Electrical Ghost!!!!!

[robertglines1]

  to share a recent occurrence. On my store bought shore cord 50 amp. The white ground wire decided to fail in side the sealed factory plug.  Hard to diagnose at first.  Low power was first symptom. 113 volts to bus  then 90 then checked supply  119 at box? checked inside again 90? checked breaker box 90?  checked continuity OK??  Got to be problem!Under load---checked connection at breaker in bus(main) weak main? surely not? had extra main changed. 119 light load turned on ac dropped to 90    Checked supply again. OK  ??  started gen set---everything worked good 121 no load everything on 119 ? head slapped  got to be cord----Daaaa  Cut end off  put a new replacement end on all is good.  Cut factory end open and found a poor connection job done during original assembly. Was on the white ground wire. Cost to me electronic control for my lighting and ac control board. $don't know yet as I haven't got into fixing them. PS shore cord had been in use for 5 years.    People wonder why I why to do it myself.  referring to things like building my own shore cords.   Bob

[muldoonman]

Hey Bob, Made in China?

[robertglines1]

came from Elkhart Indiana--Doesn't mean a thing

[Len Silva]

You were exceptionally fortunate in that situation.  An open or weak neutral on a 240 volt circuit is a potential disaster.

As you have found, it can get expensive.  It is usually the low power and probably the most expensive things that fail when the neutral goes bad.  Check all your electronics, TV, entertainment systems etc..

A bad neutral is probably the worse thing that can happen electrically at home or on the road.

[luvrbus]

If it came from one of the surplus stores they probably knew it was bad, I learned that lesson years ago never buy anything electrical from one of those places it works till you get home lol


good luck

[robertglines1]

Len, after your post went and checked; lost surround sound also.  TV- OK couldn't ck sat but light came on(inside steel bldg)  cell/broad- band booster OK. Ice boxes running. So could have been worse. Cord was still in plastic wrap when purchased.Was purchased as new UN- used. Trying to find schematic on Lg ac unit now .Hope it has a simple low power supply reset.    Tried to over ride lighting control panel;no luck but good news remote hand held units still work so might have to engage that part of brain to figure out problem.  Bob

[bigjohnkub]

I lost the neutral ground if my home Friday at 3am. Lights came on, T.V. came on, ceiling fan tried to fly out roof, smoke everywhere. Very scary for my wife and myself. Bottom line , anything with a voltage transformer, touch pad , or remote fried. We have repaired problem, checked every appliance, and called Insurance co.

We are very lucky.

Big John

[Len Silva]

I will attempt a very simplified explanation for those who may not understand what is happening here.

In the sketch below, we have a 10 watt lamp and a hundred watt lamp, one on each side of a typical 240 volt circuit.  In the figure on the left, all is well and each lamp sees 120 volts.

Now, if the neutral goes open, we essentially have a 10 watt and a 100 watt lamp in series across 240 volts.  The result is that the 100 watt lamp will see about 24 volts and the ten watt lamp (which is actually your thousand dollar sound system) will see 216 volts and will self destruct in seconds.

It's all basic ohms law which I won't get into here unless someone wants a further explanation.

Now, if they were both the same wattage, there would be no harm done.  The greater the unbalance at the time of the neutral failure, the greater the damage.

[luvrbus]

Losing the neutral should not bother anything 220v didn't in my house but played hell with the 120v stuff lol 

good luck

[Len Silva]

That's true.  Anything that is strictly 240 doesn't need a neutral connection.  Air conditioners, heaters, etc. won't be bothered, but many appliances are 120/240 like your range or dryer.  It's the 120 volt parts of those, like the electronic controls that will be done in.

[ArtGill]

You should see what 1900 vac will do to a house.  We had a power company drop a 1900 vac line across the drop going to the house.  Not only did the dishwasher jump out of the cabinet and every plug became a black spot on the wall.  But it unsoldered copper water pipe full of water.  If you have every tried to unsolder a pipe with just a little water in it you will understand how much heat it took to unsolder a pipe full of water.  There was something going on for a few minutes in that house.  But very little fire.  Just amazing.

Art