Odd experience this weekend...

[Shaps]

This weekend, like many, we had record high heat. Went to a marina we frequent often and never had a problem... Til Saturday.
Docked, plugged in shore power, shut down the generator and started up the A/Cs again on shore power. A few minutes later, ALL of my AC units had shut down with the code "LO AC" on the thermostat.
Shore power was reading 200 which is low, but oddly I was the only guy having this issue.

Read the trouble shooting guide which said something to the effect of "LO AC" will shut down the unit to prevent damage when the voltage is below 200vac for 3 continuous minutes.

To make sure that was the issue, I started up the generator again and was able to run all the ACs again.

We were fortunate that they were able to move us to another slips and it helped, but not til later in the day. In the evening and yesterday, we were fine.

My question is, why would I be the ONLY one experiencing that kind of an issue? Seemed very strange to me.

I have 4 Cruisair A/Cs in various sizes..

 

[unsalted]

First blush are you one of the longer legs from the dock breaker box? Longer distance can result in more voltage drops especially on hot days. Length along with number of dock mates pulling juice for AC. Fix in this case is on your marina to balance the loads and or reduce your loss.

 

[Shaps]

First blush are you one of the longer legs from the dock breaker box? Longer distance can result in more voltage drops especially on hot days. Length along with number of dock mates pulling juice for AC. Fix in this case is on your marina to balance the loads and or reduce your loss.

I am sure the voltage drop was part of it, however, the second slip they moved us to had to be significantly closer to the source. And we still had the issue, while the 50+ ft Viking next to us was fine. (at least he was not complaining)
And, later that evening and all day sunday, all was fine.

 

[FootballFan]

If the marina has been there for a while, no telling how many times Power Poles have been reconfigured. Its not always done logically or cleanly. As someone said above, you could be on a different circuit than the boat next to you - no way of really knowing.

If you have a boost transformer that can help. That could be why the Viking was not complaining.

 

[Jaybeaux]

Buddy at the end of my dock with an L59 Fly had problems with the breakers (which are on land) blowing. We figured it was heat/demand related. Heard reports from others that they were having LO AC problems as well.

 

[Happy Hour IV]

From an electrical engineer and commercial construction contractor, (yes I also own a sea ray). Low voltage during loads is usually caused by 1. overloading (by other boats in the marina) 2. Problems in balancing or connections in the marina 3. Utility overloading (brown outs). I would discount all three of these based on your description about other slips working. So you are left with #4, a problem at your boat. So when you say the AC works fine on the generator you remove the possibility that the AC wiring is at fault. What is left is also highly probable. Shore cord connections at the the male and female ends corroded or otherwise burning. Shore power inlet on bulkhead corroded or otherwise burning at screws. Shore power wiring in boat ahead of the where the generator wiring comes in (shore/off/ship) or whatever you have. If my deduction is correct, stop using it right now and inspect. If there is an issue it is probably one of the most common fire issues the insurance companies see that are not fuel related

 

[Spark600]

Bad wire connection on the outlet, Burnt terminals in the outlet were the plugs goes from the last boat.
A burnt wire in the stanchion.

 

[Skybolt]

Your boat also has an Isolation transformer, the dock or stanchion may have been wired poorly. In your case, if the neutral wire in the stanchion was bad or disconnected some how, you would only have ~200v between Red and Black. I was recently at a new marina with a friend and his boat experienced the same thing and we had to fix the wiring with the dock master after we showed him what was going on. After we fixed it red to black was still ~200v but neutral to black and neutral to red was 120v. It was also a GFCI breaker in the stanchion.

 

[kvduff]

I experienced a very similar situation two weeks ago in a transient Marina. My boat is a Single 50 amp cord, 220v. Once plugged into the marina, I was only receiving 175volts. I moved slips twice, same reading in each of the slips. Spoke to others but they all had 30 amp service and weren’t really affected. Marina told me they were running on a generator… I ran my own generator for a few hours during the heat of the day to circumvent the issue. I am leaning towards marina issue not my boat.

 

[Shaps]

From an electrical engineer and commercial construction contractor, (yes I also own a sea ray). Low voltage during loads is usually caused by 1. overloading (by other boats in the marina) 2. Problems in balancing or connections in the marina 3. Utility overloading (brown outs). I would discount all three of these based on your description about other slips working. So you are left with #4, a problem at your boat. So when you say the AC works fine on the generator you remove the possibility that the AC wiring is at fault. What is left is also highly probable. Shore cord connections at the the male and female ends corroded or otherwise burning. Shore power inlet on bulkhead corroded or otherwise burning at screws. Shore power wiring in boat ahead of the where the generator wiring comes in (shore/off/ship) or whatever you have. If my deduction is correct, stop using it right now and inspect. If there is an issue it is probably one of the most common fire issues the insurance companies see that are not fuel related

Thank you for the concern, but i do not believe this is it. Had an electrician on the boat next to me who came over. My shore power plug had no signs of arcing or corrosion. The plug itself was not hot to the touch. I have a Glendinning Cablemaster that goes directly into a master breaker before entering the isolation transformer. Again, nothing untoward there.

If the marina has been there for a while, no telling how many times Power Poles have been reconfigured. Its not always done logically or cleanly. As someone said above, you could be on a different circuit than the boat next to you - no way of really knowing.

If you have a boost transformer that can help. That could be why the Viking was not complaining.

Definitely could be the difference between us. I have an isolation transformer.

 

[ttmott]

Bad wire connection on the outlet, Burnt terminals in the outlet were the plugs goes from the last boat.
A burnt wire in the stanchion.

Yes - they are always installing new receptacles in the power pedestals around our marina due to loss of power and low voltage at high current. It's always a corrosion issue in the pedestal. There is also how the marina transforms the power. Some cheap out and don't install the 208 to 240 single phase boost transformers but rather provide the 208 volts from the three phase Wye service transformer directly to the docks. So any sag in power due to high loads on the dock will drop the 208 to a fault situation for your AC controllers. Older marinas will probably have the Delta style service transformers and consequently provide a true 240 volts.

 

[SeasNT]

From an electrical engineer and commercial construction contractor, (yes I also own a sea ray). Low voltage during loads is usually caused by 1. overloading (by other boats in the marina) 2. Problems in balancing or connections in the marina 3. Utility overloading (brown outs). I would discount all three of these based on your description about other slips working. So you are left with #4, a problem at your boat. So when you say the AC works fine on the generator you remove the possibility that the AC wiring is at fault. What is left is also highly probable. Shore cord connections at the the male and female ends corroded or otherwise burning. Shore power inlet on bulkhead corroded or otherwise burning at screws. Shore power wiring in boat ahead of the where the generator wiring comes in (shore/off/ship) or whatever you have. If my deduction is correct, stop using it right now and inspect. If there is an issue it is probably one of the most common fire issues the insurance companies see that are not fuel related

Saw this walking down the pier last week. They were able to fix the connection before things became irreversible.