Episode 207 – Why Are My RV 110 Volt Electrical Outlets Dead?

In staying on the road, the question why are my electrical outlets dead? That question is going to be answered today. And then in the quick tips, are your connections a fire waiting to happen?

And in RV envy, a reminder about not buying low quality electrical outlets. I'm Eric Stark. Welcome to the Smart rver podcast. If you'd rather be camping than sit in a repair shop, you are in the right place.

Every episode I'll walk you through the practical DIY maintenance that repairs the keep you on the road. So today is episode 207. So welcome back to another podcast from the Smart RVer. So we got some great stuff today.

These GFCI outlets that we're going to talk about are just these things seem like they wreak havoc sometimes and we want to help you or I want to help you to avoid these problems. Especially if you're out on the road. Who needs a headache that seems like it's impossible to deal with, right?

So that's what we're going to talk about. So let's just dig into it. Why are my RV electrical outlets dead? So this is a pretty common thing or problem that RVers face.

You know the outlets that stop working. So you're in your rv, you plug your coffee maker or hair dryer into an outlet, nothing happens. You go to the next outlet, nothing happens.

The outlet after that, nothing happens. You're like, oh, what's going on here? And then you start thinking, is there a big problem here? Is my RV electrical system shot? Is it ruined?

Well, that's not the case in most times. Occasionally you can have a major problem, but usually it's something pretty simple.

And that's what we're going to talk about, helping you understand that 120 volt system, which is what your GFCI outlets are and your regular outlets in your RV versus the 12 volt system. And it's good to know that there are two different systems and I've talked about this in previous episodes, but it's separating them out.

So when you do have a problem, plug the hairdryer in coffee maker, it's not working. You know what's going on and how to diagnosis and hopefully avoid a service call or a technician coming out or you taking your RV to the repair shop.

Now to break this down in a very simple way, the 120 volt AC system usually just runs your wall outlets. So you have the wall outlets that look like a 110 volt outlet, something similar to that.

If you're, I just lifted one up for those that aren't watching this on YouTube. Sorry. So it's going to be a wall outlet, it's going to run your microwave, your air conditioner, your, the electric side of your water heater.

If you have a residential refrigerator, it'll power it up. Your battery charger converter is going to be part of that system. Your television, your appliances will run on the 120v.

Now there are some exceptions that you might have a 12 volt TV. For example, maybe you have a 12 volt refrigerator. Not a residential style. Okay, now let's look at the 12 volt. What it powers your interior lights.

That's a given.

Every rv, they power the interior lights, water pump, the controls on the furnace, in other words the circuit board, the thermostat, the refrigerator control. So if you have a gas and electric refrigerator, the circuit board is powered by 12 volts. Water heater is powered by 12 volts.

Even as it's gas and electric, the 12 volts powers a circuit board. Your slide outs are 12 volts, your awnings are 12 volts. The vent fans and, and you know, generally any type of control board in the RV is 12 volts.

And why it's important to know this is when you're out camping, you're not plugged into shore power, you're off the grid. All of everything works in your RV except the 110 volt items. So if you think about it that way, when you're out camping, that is everything. 12 Volts.

Unless you have an inverter. But we're not really getting into the inverter concept here. So if you don't have it or. I said converter, I meant inverter. So think about that.

If you're out camping, everything that works is 12 volts. When you're plugged into shore power, that brings additional things into the system that will work. Like the microwave. I always use the microwave.

Does your microwave work when you're out camping? The answer is no. Okay, then you're on 12 volts, you're not plugged into shore power. Now the GFCI problem, it's 120 volt problem.

Okay, it's not a 12 volt problem. So if your furnace works, your water pump works, your lights work, that's not a 120 volt problem.

Or excuse me, it would be 120 volt problem, not a 12 volt problem. Now what's a GFCI do? These outlets are in every RV. I mean you have them in your home, they're everywhere. So the gfci, it's going to, it protects you.

It's a safety device. So it watches electricity and how it moves through it and basically going out, coming back, what it's doing. So it senses if there's something wrong.

Say for example, you have a water leak and it's leaking onto one of your 110 volt outlets in your RV. And it could be any type of water leak, doesn't matter.

Water is water and it's going into the outlet and then it's running down and it's shorting out, let's say on the, the frame of the rv. Well, the GFCI senses that it goes, oh, there's a problem here and it trips itself. So it shuts off power to that outlet.

So it's a protection device and it's going to trip very quickly. So that's what a GFCI does.

It keeps you from getting electrocuted, stops fires from happening and just stops the power so there's no further damage if damage was caused. So it protects everybody from shock when there's moisture around. Now where are GFCI outlets placed?

