Challenging Day!

Yesterday was a challenge to say the least.  Because I only know enough about electrical to be dangerous, the smoking of our converter was both scary and confusing to me. 

I did post the problem on rv.net and almost immediately received a message saying that my neighbor hooked up two breakers and 240 volts instead of a single breaker which provides 120 volts.  That is exactly what he did and why the converter smoked.  I received the same feedback from Bob and Sam who follow this blog and are both much smarter than I am!

A couple of the posts did say that it was a common mistake, which made me feel a little less dumb for both me and my neighbor, but it taught me a valuable lesson that I won't attempt to do something like this in the future without doing my research and making sure that the person I hire is qualified.

At this point, I know that the converter is destroyed, but now I am concerned with the appliances within our motorhome.  I found a utility door in the cabinet next to the microwave and was able to unplug the unit and hook it up to an extension cord.  The clock came right on, which was a good first sign, so then I put in a cup of water and set it for one minute and it heated right up.  That's very good news!

Utility Door to Microwave Plug

So now I am testing the refrigerator by running if off the extension cord and hope that it cools down so that I can cross off another appliance from the concern list.  So far, the freezer is cooling down quickly, so I think I am out of the woods on this one as well.

A warm AZ day...may take a while to cool down!

I found this 45 amp converter kit when searching rv.net and am hoping that it might do the trick to fix the burned out capacitor and get us back up and running.

Hoping this will do the trick!

I was visiting the site for more information and it listed an 888 number that said call and ask Randy, so I did.  Mind you it was Saturday at 2:00pm and I did not expect anyone to answer the phone.  I was shocked when Randy picked up on the second ring and he assured me that I could install the converter myself and that it would be better than the one I have currently because it has a three phase versus a two phase charging process that will ensure that my batteries are not being over charged. 

So I placed the order for $218 and I will let you know how things go!  Maybe this situation will work out alright and I will have a better charging system than I currently do. This could all turn out to be a huge disaster averted.  Lets hope so!

I hope your Saturday is going well and thanks for stopping by!