CliffA
Well-Known Member
- Dec 29, 2009
- 4,712
- Boat Info
- 2001 Sea Ray 340DA
Name: 'Happy Place'
4.5kW West. Generator
Purchased Nov. 2014
Fresh Water Use
- Engines
- Twin Merc. 6.2L (MPI)
640 hp (Total)
Raw Water Cooled
V-Drive Transmissions
this past WE I plugged in my Vornado space heater in the cockpit as we usually do this time of year to warm up the cockpit......after a few mins I noticed the heater was not working.....the Admiral had been near the heater so I assumed she bumped it with her foot and tripped the tip over safety switch....so I pushed the power button on the heater and it started working again.....a couple mins later the Admiral was in the cabin and said she was smelling something burning.....I went down in the cabin and there was a strong 'electrical' smell....I first thought it was coming from the AC/heat unit so I ripped all of the bedding off to gain access to the unit....but it checked out OK.....so I started sniffing around the power control panel and the smell was stronger in that area....I decided to touch the GFI outlet which is directly below the power control panel and it was warm to the touch.....I killed the power to all outlets and pulled the GFI out of the wall for inspection...as you see in the pic the black wire at the top had become hot to the point it melted the insulation on the wire and plastic connector cover at the connection to the outlet which is the brown 'stuff' you see.....apparently the GFI did trip once but did not fully break the internal contact....that caused the heater in the cabin to shut off since all of the outlets on my boat are on the same circuit.....this did not trip the breaker for the outlets in the power control panel......that is why I was able to turn the heater back on after the GFI initially shut it down.....there must have been a short in the GFI....
I guess the moral of this story is it may be a good idea to occasionally exercise the GFI breakers to keep them in good order to help insure they fully pop open when called for....
cliff
I guess the moral of this story is it may be a good idea to occasionally exercise the GFI breakers to keep them in good order to help insure they fully pop open when called for....
cliff