Skibane
San Antonio, TX
Senior Member
Joined: 11/09/2005
View Profile
 Offline
|
Curious that the MOV didn't take out the fuse earlier...
|
ForestRiverTT
Albuquerque, NM
New Member
Joined: 12/03/2021
View Profile
Offline
|
So here's the story. RV is parked at my in-laws place for now. We were using 50 to 30 to 110 adapters very temporarily. We ran a new cable from a 220v outlet thinking it was the same as 30amp and got it wrong. When we hooked it all up, it fried the fireplace and the converter/battery charger. Lesson learned: hire an electrician to install a receptacle on the side of the detached garage where RV is parked.
Replaced converter and am now looking at fixing the fireplace. I may have found a source for the circuit board though at $24. Ended up with an email address for sales at Way Interglobal, which as mentioned in an earlier post is the U.S. distributor for Greystone fireplaces.
* This post was
edited 12/03/21 01:35pm by ForestRiverTT *
|
Gdetrailer
PA
Senior Member
Joined: 01/05/2007
View Profile
|
Quick high voltage spike like say a nearby lightning strike or even powerlines arcing together in the wind could easily overload the MOV well before the fuse has time to melt..
MOVs can only clamp so much energy for a short time and fuses typically are slow reacting to overloads.
|
Gdetrailer
PA
Senior Member
Joined: 01/05/2007
View Profile
|
ForestRiverTT wrote:So here's the story. RV is parked at my in-laws place for now. We were using 50 to 30 to 110 adapters very temporarily. We ran a new cable from a 220v outlet thinking it was the same as 30amp and got it wrong. When we hooked it all up, it fried the fireplace and the converter/battery charger. Lesson learned: hire an electrician to install a receptacle on the side of the detached garage where RV is parked.
Replaced converter and am now looking at fixing the fireplace. I may have found a source for the circuit board though at $24. Ended up with an email address for sales at Way Interglobal, which as mentioned in an earlier post is the U.S. distributor for Greystone fireplaces.
Yeah, 240V mixup, that definitely will do that kind of damage.
Sadly, even well seasoned professional electricians get this wrong at times.
RV 30A is three wire 120V (Hot, Neutral and Ground).
Do not confuse three wire RV 30A for say a three wire 30A outlet for a drier!
Three wire 30A 240V drier circuits have two wires hot (L1 and L2), and green or bare for ground.. No White for neutral. Older homes typically have three wire 240V drier circuits. New home builds however that has been changed to require FOUR wires 30A (120V/240V)which includes a neutral.
RV 50A is FOUR WIRE 120/240V which has two Hots (L1 and L2) which are black, red, blue or any other color except white green or bare wire, PLUS a white for neutral and green or bare for safety ground.
|
ForestRiverTT
Albuquerque, NM
New Member
Joined: 12/03/2021
View Profile
Offline
|
We are not seasoned electricians. We know just enough about electric to be dangerous, as proven by the damage we did. We assumed the RV breaker would catch any issues, but it didn't. We definitely should have started with a qualified electrician!
We now have a 30amp receptacle on the side of the garage even though father in law asked for 50 amp. It's possible when he went to pick up 50 amp receptacles they only had 30s, because he did put a 50 amp breaker. May be the plan is to swap the 30 for a 50 when he can get one. I'll find out when I go over there today. At the very least, the 30 amp connection will be much better than the 110v we were using. It's getting cold here and the 110 wasn't enough to run space heaters to save on propane.
|
|
|
Gdetrailer
PA
Senior Member
Joined: 01/05/2007
View Profile
|
ForestRiverTT wrote:We are not seasoned electricians. We know just enough about electric to be dangerous, as proven by the damage we did. We assumed the RV breaker would catch any issues, but it didn't. We definitely should have started with a qualified electrician!
We now have a 30amp receptacle on the side of the garage even though father in law asked for 50 amp. It's possible when he went to pick up 50 amp receptacles they only had 30s, because he did put a 50 amp breaker. May be the plan is to swap the 30 for a 50 when he can get one. I'll find out when I go over there today. At the very least, the 30 amp connection will be much better than the 110v we were using. It's getting cold here and the 110 wasn't enough to run space heaters to save on propane.
OK, well part of the problem is understanding some basics.
This is one that trips up qualified electricians!
