Reversed Polarity
Hi all, I'm heading for Spain with my Caravan for 6 weeks April/May and have been told some sites electric hookups have reversed polarity which means the electrics won't work.
Is it possible to buy a connection which will overcome this or is there something i can do to my existing connections to overcome the problem?
Is it actually a problem which will result in no electricity or worse, cause a fire?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Jim
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Hi Jim, if there was a decent search on the forum you would find many threads giving the answers you need.
But yes all the electrics will still work, no there will be no explosions or fire. In fact as long as you follow electrical safety rules and unplug appliances before tinkering you would never know the difference.
Yes, you can buy an adaptor to reverse the live and neutral, but first you will need to know if its needed so if you haven't already, go buy a polarity tester that plugs into a 13a socket.
Some don't bother, some do but more importantly a polarity tester will alert you to a bad or non existant earth which I deem more important on site.
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Jimbolin
Go to the main header bar and select “Overseas Holidays
“in the far right hand column you will see a section called “ Electricity and Gas”
This will give you all the info you require.I must admit I do find some answer to this difficult to fathom,and to me a missing earth is far far more important and never gets a mention.
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As far as l know it isn’t dangerous at all. Until it is, and then it might be fatal. I have a tester and a reverse polarity lead. I use these only to keep my OH happy. The reason I say this is because I have a continental caravan and, like I presume Deleted User User’s, is fitted with dual pole rcd and circuit breakers. So both sides of the circuit will be disconnected.
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Just a reminder that it's not a two-pin plug that's required, but a two-pin and earth. (see DK's web page) . Best to buy a made up lead from a caravan shop for plugging in to continental sites ( with a CEE17 trailing socket). The two pin plug on hairdriers et cetera will not do!
You can buy a blue plug and a blue socket with which you can make up a short polarity-reversing lead. This can also be used on the rare occasions when a CEE17 EHU has been wired with live and neutral reversed.
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