..

 

[4arch]

I’m sold on this design but I wonder how it’s all going to play out with a proprietary design going up against some of the bigger players who for now are sticking with the twist-lock. If the SmartPlug folks don’t license or open source their design it may eventually drive the others to introduce their own alternatives. It would be very frustrating – and ultimately not in the best interest of the consumer – to have several competing proprietary connectors in the marketplace.

I also think it would help speed adoption if the pricing could be brought into line with twist-lock gear. The insurance discounts are great, but for the majority of boaters who won’t know or care about the discounts and the advantages of the SmartPlug they are just going to pick what’s cheapest and what matches what they have when they’re standing at the chandlery with their charred twist-lock.

 

[DougM]

I like the plug design and the receptacle, Even though its cheap insurance overall, those things are expensive for what they are. That said, I will still end up purchasing.
I looked on this site this morning and they were temporarily out of stock.

I have a feeling that it's going to be a long long time before shore side receptacles become common. I really would like to replace the shore side on my personal dock box which is presently under a couple of feet of snow. The power to it got left on over last winter, nothing attached to it, and that resulted in a couple of fried circuit breakers in the dock box. It was a rusty environment inside the breaker box to say the least, and we are nowhere near any salt water. I can only imagine what some of these must look like in salt water marinas.

 

[Maine Sail]

I’m sold on this design but I wonder how it’s all going to play out with a proprietary design going up against some of the bigger players who for now are sticking with the twist-lock. If the SmartPlug folks don’t license or open source their design it may eventually drive the others to introduce their own alternatives. It would be very frustrating – and ultimately not in the best interest of the consumer – to have several competing proprietary connectors in the marketplace.

I also think it would help speed adoption if the pricing could be brought into line with twist-lock gear. The insurance discounts are great, but for the majority of boaters who won’t know or care about the discounts and the advantages of the SmartPlug they are just going to pick what’s cheapest and what matches what they have when they’re standing at the chandlery with their charred twist-lock.

This is always the battle when someone actually tries to do something that is SAFER. So far the evidence is overwhelming, so overwhelming that it has actually changed the "standards".

The SmartPlug now has NEC and NEMA approvals to move forward on testing on the actual products, underway now and the easy part. Getting the standards to accept a new plug was the biggest part of the battle.

Companies like Marinco fought this tooth and nail because the "standards" were written for curved pin and locking rings so for a long time Ken could not even have his products tested to the standards, because it was not a piece of crap that use "curved pins" and "locking rings"... They pushed on, persevered and got the standards CHANGED because the product IS safer.........

When insurance companies begin jumping up and down over a product like this so much so that they offer discounts, then the standards orgs simply could look the other way. Easy battle? Absolutely not, but SmartPlug is in it for the long haul..

I should have a list of all the insurance companies offering SP discounts by mid next week and will add the list to my site...

I think what will be necessary for marinas that want to covert are adapters from SP pedestals back to twist lock for boaters who've not changed. Like anything good it takes time, grass roots and a small ball rolling. As the ball rolls it picks up more snow and gets bigger and bigger.... When marina owners start looking out the dock house window and the docks are covered in orange cords they will have to decide if they want to be safe or if they want to continue with an unsafe, substandard, grandfathered left-overs from days gone by or if they want to join the 21st century.......

The ABYC conducted a survey some years ago and discovered that 55% of all boat fires are ELECTRICAL in nature.

Of this 55% it was found that 11% of the 55% of all boat fires started at the AC shore inlet!!!!!

Why do we continue to accept this...???

 

[dj2210]

I installed the boat end (receptacle and plug) on my original twist lock cable and so far like it. It is easy to disconnect but seems secure in place. Attaching the plug to the cable was a breeze.

 

[Maine Sail]

I also think it would help speed adoption if the pricing could be brought into line with twist-lock gear.

Actually the product, at retail, is not far off with twist-lock. You need to ignore MAP pricing and add it to your basket on many sites. On Defender for example a 30A X 50' EEL Marinco cord set is $103.99 and the 30A X 50' SmartPlug cord set is $129.99, a $26.00 difference in price for a LOT more product!!.

That said SmartPlug builds approx 90% of this product here in the good old USA, assembles the product here in the USA using US labor and thus creating, some US jobs. Every little bit helps!! The thermal breaker is made in Germany a country with arguably higher than US wages. Most of the twist-lock guys are outsourcing the entire product to Mexico or offshore manufacturing. Some "twist-lock" cord-sets are specifically brought in from the lowest Chinese bidder... Most twist-locks still don't even use tinned wire..

Also NONE of the twist locks have any thermal protection, AT ALL, so it's not really an apples to apples comparison it is more like comparing Schaefer Beer to a small micro-brewer like Lagunitas.

If anyone thinks Schaefer tastes as good as Lagunitas, then no one can help them.... If anyone thinks twist-locks are as safe as a SmartPlug then no one can help them....

The insurance discounts are great, but for the majority of boaters who won’t know or care about the discounts and the advantages of the SmartPlug they are just going to pick what’s cheapest and what matches what they have when they’re standing at the chandlery with their charred twist-lock.

The insurance discounts will continue even after a SmartPlug is paid for, if your insurance company is one who offers a discount.

Any boater who is picking what is "cheapest", without first doing their homework, tends to get what they get. Some people are willing to plunk down 100+ clams with no research and others will actually try and learn something before doing so.

Hopefully my article, and others like it, will bring awareness to the situation, and awareness of what else is out there, so folks don't make an uneducated decision to buy into a 1938 product never intended for marine applications vs. one designed from the ground up as a marine product. Hopefully this thread will help more boaters make a more educated decision on what is safest for their boat..