They often will wire the three wire 30A 120V RV outlet assuming it is the same as a three wire 240V drier..
For RVs and RVs only, there is a specific THREE WIRE 30A 120V ONLY outlet. NEMA-TT30R is the official socket and will be marked "for RV use only"
Looks like this..
![[image]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71oIsfLlA7L._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
The bad thing about this outlet is it is easily confused with a THREE WIRE 30A 240V drier outlet which looks like this..
![[image]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/710ccypu5uL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
People look at that drier outlet and think the 30A RV plug can be plugged into it.. Unfortunately it is possible to physically plug a 30A RV plug into that drier outlet if you really want to brute force it in. Or they assume they can add on or use that drier circuit to power their 30A 120V RV.
30A 240V drier outlet is fed by a two pole breaker from the panel, this means there is two "hot" wires (each wire supplies 120V) and one equipment ground.. Connect your RV to this circuit results in what happened to your RV.
30A RV outlet has one single Hot wire and that HOT is connected to a single pole breaker in your home breaker panel. It is the same idea as your homes 120V outlets with the exception that it will be wired to a 30A breaker unlike your homes outlets which may be on 15A or 20A breaker.
For FOUR WIRE 50A 120/240 RVs, they ARE the same plug and socket as a 50A 120/240V electric range/stove and in this case can be safely plugged into a electric range socket..
Looks like this..
![[image]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71UG6asjboS._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
Four Wire 120V/240 50A outlet can supply 120V and 240V (L1 and L2 black, red or blue) since it has a neutral wire (White) plus ground..
I have found a good website which gives a lot of good info on how to wire a 30A 120V RV socket..
HERE
Additionally I found a nice youtube video which you may find very helpful..
HERE
Although, if your RV has a 50A 120V/240 service, adding a 50A 120V/240V socket and appropriate wiring and breaker would be a nice upgrade if your homes breaker panel has the space for a two pole breaker..
I am sure you could do some searching and find similar info and video like I did for that setup.
They do also sell combo outdoor RV shore power panels which have 50A and 30A sockets..
|
rlilly4
Kingwood, TX
New Member
Joined: 01/23/2023
View Profile
Offline
|
Skibane wrote:Gdetrailer wrote:wowens79 wrote:Is it that EC5 capacitor?? If so, if you can find the numbers on it, you can order one and replace it for almost nothing. The soldering iron was like $15, and the capacitors were like $2
I had a Samsung TV that I did that with, and it worked for another 5-6 years.
Nothing really to lose trying it.
ZR1 blew out..
Most likely shorted out in the process of blowing out which have a chain effect of burning up the circuit board foil pattern under it until the fuse blew out.
ZR1 is a "MOV" which is for surge protection.
Fair chance the unit took a voltage spike, MOV gave it's life but the process could have damaged other items while doing so.
Another possible culprit for taking out ZR1 is a generator that has poor voltage regulation, or is producing power with voltage spikes in it.
I had a similar problem on my Greystone FP. ZR1 did blow out. It failed as a short between the AC inlet lines. When that happened a short trace on the PC board vaporized. I suspect that narrow trace was designed as a cheap fuse.
I connected a fuse across the blown trace, removed ZR1, and now have a fully functional fire place.
I don't have the ZR1, but do have a replaceable fuse for protection.
I'd paste pictures, but I don't have them as a url.
|
wnjj
Cornelius, Oregon
Senior Member
Joined: 01/11/2007
View Profile
Offline
|
Our 5 year old home HVAC blower motor died. When I priced a new one it was $1000. So instead I pulled the end cap off to find a fried MOV and associated circuit board trace. Since this was in December I shorted across it with a wire to get it running and ordered a replacement for $9, most of which was shipping. I then replaced the wire with the new MOV, using the wire lead on it to replace the trace. That was over 5 years ago and still running fine.
If you can get a part number off the blown one, look at Digikey for a new one.
|
hickssound
Central, CA
Full Member
Joined: 03/22/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
Great information, very helpful. has anyone found a good plug/play solution that fits the 32" fireplace hole, now that Furrion bought out Way Industries, and discontinued the Greystone line? Further Furrion only sells 30" and 34". What are others doing to replace their 32" Greystone? Thanks All!
Jason, Autumn and the boys: Jordan and Austin
..a long list yet to buy!
|
