Hot plug

[chrismoore701]

You guys are great. I will be going shopping soon to get everything replaced. Thanks for the advice. Dog bowl and surge protector will be coming as well

[chrisvandette]

Hello everyone

I just wanted to add my two sense to this whole topic of the pitted cord and some of the other reasons why other than a loose connection at the post you get a melted cord

The greatest thing about camping and the RV’s in belonging to the family or millions of other RV’s who love to do what you love -camp and a few people who tinker and modify there RV’s , main thing , we are one big family , like brothers and sisters and mom and dads and grandparents , everyone has seen different things ,done different thing that make them who they are and what they believe

Sorry for the long speech , 3days of migraines in a row gets to yah , as one of the reason this post was not done sooner

I do not mean to insult or demean anyone in this post , but what I want to in still a knowledge I have learned and you will be the deciders of what you take away from this post

RV dealers are not always fully competent in what they preach when they sell you some thing or service something ,( for the sake of the post I will not go any farther into this but will touch on it later on)

Not every trailer or even the exact same model trailer or motor home will be the same , some RV’s have a option for a built in power management systems for the dual 11000btu air conditioner that kick in when any other heavy appliance is used , I am not sure exactly which appliances or the whole unit is covered by this system , some have hard start or special electronics to keep the a/c running at a lower amp ( read up on it on the escape RV forums) , or even 13.5 or 15k btu a/c (not as much )


I fully have to disagree with a earlier statement given that the a/c electric water heater and coffee maker or microwave should run fine on a 30amp breaker , they may not fully understand the actual electrical loads involved , anyone running there RV on a generator or solar/inverter system would have probably done a load calculation on what there Rv actually uses for power

Before the comments and such start please let me explain

Just to start with I checked the appliance amp draw on the appliance and I did testing my self plus also referenced to the appliance manufacture web site and several good web sites ,



Let’s start with the air conditioners only listing a 13.5k and 15k standard units

13.5k draws anywhere from 12.8 to 15 amps , then on start up they pull in excess for 18- 30amp for a couple seconds ,depending on how hot they are , what voltage (110 vs 120) and if they have the hard start system or the power management system listed on the escape trailer forum which is listed for any RVer to btu - not just for escape trailer

15k draws 15-18 amps and 22-30plus amps on start up


Now onto the microwave that most people don’t understand there ratings

The 900 watt (7.5 amps ) does not actually pulls 7.5 amps

The 900 watt is what the heater (microwave )it self needs , this does not include the turn plate motor and the light and what power the circuit board takes

Your 900 watt micro wave can actually take up to 1500 plus watts or 12.5 amps , not including surge start up amps

Now let’s talk about the the 6 gallon electric propane water heater , it has a 1400watt electric element that pulls 11.7 amp

FYI ,Did you know that the same propane/electric hot water tank will recover 10.2gph on propane and only 6gph on electric - read your product manual and go online and look up the specs on your unit you will be surprised

So with a RV running a 13.5k btu a/c , hot water cycling and you decide to microwave running , your total is 12.8amps -a/c, 12.5 amp for the micro wave , 11.7 amps for your electric propane hot water , your at 35 amps 5 AMPS Over what your cord in rated and I didn’t include a 900-1400watt coffee maker

So everyone is now calling this bs , don’t forget your inverter charger uses 2-3 amp just to top up the batteries on a trickle charge run the propane detector and lp detector and your DVD radio plus any lights you have on

Now your 13.5k a/c cycles , it draws a extra 10-20 amps for a second, your now 15 to 25 amps over the cord limit - 55 amp are instantly drawn for a second or 2 running through your 30 amp cord

Let’s makes this even worse , you turned your fridge to electric also , it uses between 3-5 amps ,

So let’s specifically show the amps in the scenario listed in the comments earlier that specifically said run the a/c and hot water on electric and coffee maker

13.5 a/c ~ 12.5 amps -depending the the model and other factors listed above
Hot water -11.7 amp on electric
Inverter converter- 3 amps not including any tv or vcr or laptop plugged charging
900 watt coffee make -7.5 amps while cycling

Total if the ac is actively running , hot water active , inverter on , no phantom loads (TVs etc that use power even when turned off) , coffee make brewing a pot

So the active draw is at this moment is

12.5+11.7+3+7.5 = 34.7 amps 4.7 amps over your cords rated power

Coffee goes off you back down to 27.2 close to the cords max power ,

Now a real pickle , your a/c cycles off the back on , your coffee pot heats up again , your load jumps to 59.7 amp for a couple seconds , you do this for a hour and poof , whether or not your cord plush is loose you just cooked your plug cord and could have fried your whole cord , I leVe the dramatics or other worse case to someone else

29.7 amps above what your RV cord is rated for , just .3amps under twice what the cord is rated for

By now I’am lost a few people and others are arguing my numbers , do your own research and find out yourself how accurate I am

If you run your a/c , please only run 1 other major appliance ( electric hot water , microwave or cooler maker ) at once

And to make matters worse if your power coming into your Rv is only 110 volts ,sorry to say the amps of very device goes up

Amps is taking the watts decided by the voltage and this gives you amps

Amps = watts dived by voltage

Let’s take the 900 watt coffee pot at 120volts - super great park power
You get 900 divided by 120 which is 7.5 amps

So now the park is busy
Let take the same 900 watt coffer pot at 110 volts -ok but not great
You get 900 divided by 110 which is 8.1 amp

Your coffee maker now draws 0.6 amps more
Figure this for all your electrical draws and ouch your way over your 30 amp

I only run my fridge on propane, my hot water on propane , coffee maker is a Colman propane coffee maker when I run my a/c and microwave plus tv etc and inverter charger are the only things that draw power from the power post

Yes I use more propane , but I have never over loaded or burnt a plug in my 25 plus years of rv life , get faster hot water , never have to worry my fridge will get a power drown out and burn up

If you want to run all they things get a 50amp couch/ unit

Sorry for the long post

Any questions let me now

Hopefully this post helped enlighten a few people , it sure did when I learned it

[Fire&Ice]

You are absolutely correct in your analysis other than when I said coffee maker I mean French press. No self respecting coffee drinker would use an electric device All kidding a side, my original statement of the RV circuit was engineered to handle it was flawed in that you can overload the 30 amp circuit by having too many large electrical devices on in your RV at once which will trip a breaker. Split up heavy amp draw loads between gas and electric if you can. I always use the eighty percent rule in that I don't want to pull no more than eighty percent on a breaker than it is rated for.