An AC teaching moment, maybe.
I keep one of those little 3 LED test plugs in the 110 volt outlet next to my electrical panel. Primarily, it serves as an AC pilot light but it’s also comforting to know that AC passes a basic test as I’ve encountered some funky marina wiring.
Today, after a lot of work getting into a very difficult slip in the wind, I plugged in shore power looking forward to a shower with good hot water. The tester showed red and green, “Hot Neutral”. I took it out and plugged it into the shore power stand and it showed just one green “Open Neutral”.
I went up to the office and told them they might have a problem. They told me to use the next dock. That was “Open Neutral”. They then offered me an extension cord to reach the dock shack. Just for grins, I checked that standard 3 prong outlet and it was also bad. Every outlet on the dock showed the same.
I went up to the office again and got the proper reading of two greens on an outlet there. They came down and plugged a light bulb into the stand and it lit. They asked what my problem was. I said I couldn’t remember all the ins and outs but was nervous about plugging a boat into a circuit with a bad indication. They called an electrician who showed up much sooner than I would have thought.
He was an old guy and he whipped out a bulb on an adaptor and it lit. He said, “What’s your problem? We’ve got 110 volts. That’s all we care about here.”
I showed him my tester and he said, “Oh, those things were made illegal in 2002. Around salt water you have to have a $70 digital unit that is only good for a year and has a date stamp on it. I don’t even have one, I just borrow one whenever I have to be re-certified. There can’t be anything wrong with the neutral or the bulb wouldn’t light.”
I plugged in. The marina now thinks I’m a nut case. The weird thing is, my tester now reads properly.
I’ve used these things for years and never had a false reading. Could it be flakey? Did all that flipping of breakers and plugging and unplugging jar something in the shore power stand? I’m stumped.
I keep one of those little 3 LED test plugs in the 110 volt outlet next to my electrical panel. Primarily, it serves as an AC pilot light but it’s also comforting to know that AC passes a basic test as I’ve encountered some funky marina wiring.
Today, after a lot of work getting into a very difficult slip in the wind, I plugged in shore power looking forward to a shower with good hot water. The tester showed red and green, “Hot Neutral”. I took it out and plugged it into the shore power stand and it showed just one green “Open Neutral”.
I went up to the office and told them they might have a problem. They told me to use the next dock. That was “Open Neutral”. They then offered me an extension cord to reach the dock shack. Just for grins, I checked that standard 3 prong outlet and it was also bad. Every outlet on the dock showed the same.
I went up to the office again and got the proper reading of two greens on an outlet there. They came down and plugged a light bulb into the stand and it lit. They asked what my problem was. I said I couldn’t remember all the ins and outs but was nervous about plugging a boat into a circuit with a bad indication. They called an electrician who showed up much sooner than I would have thought.
He was an old guy and he whipped out a bulb on an adaptor and it lit. He said, “What’s your problem? We’ve got 110 volts. That’s all we care about here.”
I showed him my tester and he said, “Oh, those things were made illegal in 2002. Around salt water you have to have a $70 digital unit that is only good for a year and has a date stamp on it. I don’t even have one, I just borrow one whenever I have to be re-certified. There can’t be anything wrong with the neutral or the bulb wouldn’t light.”
I plugged in. The marina now thinks I’m a nut case. The weird thing is, my tester now reads properly.
I’ve used these things for years and never had a false reading. Could it be flakey? Did all that flipping of breakers and plugging and unplugging jar something in the shore power stand? I’m stumped.