Generally they're in a bathroom, a kitchen, they're going to be outside. If you have any exterior receptacles on the side of the rv, they could be in a storage compartment, near sink areas.

They could be hidden in a cabinet or a counter. But think about it, it's always going to be near water. And every RV is a little bit different.

I say that, not how they're placed, where they're going to be. And how many are going to be in an rv.

You might have one, you might have two, you might have three depending on the rv, your bathroom configuration, if you have some outside. Now the question comes up, why did all of my outlets turn off? What's the problem here? It's got to be something much bigger than a gfci, right?

Well, that question is asked all the time. We here in our store, Highway 93 RV almost on a daily basis about the GFCI. The 110v outlets aren't working. Well, look at it this way.

You have a GFCI outlet and let's say it's number one on that circuit. And an RV generally has one or two or three circuits in it for different things.

I mean it have more depending on the rv, how big it is, how many things are in it. But the GFCI is going to be at the beginning of the circuit and every outlet after that is considered downstream.

So it's Protecting all the outlets that were installed after it. So there might be three outlets that are protected by it. Two outlets. It just depends on your RV and how the manufacturer wired it and what they did.

So an outlet may be dead, but it doesn't mean that outlet is bad. If you go upstream and look at the gfci, did it trip? It has a reset button on it. Is that button popped out?

Is there a red light on saying hey, I'm tripped, there's a problem. So in an rv you could have a GFCI outlet in a bathroom and then three or four outlets after it downstream. And one of them could be in a compartment.

And let's say you plug into there and it trips the gfci, you know, there's no power. So you have to think outside the box. What is on this circuit? Where does it originate? And you have to go backwards and look for those GFCIs.

What I'm getting at is the outlet could be dead in the basement or storage compartment, but the GFCI could be someplace else in the rv and that's where it's tripped and you have to hit the reset button. And sometimes these GFCIs just aren't obvious to people. In an RV, the manufacturer can put them in odd places.

So you might not see it, you might not be looking for it in the right place, but it's there. They always put them in. It's not something that's in some RVs, it's in all RVs.

So like I said, the dead outlet could be in a compartment, but the reset button for on the GFCI could be in a bathroom, could be in a kitchen, underneath a cabinet. Now where do you look for these GFCI outlets or the reset button?

Like I just said, they could be in the bathroom, could be in a kitchen, could be an outside receptacle, it could be in a storage compartment, could be near your entertainment center or your stereotype system, the tv. It can be on the bottom of a cabinet or underneath, you could call it.

So the upper set of cabinets that are mounted on the wall, they're up higher underneath. Sometimes there's lights, sometimes there are GFCI outlets in there or just regular 110 volt outlets.

So you're looking for something that's they're generally there, you know, squared corners, they're not rounded. And it's going to have a reset and test button on it is if it doesn't have the buttons on it, it's not a GFCI outlet.

Your regular outlets in An RV almost look identical to GFCI except they don't have the test and reset button on it. So you're going to look for that. And don't be afraid to just go press the test button or the reset button. It's not going to hurt anything.

In some cases the GFCI won't reset or do anything unless the RV is hooked up to shore power. So it has to have that 120 volts running through the system and it's not going to reset itself.

And it won't reset if the fault or the problem is still present. So we'll get into that a little bit later. And some older failed gfcis might not click properly or hold into place.

So that's one of those things that just might be a problem you're going to have to work with. So now let's go on to moisture and those outside receptacles and how these things can become a problem.

So the GFCIs can trip, pop, whatever you want to call it. But tripping is really what everything's called. So rain could get into an outside receptacle, cause it to trip.

You know, there could be a cover missing on it, or it's just not waterproof anymore and it can cause it to trip. Maybe in the basement there's some moisture near the GFCI outlet and it's causing it to trip.

You know, water intrusion anywhere an RV gets into an outlet and doesn't have to be the GFCI just on that circuit, it can cause it to trip.

Maybe there's an extension cord you have plugged into your RV somewhere and it's wet and the GFCI sensing it, you know, you just wash the RV and now a set of outlets don't work. You know, maybe there's condensation in different areas where you're storing stuff and it's causing a problem. So think about that.

It's usually water related. And so if your GFCI trips after it's raining, you're washing your RV using an outside outlet.

Now you know that it probably had something to do with the moisture.

And to give you an example of that, I had a house in Arizona and whenever it rained, and it usually rained in the morning just as I was going outside or going out the door to go to work. So I never really investigated it. But my office was a two car garage converted to an office space and it was stuccoed.

