Hook-up leads
Having just had my van serviced,the hook=up lead was tested and found to not have adequate resistance.This got me thinking about polarity testing all my leads,i have several,used with a genny.I bought a new length of hook-up lead to make new one.Checking polarity on the new lead and the existing ones I found polarity faults,having followed the euro plug markings as to correct connections and still finding polarity faults,i contacted an electrician on the web.He stated that looking forward on the exposed plug,i e the pins pointing away from you,the righthand terminal is LIVE.the left hand terminal is neutral,with the earth at the bottom.Ithen started checking al the plugs,some of which were brand new, had the left hand terminal marked LIVE.Testing with these connections always gave me a polarity error until swapped over,using the right side live principal.My polarity tester is a standard 13amp.socket tester.My findings indicate to me that a high percentage of euro plugs are in-correctly marked,from new.If my experience is correct,there must be numerous examples of potentially dangerous polarity problems.I would be very interested to hear from electrical experts and the "CLUB TECHNICAL MAN".by email at
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Comments
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it now seems I was wrong to listen to an expert on the web.It now seems that plug connectors,when viewed from the back of the plug,thats the male plug should have the live on the left,so that it marries with the live pin on the socket end,i e,the female connector.
Any comments please.
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Are EHU cables tested on a service?
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That would meant that there is poor insulation between one or more pairs of the three wires in the cable.
Not surprising when we see how they are treated on-site - twisted and kinked, driven over, pulled tight, left coiled up with power flowing. It is surprising there are not more failures. At least when they do fail it is likely to be in the open air and not a big fire hazard (coiled on a drum and stuffed under the caravan excepted).
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well ours goes to the service but it never seems to have been unwound and tested. I'll have to check the service schedule.
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gruffy,
You use the term 'euro-plugs'. Are you talking about the big blue CEE17 plugs (as used on Club site bollards) ..... or are you talking about the small round European domestic style plugs with side earth contacts (the type you need as an adapter on quite a few older European sites)?
Every CEE17 plug or socket I have ever seen is clearly marked L & N on the appropriate terminals.
The side-contact plugs can generally be inserted either way around, so 'polarity' is arbitrary, whichever way (L & N) are wired.
(Most electrical Engineers agree that on any modern caravan with dual-pole circuit breakers the 'polarity' of the supply is unimportant .... provided that you do not play around inside any appliance while it is still plugged in (switching off at the socket is NOT sufficient).
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It is extremely unlikely that a purchased hook-up lead was incorrectly assembled such that live and neutral were somehow swapped.
If you have “low resistance” on an old lead it is most likely to be the insulation in the plug or socket, not the cable unless somebody has run over the cable and damaged it. I have never heard of a hook-up lead being tested during service and feel we are missing some information here.
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Low resistance in a hook up lead would need something ike a megger to test.I am not sure my dealer for instance would do this.
Reverse polarity is different and as mentioned before if protected by a double pole circuit breakers i.e. switches both live and neutral is not so much an issue.My caravan has no switch on the socket outlets anyway normally on the live side,so isolating is just by removing appliance.
It does make you think though of the amount of use a hook up lead takes and they are never tested as far as I know.I have had a blue plug "hit" or damaged by the site manager on a lawn mower and I just repaired it with a new plug from the site manager.This was in France not a club site.
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