Community Forums

ffpmdefi · 08-12-2017, 06:00 PM

MY RV has been plugged into a house 15amp GFI for 6 months with a 12ga X cord when we are not on the road. Only use is to keep batteries charged. Just this last week its been popping the GFI. Now it does it in about 10 seconds. I replaced the ext cord and GFI. Took a AMP reading and got 5.4 amp draw on the ext cord when plugged in. The only thing on is the inverter which charges the 6 volt batteries which I have to say seem to go dry every two months. Seems they are being over charged and drying out. I can hear them bubbling when being charged.Im thinking the inverter has something to do with the house outlet gfi tripping. Any thoughts ?

BFlinn181 · 08-12-2017, 06:49 PM

Use Google to look for a manual for your inverter/charger. Sounds like it's not working properly. You will destroy your batteries and that bubbling is creating hydrogen gas, very explosive and you could have serious problems if you allow it to continue. The bubbling is also releasing sulphuric acid in vapor form which can cause much damage to the battery compartment.

**Spdracr39** · 08-13-2017, 06:18 AM

Disconnect the batteries and see if it stops blowing the GFI. It is the Converter not the inverter that charges the batteries. They may be all in one unit though.

ffpmdefi · 08-14-2017, 05:27 AM

Thanks, Ill try that as soon as I get home today. I've disconnected until I figure it out. Plus i've sent an E mail to Xantrex customer service. Let you know what I find out.

atroph · 08-14-2017, 03:17 PM

My GFI in bathroom was doing the same thing. Turns out my fridge ice maker valve busted during the winter and water was crossing the contacts. Odd that fridge was on GFI in the first place. I replaced it with a 20 A "smart GFI" from Home Depot and it would trip or error out while on inverter and kill the fridge (Samsung residential). Worked fine on genset and shore power. I'm ended up moving the fridge feed from the load side to the line side to keep the fridge from losing power. No idea why it isn't happy with the inverter and haven't investigated the root cause yet with an o'scope and checking the grounding and bonding. My best guess is that the inverter isn't really clean and the GFI is so sensitive that it detects it and trips/errors out. '02 Bounder 39z mostly stock.

Gary RVRoamer · 08-16-2017, 10:27 AM

The GFCI trips when something in the RV has a ground fault. That's a short between a 120v hot or neutral wire and the RV frame or the electrical ground wire.

Your battery charging problem is the amount of 12v DC current current the inverter/charger is applying to the batteries. You didn't mention the inverter brand/model, but most of them are pretty sophisticated these days. They will, however, overcharge if one of the batteries has either an internal short or high resistance, aka a "bad battery". I suspect that's your problem, but please tell us more about the charger and the battery size/age/condition.

twinboat · 08-16-2017, 03:28 PM

Have you run the electric water heater, without water in the heater, just before this problem appeared ?

A burnt heater element will still heat water, but trip a GFCI .

Gary RVRoamer · 08-17-2017, 12:20 PM

Quote:

A burnt heater element will still heat water, but trip a GFCI .

Conceivable, I guess, but surely unlikely. An element that was partially destroyed could still heat a little, but tripping the GFCI while doing so is at best a slim chance. That would only happen if a piece of the element dangled and touched the tank wall, shorting slightly.

twinboat · 08-17-2017, 01:12 PM

Element*- The element consists of an inner wire surrounded by filler material enclosed in a sheath of copper or stainless steel. The thermostat allows electrical current to flow through the inner wire, and from the wire's resistance, creates heat, which is transferred through the filler material to the outer sheath and is then absorbed by the water.

When they get too hot, they burn thru the outer sheath. If not on to long, they stil conduct power. Problem is the current is leaking to ground. That trips any GFCI.

Here is an article, there are many.

http://www.everything-about-rving.co...l-outlets.html

When water heater elements fail, they cause a neutral fault to ground wether they are in use or not. Turning them off at the switch or breaker changes nothing because the problem is a correctly sensed neutral to ground fault, not a voltage or load fault. This is the primary purpose of a GFCI device, to detect said faults. Remove the white wire from your water heating element and tape it off. Now try plugging into a GFCI source. If electrical system now works, go buy a new heater element, and a new heater tank cathode and change them (flush the crap out of the tank too).

atroph · 08-17-2017, 02:42 PM

Weird. Is it common for the WH to be on a gfci?

twinboat · 08-17-2017, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atroph

Weird. Is it common for the WH to be on a gfci?

Absolutely not ! The OP and many other plug into GFCI outlets in their houses.

There seems to be a trend of some state parks installing 30 amp GFCI outlets. That's causing some issues.

dieselclacker · 08-17-2017, 04:15 PM

I would suspect a bum battery or a faulty inverter/ charger. Boiling the batteries is not normal, nor desirable.

ffpmdefi · 08-18-2017, 04:09 AM

Its a Xantrax RV 2012 GS. I think you may be on track with the bad battery. I talked to the xantrax tech guy and found out that if a battery is low in the bank when the charger first turns on it can pull up to 16.5 amps. Going to check batteries today with a hydrometer. That would explain why I have not had this problem in the past. The only thing that changed is mabie a bad battery. Tech guy also reminded me I can change the shore power AC input level on the xantrax control board from 50amp to 15 amp so it knows not to exceed that amount. Thanks

twinboat · 08-18-2017, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ffpmdefi

Its a Xantrax RV 2012 GS. I think you may be on track with the bad battery. I talked to the xantrax tech guy and found out that if a battery is low in the bank when the charger first turns on it can pull up to 16.5 amps. Going to check batteries today with a hydrometer. That would explain why I have not had this problem in the past. The only thing that changed is mabie a bad battery. Tech guy also reminded me I can change the shore power AC input level on the xantrax control board from 50amp to 15 amp so it knows not to exceed that amount. Thanks

A GFCI trips due to a ground fault. Current flowing on the hot line, does not equal the current flowing on the neutral line. Its leaking some to ground. You may be in that leaking path.

A circuit breaker trips due to a current overload. When you draw more current then the wiring can safely handle, it cuts the hot line.

Unless you have a combined Breaker/GFCI, in your panel, one problem won't trip the other.