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When my AS '79 trailer is plugged in for electrical power at a campground/park (shore line with direct connection), the air conditioner works on fan and cooling at all speeds with no problems.
However, if I plug the shore line with the proper 30 amp. adapter into a grounded extension cord and plug the extension cord in at home, the air conditioner will run fine on fan at all 3 speeds, but as soon as I turn the air conditioner to cool, it blows the circuit breaker in the trailer lavatory.
What causes this and is there anything I can do to rectify the problem? Does this mean it's time for a new air conditioner? Tell me "no", please!
Older AC's in fact do draw more amps than newer ones.
I would suspect that you are using too light of an extension cord.
The 30 amp lines are usually 8 or 10 guage. If you positively must have an extension cord, get at least an 8 guage. These are available at Mobile Home parts dealers.
Get the absolute minimum length that would be necessary for your proposed hookup.
__________________
Dennis
"Suck it up, spend the bucks, do it right the first time."
Household outlets and the associated plugs are only rated for 15 amps. Your AC will draw close to that by itself. Throw in the 12 v converter, and any other amperage draw and you probably exceed that. Now consider the loses in the extension cord, and you will see that you are trying to get more power than the lines can accomodate.
...and beware of the "rv extension cords" that they sell at Wally-world. I was just in there looking at them, and while they "look" super-heavy-duty, on closer inspection, I could see clearly stamped into the insulation "16/3". which is very "light-duty".
I don't know why they'd go to the trouble of making these things with such heavy insulation; what the heck is that gonna do? the things were huge...probably as big, or almost as big around as the 10/3 cord in the trailer.
I've used a 12/3 extension cord without any problem, although most probably wouldn't recommend it. Perhaps the electrical guru's could explain it again....but the heaviest wire in my trailer is 12/3. I've got 12/3 runs in my house that are longer than this extension cord.
We had a similar problem when we tried to plug in our 78 Minuet into our garage circuit through a 15 amp ground fault receptacle. Instantly detected a gound fault as with many motor starts and disconnected. When we ran a 75 ft. #10 extension cord to a non ground fault 15 amp outlet we had no problem, even with the longer #10 extension cord. Hope this helps.
Larry and Lou
Are you running your univolt at the same time that you are testing your AC on a 15 amp service?
It could add considerable draw of amperage in addition to the starting load of the AC. We usually keep it unplugged at home.
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