peterkvs
Active Member
My 400DA has two 125V 30A inlets. My slip has a single 125V/250V 50A 4 pin connector. Currently I use a 125V/250V 50A 4 pin cable which runs into the lazarette where it plugs into a Y splitter to power the two 125V 30A inlets. It is much easier to deal with a single 50A cable than two 30A cables. This weekend I got to the boat to find that one of the 30A inlets was all melted. Both the inlet at the female receptacle on the end of the Y splitter were melted and burned. Strange thing is that the only thing on that circuit was one of the Marine Air units which only draws 7 amps, so I don't know why it melted unless it had just been getting bad and finally decided to go. The connector on the splitter was new two months ago and the inlet had no signs of corrosion. So either it was a problem induced by a current surge (we did have some nasty storms last week) or perhaps running the space heater (all outlets are on that line) was just too much for it over time. When I removed the panel to look at the back of the wires, I saw that the #10 AWG wires were starting to melt together as well. The insulation on the black line wire and the white neutral wire had melted together, but the conductors had not yet touched. Damn close though. And, these wire were before the circuit breaker, which means to trip the circuit it would have had to trip the 250V/50A breaker on the pedestal. Not good either.
Now I am wondering if I should just replace the damaged 30A inlet, the melted wires and the 30A female connector on the end of the Y, OR should I upgrade the inlet connectors to a single 125V/250V 50A and feed the two 30A circuit breakers with the two 125V 50A lines and upgrade the wire size between the inlet and the breakers to a #8AWG so that I have no more heat problems here. The 50A contacts are MUCH beefier than the 30A contacts and so corrosion and heat issues in the connector would really be improved with this mod.
I realize when I travel I may get somewhere that only has two 30A feeds, but I can get a reverse splitter for that as I still have my old 30A cables.
Another idea is that if I did upgrade to the 50A inlet, I could increase the wire size and breaker size going to the main AC panel and get some more power in there. I would be nice to be able to run the heat microwave and water heater at the same time.
Anyone have any thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks,
Pete
Now I am wondering if I should just replace the damaged 30A inlet, the melted wires and the 30A female connector on the end of the Y, OR should I upgrade the inlet connectors to a single 125V/250V 50A and feed the two 30A circuit breakers with the two 125V 50A lines and upgrade the wire size between the inlet and the breakers to a #8AWG so that I have no more heat problems here. The 50A contacts are MUCH beefier than the 30A contacts and so corrosion and heat issues in the connector would really be improved with this mod.
I realize when I travel I may get somewhere that only has two 30A feeds, but I can get a reverse splitter for that as I still have my old 30A cables.
Another idea is that if I did upgrade to the 50A inlet, I could increase the wire size and breaker size going to the main AC panel and get some more power in there. I would be nice to be able to run the heat microwave and water heater at the same time.
Anyone have any thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks,
Pete