Reversed polarity

[Chuck Waygood]

Tried in "maintenance" to find out if reversed polarity blows fuses, shorts motors, whatever. 43 views and no answers/replies. So what is the effect of reversed polarity?

[DougSea]

I didn't post because I really don't know the answer...was sorta hoping someone would comment.

I'll have to do some searching...

[Ron222]

I found this message on another website that may be useful and help explain reverse polarity.

The most important issue is whether the power supply polarity is correct. If reversed, the Neutral and Hot legs are switched. Then all your breakers interrupt the Neutral, not the Hot, so your whole system is energized even when the breaker is off. The breaker will turn of the equipment, but it is still energized. A fault can then start a fire, since the breaker won't sense the ground fault, and current will flow until something melts and the circuit is broken. There's also the danger of electrical shock, for the same reason.

Ron
A34 Paumanok

[Chuck Waygood]

Thanks, Ron. The last sentence of that explanation explains why Albin goes/went to the trouble of installing warning lights to show reversed polarity. With the hot still hot even after the breaker goes, hot and ground together could sure light up your senses if touched. (And I still wonder about the effect on fuses and motors?)

[DougSea]

Giving it some thought...any 240v appliance or motor could have a problem, especially if only one leg is reversed (I'm assuming you have two power feeds). But I doubt you have any 240 based devices. DC motors shouldn't be impacted, in fact nothing on the Dc side unless your charger somehow went crazy and pumped out weird voltages.

This is totally non scientific and a swag on my part...

[Cape Codder]

The first season that I winter stored my 28TE in my yard, I had the same concern, my reverse polarity light stayed on.
One of the local marina that stores a ton of boats said it should be corrected, but I never really found out why.
The fix was simple: the outside outlet on my summer home simply needed the poles reversed. After shutting off the breaker for that outlet, I reversed the wiring on the recepticle. BINGO! No more problem....no more light on the panel.

[jcollins]

When I played music I remember Fender amps had a 3 position power switch. on-off-on. Whenever the polarity was reversed I would just switch from one "on" to the other. You can tell the polarity was wrong one of two ways.
1.) There would be a noticable hum in the speakers.
2.) Start to sing. When your lips touched the mic you would get a shock. Or you would plan in advance and tap the mic before starting.
Guys that just sang weren't affected. But if you held a guitar and sang you could get "bit".
This was late 60s through early 80s. Technology has changed but I wondering if some type of switch could be added? Perhaps our electrician members can jump in here.

John

[firemanbob]

Fellow Albin owners: A month or more ago I brought a problem I had with a blown circuit
to the forum..I had many replys but no solutions.. Several days passed and we had no luck.
I then remembered an outlet in the engine compt.. A leak from the AC unit had followed a wiring
chase and when it hit the outlet POP went the circuit. I replaced the outlet ..My electrican checked it out and informed me I had reversed the polarity... The origonal wiring was RED BLACK and GREEN.. My common sence told me that the red must be the hot wire wrong!!! Months before I had replaced and rewired two other outlets the same way.. The problem didn"t happen until I blew the circuit.
I don't know why the failure didnt occure right away, but after all the outlets were changed
the problem was fixed... Beware of the origonal wiring and watch out for the red one.. Its not the hot wire.. Good luck to all and hope to see you all in March...

Firemanbob aboard the 36' Albin bb Sculpin V

[bccanucker]

Fireman Bob: 110 Volt AC wiring should be white, black, green with black live, white neutral.
220V AC wiring is red, black, green with both red and black being live. I've also seen red, black, white used in 110V 3 way wiring
12DC wiring has been red +ve, black -ve thus messing everybody up. That's why 12V DC wiring is slowly being changed over to red and yellow with yellow being -ve.

[DougSea]

Fireman Bob: 110 Volt AC wiring should be white, black, green with white live.
220V AC wiring is red, black, green with both red and black being live.
12DC wiring has been red +ve, black -ve thus giving you the logical thought that red should be live in AC but it's not in 110V. That's why 12V DC wiring is slowly being changed over to red and yellow with yellow being -ve.

White live on 120v? That's exactly the opposite of home 120 wiring where black is hot and white is neutral. No disrespect but...are you sure? Just sounds odd to me.

[Chuck Waygood]

Well guys, I set off an interesting discussion which may or not have answered my initial question. Here is the definitive explanation from Bob MacNeil of the ABYC: on the 12 volt side, red is positive, yellow is negative EXCEPT on older boats where black is negative. (This change was made to AVOID confusion). There may also be a green wire running to the bonding points which is ground and your boat may use a copper strip of metal as well. Now on the 110 AC side, BLACK is positive, white is neutral and green is ground. Next, 220, red is added as a positive. Sufficiently confusing? So on the older Albins, which many have here, be careful with those black wires. And as an aside, before calling Bob MacNeill, I consulted my trustworthy Chapman's. Lots of info on wire size and the like, but no mention of color codes.

[bccanucker]

Doug: You're absolutely right. I fixed the post above. Thanks for catching that

[DougSea]

Doug: You're absolutely right. I fixed the post above. Thanks for catching that

No problem Roy...We AOGers have each others backs!