And on the outside there was a receptacle on the wall that I didn't realize was there but every time it rained, I'd lose power in the office.

I'd come back home later that day, and the GFCI would be tripped, which that time I'd see it, I'd reset it, Power come back on, everything be good until it rained again. And so after a couple times, I thought, yeah, I got to look at this. I don't want to turn into a real problem here.

So there's nothing in the office that's causing this problem. The GFCI was new because when I remodeled the garage, I put a new one in, so I wasn't suspect of it.

And I went outside thinking, is there an outlet out here? And I was pretty positive there wasn't. But there was. And I took the waterproof cover off, which was painted the same color as the stucco.

So it really made it nice. That's why I didn't know it was there. Take it off.

And when they stucco the house, there was just enough stucco touching the positive side of the gfci, where the little screw holds the wire on the stucco was touching it. And it wasn't a lot of stucco. But what happened is when it rained, the wall would get wet, and it would.

They would touch that outlet, and then it would trip the gfci. So I just broke off that little piece of stucco, and that fixed the problem thereafter. So that's what I'm talking about.

That little bit of moisture can be a big problem. So don't think of a flood. Just think of moisture causing a problem.

So if you wash your rv, you're doing something like that rainy, and that's when you have your problems. You definitely have water touching an outlet someplace and causing the GFCI to trip. This is something you want to fix.

You don't want to just let it go if you're having that type of problem after washing or moisture intrusion type of thing. So unplug everything from the outlets that are protected from the GFCI and let it dry out. And then later on, plug them back in, see what works.

But you want to, you know, do an inspection. Look at the covers on the exterior outlets. Why is this happening? Is there a bigger problem? Is it something else?

But whatever you do, don't get frustrated. The GFCI outlet and just bypass it. Put in a regular outlet that's not going to trip. That doesn't solve the problem. There's a problem there.

And don't keep resetting the GFCI outlet. If it's tripping, don't. If you push the button in and it pops back out. You push it in again, it pops back out. You got a problem. Don't keep doing it.

And don't try to hold it in there thinking that'll do it. That's just going to cause a bigger problem. It's going to burn something up. So do not do that either.

Now, if you're having problems with, you know, a circuit outside of moisture, you think there's something else cooking here because it's been dry for the last two weeks and your outlet keeps tripping.

So maybe you have a coffee maker plugged into it, a space heater, you have some things plugged into it, unplug everything and just plug them back in one at a time and see which one trips it. Now that's provided when you unplug everything and you hit the reset button and it holds. Now you can. Okay, now I got something here.

So what's doing this? You know, it could be a space heater. Maybe it's just too much power draw for the circuit.

Maybe the space heater doesn't like the gfci or the GFCI doesn't like the space heater. Maybe it's a battery charger.

Maybe it's something that just flat out shouldn't be plugged into an outlet inside an RV because it's drawing so much power. Maybe it's two heaters that you're plugging in onto the same circuit. Most RVs have one or two circuits in them, and I say most.

And you know, depending if you have a class a motorhome with 50amp service that's different, you're going to have multiple circuits.

And you know, you can try it on another outlet, it might work fine. On another set of outlets that aren't on that same gfci. It can be a problem with an appliance. Generally it's something else. It's moisture.

You got a bad outlet, the GFCI has failed. There's something going wrong with it. But you can test for that. And sometimes it can seem like a real inconvenience and we don't like it.

Get out of here, you stupid thing. And we want to bypass it, but we don't want to do that. Now let's Talk about extension cords.

You can plug extension cords into GFCI and it trips because there's something wrong with the extension cord. Or maybe you're trying to run something off that cord and that cord's 200ft long. You've got a bunch of them plugged together.

It can be too much draw tripping it. Maybe you're at a campground and it is the pedestal. It's not your rv, it's the pedestal.

It could have a bad GFCI outlet if you're trying to plug an extension cord into it. Or maybe your RV, because you know, that's all they have is a 15amp service.

You know, worn cord ends, low voltage, there's different things that can cause it surges. You know, cheap adapters can do this. And also if you're plugging your RV into a circuit, probably at your house, you're plugging in a 15amp service.

So you reduce your, your RV power, let's say a 50amp or 30amp, you reduce it down to 15amp that typical residential outlet, and you plug it into your house and the GFCI in your house pops, uh oh, something's wrong with my rv. That's not the case most of the time.

Because when your house has a GFCI on it and your RV has a GFCI on it, sometimes they talk and they don't like each other, they don't get along. So one of them says adios. And it's typically the house and it cuts off. The rv, says you're out of here, cuts off power.

