Shore Power Breaker Throwing

[Ben Campbell]

Hi,

Our marina has undergone significant renovations. One of the changes they made was to put in new “lighthouse” style shore power pedestals. These have newer combined GFI/overload breakers. I think they may also have arc detectors, but am not sure on that point. My old slip just had old-fashined breakers for the 30A circuit.

I’ve arrived at the marina a couple of times to find the breaker thrown and my house batteries dead from running the fridge for several days without charging. When the batteries are really low (and accepting a lot of charge current), I can trip the pedestal breaker by turning the battery charger off and back on. It’s a Xantrex TrueCharge 20A, so it shouldn’t be pulling more than a few AC amps even at full output.

I’m about to have a conversation with the marina management about this, but I anticipate them asking me to prove the problem is not on my boat. How would I prove that? I never had the problem at the old slip, but that didn’t have a GFI at the pedestal. The GFI on the boat has not tripped during any of this. On last check, the anodes were in good shape.

Thanks!

Ben Campbell
2009 Beneteau 31 “DancingDays”
Lewisville Lake, TX

[James Martin]

We had a similar situation at our marina when we moved to a new dock with "lighthouse" style pedestals. It took a few weeks and cooperative management, but they finally determined some of the new breakers had infant mortality.

They had their electrician meet me at the dock and perform a load test with everything possible on. We also swapped circuits for air conditioning and house power. A/c drew 15 amps max and house drew between 8 and 13 amps. Both circuits were 30 amp. I had already given them similar values taken with my Fluke meter and clamp-on probe, but their electrician had to verify this.

Jim Martin
into the mystic
Jeanneau SO 35

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[Ben Campbell]

Thanks! I have heard that other people at the marina have had similar problems, so hopefully they will be cooperative. (One said that her microwave oven shut down the entire dock.)

Where did you test current with the Fluke and clamp-on meters?

Ben.

[Ben Campbell]

The marina tells me the GFCI is tripping, and that their GFCI tests as functioning properly.

The best I can tell, the battery charger (Xantrex TrueCharge2 20A) is tripping it when going into bulk charge mode. If I run the engine a while to charge the batteries up a bit, then switch to the Xantrex, the GFCI does not trip. The battery charger is the only thing active on that ac circuit; the water heater and house AC outlets are switched off. (My air conditioner runs on a completely separate circuit, which incidentally does not trip the GFCI.)

I’ve swapped cables and swapped shore power outlets; the problem stays with the charger circuit.

Is it likely the Xantrex is failing? Or could a downstream DC problem cause current leakage at the AC input? Could the reverse-polarity indicator leak enough current to trip the GFCI when combined with the charter? Any other thoughts on how to troubleshoot this, or prove to the marina that the problem is not my boat if that’s the case?

(The marina management tells me that slip neighbor’s Jenneau is having a similar problem, and that the owner has written it off to “nuisance tripping” and is installing an isolation transformer. Somehow the marina management is still not convinced this is a problem.)

Thanks!

Ben.

[Ben Campbell]

(Replying to self)

Since I have a feeling I may end up there: Does anyone know a good marine electrician in the Dallas/Fort Worth area?

Thanks!

Ben.

[DAVID Fletcher]

Turn off the power to the charger turn the power on to the Hot Water Heater. 

It should used about 15 to 20 amps. About the same as the charger in bulk.

See if it trips.  If so it's not the charger. 

Sent from my Samsung device