Outlet blown

[dayshe]

Hi, I was using a hair dryer and an electric heater in one outlet by the frig- terrible idea!! I blew the outlet and have run out of ideas how to fix.. Breakers on and off..no change, tested all fuses -( except the 40's) and all are ok. Tried re-set on GFI on outside outlet..no change. Any ideas? Thank you in advance..

[steve dunham]

The receptacle is 120 VAC and is protected by a circuit breaker.
The trailers 12 VDC system is protected by fuses.
A blown fuse in your 12 VDC system has no effect on your 120 VAC system

[dayshe]

Thanks Steve..the circuit breaker did not trip..I did turn it off and on with no effect.

[War Eagle]

Have you tried other outlets to see what all in the camper still works or not? Perhaps isolate the problem to one side of the camper or the other, front versus back? Depending on the wiring, perhaps another GFI on the same circuit has knocked out the whole circuit. I've not heard of that in Escapes, but I have heard of such in campers from other manufacturers.

[Vermilye]

Originally Posted by dayshe

Thanks Steve..the circuit breaker did not trip..I did turn it off and on with no effect.

If shutting off & resetting the circuit breaker doesn't solve the problem, you may have damaged the electrical connections at the receptacle or breaker panel. I'd visually check both ends, including the neutral connection at the breaker panel (with the power off, including the inverter if you have one).

Loose or burned wiring should be cleaned up & reconnected. If the receptacle or breaker connector is burned or discolored, replacement is also a good idea. If you are not comfortable with digging into the electrical systems, find an electrician.

If the receptacle is on a whole house inverter circuit, you need to check the inverter & transfer switch as well.

[steve dunham]

Just flipping the circuit breaker on and off will not necessarily reset the breaker . Put the breaker in the off position then push down firmly on the breaker handle in order to reset the breaker. Then put the breaker handle in the on position.
One more thing to check is the terminations on the receptacle.
If the receptacle was backwired , the spring clips terminations may be bad . If that is the case , replace the receptacle using the screw terminals.
A standard circuit breaker is an overcurrent device and does not provide GFCI protection.
A GFCI is a personnal protection Device and does NOT provide overcurrent protection
They are designed to perform two totally different functions and are not interchangeable.

[gmchamplin]

Originally Posted by dayshe

Hi, I was using a hair dryer and an electric heater in one outlet by the frig- terrible idea!! I blew the outlet and have run out of ideas how to fix.. Breakers on and off..no change, tested all fuses -( except the 40's) and all are ok. Tried re-set on GFI on outside outlet..no change. Any ideas? Thank you in advance..

What exactly happened when the outlet "blew"?
Did you hear anything?
Did you smell anything?
Did everything suddenly stop working, or was it a progression?

[dayshe]

It was a sudden stop in power..no smell or sound..

[Donna D.]

Been there, done that! But in my case it was the microwave and cube heater.

If you have an on board surge protector, there's a breaker box as the power comes into the trailer. On Ten Forward, there are two breakers in a gray box under the dinette (drivers side). I had a self-inflicted wound, and lost all outlet power to the trailer. Flipping all the breakers and reset on the GFI did no good. Turned out the breaker itself was bad (it never flipped off). Replaced that breaker (<$10 at Lowes) and I have power everywhere.

[rubicon327]

Assuming 1500W space heater and 1500W hair dryer on high you would be approaching 25A on what I presume is a 15A circuit. Is anything else in the trailer not working that might be on the same circuit? If yes, then I would definitely suspect the breaker. If the circuit was really overloaded, which it sounds like it was, the breaker should have tripped to protect the wiring. Doesn't sound like it did its job and you are lucky it just shut off without incident. I would follow Jon's advice above and check both the outlet and breaker and all connections. Safest bet is with trailer unplugged and using your 12V lights or other worklight to see. If you are not comfortable with electric I would have an electrician look at it.

[thoer]

For whatever reason, I had more breakers go bad recently than I ever experienced in the past. I don't know if they are being made more cheaply or I've just had some bad luck with them.

[ThomasG]

An AC outlet tester (such as: http://a.co/iNE7IoO) is a handy and cheap way to help diagnose power problems. You can get them at almost any big box home improvement store, hardware store, etc.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by thoer

For whatever reason, I had more breakers go bad recently than I ever experienced in the past. I don't know if they are being made more cheaply or I've just had some bad luck with them.

Thankfully they are standard household breakers and readily available. When I put a new 15A breaker in for my mini-split AC mod I found it at Home Depot. Here is a listing from the WFCO power center manual:

[thoer]

rubicon - yes they are and I should have been more clear. None went bad in our Escape, its been in our home and garage.

[dayshe]

Thank you to everyone who has posted a reply to my question on the forum! I will be tinkering this weekend with various options and will let you all know what works..

[richardr]

While on the subject of outlets, how many outlet circuits are there and which outlets are on which circuits (I'm especially interested in the 21')? Has anyone requested additional outlet circuits? We are not getting the electric water heater option, so I expect we will have at least one unused circuit breaker.

I'm expecting the additional outlets I request are wired into the same circuit as the nearby outlets. Is this true?

[War Eagle]

Good question. I think I recall a previous thread where an owner said wiring diagrams for Escapes are hard to come by. While I don't know about Escapes, some manufacturers, in addition to dedicated circuits to big draw items (ex. electric water heater) will run one circuit down the street side of the camper, and another circuit down the curb side. So if a breaker blows, the whole side goes. I'll be curious to follow this tread and see what current owners who have dug into it have to say about how Escape lays out their circuits.

[freespirit]

Originally Posted by richardr

While on the subject of outlets, how many outlet circuits are there and which outlets are on which circuits (I'm especially interested in the 21')? Has anyone requested additional outlet circuits? We are not getting the electric water heater option, so I expect we will have at least one unused circuit breaker.

I'm expecting the additional outlets I request are wired into the same circuit as the nearby outlets. Is this true?

assuming this is what ETI is still using on the 2017 trailers ...the WFCO 8955 convertor has 5 120VAC branch circuits, 9 - 12V 20A DC and 2 - 12V 30A DC circuits...some of which are used depending on what your options are and what's standard...
sent a blank circuit schedule to ETI to see how they wire it for standard devices and with preferred optional devices... waiting on a reply.

probably best to specify what you want to see if they will do it.

[cpaharley2008]

If my memory serves me, the 5 circuits are broken down into 2 for the a/c and microwave, one for converter, and 2x 15amp outlet circuits. Normally extra outlets are piggy backed off existing ones.

[Kountrykamper]

If i remember correct its
Main
Converter
A/C
Microwave
Water Heater
Refrigerator
Plugs
Plugs

They use the small half size breakers so 2 fit in one slot. I was able to add a breaker on our 19 and separate more of the outlets.