Okay, so on my 1991 Newell, last week I plugged in to shorepower and when I switched to shorepower inside I heard chattering from the back. I replaced both contactors in the transfer box, but now when I plug to shore power, it'll blow the fuse in the transfer box as soon as I switch to shorepower inside the coach. And even the generator won't supply power now. Today, after searching, I decided to pull the washer out and what I discovered was where the braided SS hose that supplies hot water was touching the back of the machine, it had shorted out and burned through the SS onto the metal backing plate. It wasn't burned on the inside and nothing else on the washer was damaged. I followed the copper pipe and didn't see any obvious contact points, so any ideas what or where I might look?
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You either have an issue inside the transfer switch since the case should not have any electric charge on it so touching a braided stainless hose should not have caused an issue OR the braided hose was in contact with current at some other point also.
Looking at the photo, I don't see any visible damage inside the transfer switch. An electric arch between the case and the hose should have caused a breaker to at least partially trip in the main 120 Volt AC breaker panel in your bedroom. I would shut off all power, including the inverter and charger then carefully examine the inside of the manual transfer switch to insure that all connections are tight and there is no sign of a short inside the transfer switch. You have the main relays that switch power from shorepower to generator and on my 1992 attached to the side of them are smaller clear relays that are designed to prevent both circuits from being energized at the same time but I don't see them in your photo. Pay close attention to any chaffing of the electric wires coming through the rear of the box. If the insulationh as rubbed off there or if the clamp fitting on the back was tightened so much that it cracked the insulation, you could get a flow of current to the transfer box itself which would be a very dangerous situation.
If everything in the TXfer box checks OK you may want to check the washer for issues. There could be a short that was grounding through the braided hose. Also check receptacle where washer plugs into. Follow that electric line clear back to the breaker box.
Additionally , Check the shore power ...Do you have a Surge protector inline? I am not an electrician but I'm concerned that the braided hose may have been providing a ground to the chassis that is now not available. Be very careful about touching coach while you are grounded..
If you don't have one this tool may be helpful:
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Contact-Volta...ent+sensor
Check the continuity on the coils of the xfer switch. If the coil was going the. That would explain the chatter. You said you replaced the contacts but I did not know if that meant the coils too. If you replaced the coils then double check your wiring
I have been plugged into this shorepower before without issue. The contactors are both new so I assume that means the coils are too. I have all the breakers off and the fuse will still blow when I switch to shorepower inside the coach. I'm having an electrician look at it today and hopefully it turns out to be something simple.
When you say breakers, are you referring to the 120 volt AC breakers inside the coach or the breaker for the incoming power? Is the fuse that is blowing when you switch to shorepower the one on the transfer switch? I have seen the connections in the power cord plug get loose and cause issues. You might check that out.
just for grins, if you a voltmeter from the washer hose connection to the frame do you measure any AC or DC voltage
(08-12-2016, 09:10 AM)Fulltiming Wrote: [ -> ]When you say breakers, are you referring to the 120 volt AC breakers inside the coach or the breaker for the incoming power? Is the fuse that is blowing when you switch to shorepower the one on the transfer switch? I have seen the connections in the power cord plug get loose and cause issues. You might check that out.
The breakers inside the coach and yes, it's the fuse on the transfer switch controlling the shore power that keeps blowing. I did check the power cord and it checked out. The 30amp adapter was suspect so I changed that but nothing improved. I took apart the old contractor and the neutral was had the most burn damage, so maybe the old adapter had somehow electrified the neutral?
I asked an electrician friend to stop by on his way to a job for his opinion. With no power and all breakers off, he used a Continuity meter and found that when the breaker for the W/D was the only one on, there was continuity between the W/D plugs red wire & water pipe and black wire & water pipe, but off there is none. Now with all the breakers off, including the W/D, he flipped each breaker on, one by one, to see if there would be any reaction in the W/D plug wires/water pipe. 7 of the breakers made the continuity meter light up at W/D plug, but he thought some of that might be because of appliances, tv's or items plugged into outlets around the coach. Unfortunately that's all he could offer today, and being that I'm not an electrician, I'm not sure that what he found is something unusual or not.
Did I mention that now the generator won't supply power to the coach either?
You need to break this down to individual sections and check them out. At this point I would disconnect the wires from the W/D at the breaker box. Gordon can chime in here but I believe there is a breaker on the generator that would assure it is totally disconnected from system. I would turn that off as well. Then install new fuse in TXfer box and test again.
Wear your shock resistant rubber soled shoes while working on it.
Do you have an electric water heater in this coach?
(08-13-2016, 05:07 AM)HoosierDaddy Wrote: [ -> ]You need to break this down to individual sections and check them out. At this point I would disconnect the wires from the W/D at the breaker box. Gordon can chime in here but I believe there is a breaker on the generator that would assure it is totally disconnected from system. I would turn that off as well. Then install new fuse in TXfer box and test again.
Wear your shock resistant rubber soled shoes while working on it.
Do you have an electric water heater in this coach?
Checking it by sections is what I planned to do. There is a breaker on the generator and the water heater is electric as well.
So if the neutral was hot for a split second, could it have essentially electrified the entire coach looking for the easiest ground which happened to be the SS hose behind the W/D, which could explain why that was burnt. And then using that line of thinking, could it have fried something else that was plugged into an outlet which created a short that is now causing the fuse to keep blowing? And could that explain why turning all the breakers off doesn't help?