Dear Dave,
Last week I got an email from Ron, who had a GFCI reset issue. I won’t bore you with repeating the same article, but you can read it here if you have not done so already.
We received quite a few comments from readers about their experiences with GFCI and other outlets. I thought it would make a good follow-up article to feature a few. Then today, I got an email back from Ron stating that he had found the problem. We don’t always get a chance to hear the outcome, so here are some of your comments and the solution.
Comments to initial post
This came to my email from Rick:
I couldn’t find a way to reply to Dave’s last question about the GFI’s not resetting. I’ve had the same issue. I found out after changing the outlets it was something else. The inverter has what is called a soft breaker. It is located on the bottom of the inverter and is a small button. You need to reset it by pushing it in. That restores the power to the GFI’s. Hope this can be passed on.
Tim stated:
A GFCI won’t reset if it doesn’t have power. What else isn’t working? It’s possibly 50a shore power and they lost one leg of incoming power.
A comment on Tim’s post from Ken:
You are correct, Tim. In the original question the person stated, “I do not have AC voltage coming to the GFCI.” Without AC power the GFCI will never reset. That’s simply how they work. I thank Mike Sokol for teaching me this.
Yesterday I received this from Ron:
I finally found the junction box behind the couch in my Montana 3231CK. I found one of those knifed in connections with 3 Romex going into the little junction box. The top Romex, which was the one carrying power from the inverter, was the culprit. It’s hard to believe that Keystone would put in this box. How cheap can you get. There is no way that is going to stay down in the knifed-in connection going down the road. So, I put in a different box and used wire nuts to secure the wires inside the junction box. Then I was able to reset the GFCI outlet and all works as advertised.
(Here are the photos that Ron supplied.)
Thank you. —Ron
From Dave:
It reminded my of working on a Raptor Toy Hauler a few years ago while shooting footage for the RV Repair Club. The owner was a friend of mine and a certified electrician. He let us upgrade and repair his unit in his wonderful shop. As we pulled apart cabinetry and exposed wiring that was not in junction boxes or wired tied, he stated, “This is not to code!” What he did not realize was an RV is not subjected to the same electrical codes as residential and commercial properties, even though they use similar wiring. He took a closer look at the next unit he bought!
*****
And if anyone is around the Mobile, Alabama, area, I am conducting seminars today through Sunday at the Mobile RV Show. Check the list of seminars for the topics you might be interested in, then be sure to stop by to say “Hi” between seminars.
You might also enjoy this from Dave
New battery, fuses are good, but why don’t lights and switches work?
Dear Dave,
Something is going on with my 12-volt system. I put in a new battery and power on both sides of the manual circuit breaker and the fuse there is good. All the fuses are good, but the light above the dinette, one overhead, the refrigerator and exterior light along with the two switches by the door are not working. The 110 plug that provides power to the reefer is hot. The two glass fuses in the reefer control box are good. I have the Magnetek 6300A system, which I can hear charging, and the bathroom GFCI is not tripped. What am I missing? Is there a reset on the converter? —Dawn
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and the author of the “RV Handbook.”
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Thank you, Dave! All-electric RV #1 had an air mattress in the sleeper sofa. The attached air pump plugged into an overhead non-GFCI outlet beside the bed. One night the air pump would not work. After checking breakers to find none tripped, we checked nearby outlets. About 8 feet away was an overhead GFCI outlet at the kitchen sink that had been tripped (by the coffee maker?). We reset it and the air pump again worked. As you note, RV electric and sticks-and-bricks electric are in many ways … different. 🤔😲
Thanks Dave for writing this up. I had a similar problem in our ’05 Jamboree. Suddenly we had no power in the bath outlet or anything past that point. The bath outlet was a gfci and wouldn’t reset. I ended up looking behind it and found the hot hot lead had become disconnected (it had a stab-type connection that had the wires just pushed into jaws that were suppose to hold the wires in place). I just re stripped the wire and re inserted into the jaws. That repair lasted several years until we sold the rig.
I am having same problem, it is so hard to place all 3 sets of wires in one plug? I see the picture but, dont understand how it was fixed. Looks like one wire was not reattached? Can i get more info?
Hi, Diane. I just emailed your comment to Dave Solberg so he wouldn’t miss it. However, he’s in Mobile, Alabama, giving seminars for the next three days at the Mobile RV Show, so there will probably be a delay before he can get back to you. Thanks for your patience in the meantime. Have a great day! 😀 –(another) Diane at RVtravel.com
Diane,
The photo was the old plug which shows the one wire that came out. Check his response again and you will see he rewired with wire nuts that are more secure, but he did not provide a photo of that. Electricity is very serious and if you are not trained, I would suggest getting a certified electrician to address the situation.
Thank you, electrician is my next move