What does a converter do???

[mx842]

Man, I've been working my butt off trying to get to the point where I could make up my panel box cut in all my receptacles and make my heaters and AC work. Well today was the day I had set aside to cut in my panel box so I could see if everything would work.

I had already run all the conduit and wires and all I had to do was connect all the stuff together. It went better than I expected, I mean I thought I would have more trouble ID'ing all the circuits but everything went together like clock work. I checked all the circuits with a volt/ohm meter and there were no shorts so I plugged in the shore power cable and made it hot then went to the breaker box and hit the main......nothing happened,,,no smoke, sparks or fire so I figured it would be alright to throw all the breakers. Again nothing happened, no fire or explosions so I went over to the AC unit and turned it on. It fired right up and started to cool. I let it run for 15 minutes or so while I went about and checked all my receptacle boxes and they all worked. I turned on the heaters and they worked also but I didn't run them long.

Well I had decided to let it run for a couple hours just to make sure nothing would happen while I was going in and out of the trailer and doing what I could to make the trailer move and shake as much as I could. After about 30 minutes I had to cut the AC back because it was getting too cool even with me opening the doors a lot.

Well everything was going really good until I decided to go to the tool shed and get the geni and bring it up to the trailer to see if it would run everything. I haven't used this thing for a long time and didn't know it it would even start but it fired right up on the second pull. We plugged in the shore power cable and went inside to turn on everything. My oldest boy was standing there and I heard him say What the f.... and he took off and started running. I was in the back getting ready to turn on the AC when I looked up and the whole front part of the trailer was full of smoke and smoke was shooting out of the converter box like a small bomb had gone off. About that time my boy had made it to the geni and unplugged the cord and after a few seconds the smoke stopped. I opened all the doors and windows to let the smoke out and about that time my wife walked out and said you put a spell on you didn't you?LOL You see I was just in the house eating dinner and we were talking about how smooth everything had gone with the wiring project and 15 minutes later it looked like the whole trailer was on fire.

We looked the box over and didn't see any wires burned off or anything so we decided to hook it back up to the house current and see what would happen. We did and everything seemed to work, AC heaters, receptacles, all worked so I thinking what the heck could be going on. I went back out to the geni and was looking at the specs of the geni and I saw 115/240 and a sick feeling came over me, I had forgot that the geni had 240 on it and then I remember back when we had a big ice storm someone had borrowed the geni and had the original plug.....the one that said 240 volts on it, replaced so it would be easier to hook up to the house than it was the way it was wired. They put a 30 amp plug just like the one that my shore power cable is and naturally I didn't think to check it to see if it was just 115v. Well 240 volts smoke tested the converter pretty good now I'm pretty sure the converter and probably the charger part of the panel box is burned up although all circuits seem to work.

I guess what I'm wondering is what does the converter do anyway?

[madjack]

...it converts 120vac(not 240vac) to 12vdc...thank god y'all were handy when the smoke started flowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
madjack

[Shadow Catcher]

Depending on who made it there may be some over voltage protection, but then you might expect it would not be a smoke test. Check see what voltage and amperage you are getting and If it is a multistage charger see if it is still multistaging.
The moral of this story use the appropriate plug. The four prong 220 plug from the generator feeds into the lockout in the house panel. The 30A shore power plug plugs into a 110 adapter or a three prong twist lock generator plug adapter (I picked one up yesterday to fit our Kipour generator). You were VERY lucky!

[mx842]

Depending on who made it there may be some over voltage protection, but then you might expect it would not be a smoke test. Check see what voltage and amperage you are getting and If it is a multistage charger see if it is still multistaging.
The moral of this story use the appropriate plug. The four prong 220 plug from the generator feeds into the lockout in the house panel. The 30A shore power plug plugs into a 110 adapter or a three prong twist lock generator plug adapter (I picked one up yesterday to fit our Kipour generator). You were VERY lucky!

Well the plug on the geni is a three prong plug just like what's on my shore power cable. Like I said I didn't put this plug on the geni and I never really thought to check the voltage on it until the smoke had cleared. Now after I think about it the old plugs that were on the geni were marked 240v but when the guy changed the plug out he didn't mark it. I'll have to look at my paperwork on the power panel to see how to trouble shoot the unit. I already know the fan motor is burned up I can see that much.

[pete42]

Check all the wireing no matter what it takes look at all the wireing it could be burned inside the walls, roof ect.
electrican over 45 years please check you had a lot of smoke something is fried don't let it be you or your family.

old-pete

[mx842]

Check all the wireing no matter what it takes look at all the wireing it could be burned inside the walls, roof ect.
electrican over 45 years please check you had a lot of smoke something is fried don't let it be you or your family.

old-pete

Thanks, but I don't think it burned anything but the converter/charger part but I'll check all the wiring where I can. It has to be separated in the converter somehow cause both the DC and AC stuff still works and I'm going to check the charger part when I get home today. We heard a loud pop just before the smoke so I think it blew a circuit board in the unit that controls and switches it unit. It has to separated somehow because I had a 12v light on in the closet the panel is in and it never changed like it was being bombarded with a power surge like 240v and it still works.

[Shadow Catcher]

What is the make and model of the converter?

[mx842]

What is the make and model of the converter?

It's a WFCO 8955

[Shadow Catcher]

According to the specs it has over voltage protection.
http://www.wfcoelectronics.com/document ... Series.pdf
So you should probably/might be covered under warranty.

[mx842]

According to the specs it has over voltage protection.
http://www.wfcoelectronics.com/document ... Series.pdf
So you should probably/might be covered under warranty.

OH yeah....Somebody else told me to try the warranty route but I can't see them giving warranty on something that was operator error. Maybe I'll call them an see what they say. Thanks

[mx842]

According to the specs it has over voltage protection.
http://www.wfcoelectronics.com/document ... Series.pdf
So you should probably/might be covered under warranty.

Do you think putting 240 on something that was designed for 115 and has over volt protection, that it should protect the system? I'm just trying to get my ducks in a row before I call them.

[Shadow Catcher]

Over voltage should mean it protects itself against such mistakes. You do not necessarily have to tell them the sequence of events
At worst they should be able to replace components that are toast

[mx842]

Over voltage should mean it protects itself against such mistakes. You do not necessarily have to tell them the sequence of events
At worst they should be able to replace components that are toast

AWWWWWH.....I get it. I hate to try and just rip someone off but if the over voltage protection should have kept it from blowing up, I'll try it. Thanks!

[pete42]

From reading you reply post it most likely is the convertor bummer,

only trouble Learning through life's lessons........sometimes the test can be costly.

Keep smilling confuse 'em.....

[afreegreek]

there's a good lesson on why different currents and different amperages have different plugs.. they don't call it power for nothing, and it's a damn good thing no one was hurt of killed..

if you don't know anything about electricity don't play with it, it's not a toy!!