So you have to try a different circuit in your house. Might not be compatible with your rv. It happens sometimes, but generally you can plug it in someplace in your house on that 15amp.

Like I know in our shop here, occasionally we plug an RV into our 15amp outlet just because we're doing something very simple, just testing the converter. The minute we plug it in, that circuits on a GFCI in our warehouse and it shuts down power. And it's just different RVs.

And there's nothing wrong with the RV. It's just the two GFCIs do not like each other. And so one of them says goodbye. Now, there are times where the problem is in your rv.

Don't get me wrong, there can be something goofy going on. If somebody worked on something recently, maybe somebody worked on some 110 volt outlets and now nothing works, right?

So you go back to the source, but we're talking, you know, kind of getting to understand this, this GFCI and the 120 volt system in your RV and how to just kind of look at it, deal with it. And you know, like I said, if you've had somebody working on the RV and now you have a problem, well, more than likely it's the work that was done.

I mean recently we took out an inverter type system in an RV. It was done really hokey. All this extra 110 volt wires was done. And the guy worked around who installed it did some weird things.

So we had to go to every outlet, test it. And we just have these little testers you plug in, which you should get.

1, 10, 15 Bucks plugs into the outlet, tells you exactly what's going on with it. And you just walk around till they're all good.

And in some cases the wiring was reversed, which I don't know why, but someone did that, probably trying to make something else work. And then there's some grounds that were missing.

So we were picking up on all this stuff, but it wasn't necessarily the GFCI outlet, but it showed that there was a problem, which is good. That's what they're for, to help you find problems.

And now on these connections, I'm going to get into this next about poor connections, but making sure your connections are nice and tight. Now the other thing too is if, you know, notice that your GFCI just keeps tripping. You know, you reset it, five minutes later it trips.

You know, if it, if it won't reset at all, there's something wrong.

If it's, if it feels hot, if it's cracked somewhere, if it's discolored, if it smells like it's burnt, if it's buzzing, if it's sparking, there's something wrong with it. If the test button doesn't work anymore, there's something wrong with it.

And sometimes the outlets just get old, they just, they just time out, it's time to replace it. But do not bypass it. I said that earlier, do not bypass it. Diagnose the problem.

And now if this gets beyond you and you can't figure it out, why is this thing keep tripping? And that's normal.

I mean there's a lot of RVers that just don't want to get into the 110 volt system because they're afraid to get electrocuted, which is fine. Just call a qualified RV tech, get it taken care of and you want to go rv, don't call your local electrician. I mean they might be able to fix it.

But they sometimes just say, call an RV store. We don't get into that. They don't carry some of the same stuff that's in an rv. The outlets are different, called speed boxes, things like that.

So if it's tripping constantly, you smell burning, you see melted plastic, discoloration, it's hot. You know, you put your finger on the outlet and it's, whoa, this thing's really warm here. Then you got a problem and it needs to be taken care of.

And keep in mind, 120 volts can electrocute you. It's probably not going to kill you. Depending on your health, it might.

And if you're not comfortable dealing with it beyond the basics, then call someone out and you should be able to hit the reset button. You should be able to hit the test button. Hit the test button, it'll trip the GFCI outlet and you'll know that it's working.

Hit the reset button, and there you go. That's what it's there for. You don't need to do it all the time.

But if you're suspect of it, and in this case, just learning how to use it, getting comfortable with it, don't be so afraid of it that you're afraid to touch those buttons. Okay? You need to at least know that. And the reason why I'm covering this is because this is a huge problem with RVers, at least in our area.

We, like I said, we get a phone call almost every day for this stuff. And it helps you understand it. So it's not such a mystery.

When you're out camping, you can just take care of it or even in your driveway or, or leaving your house knowing there's a problem. Why do that? I mean, unless you absolutely don't need those outlets, there's no way you're going to need them.

Then that's one thing, because when the GFCI trips and it shuts the power off, it shut the power off. Now you can take it a step further and go to your breaker panel. Generally it's visible in the RV someplace or usually down low.

It'll be black or brown. It'll have a cover on it.

You flip the COVID down, you'll see your circuit breakers and you'll see the fuses next to it, whether it's on the side up or below. And those circuit breakers there, they run all the outlets, the microwave, all the 110 volt in the RV.

So if you determine which set of outlets or circuit it shuts off, then you even got a little More power and understanding of your rv. You turn the breaker all the way off and if it shuts off the outlets you think it will, you test them, plug a lamp in, see if it's working.

It's not working. You got the right breaker and generally the breakers are marked and they're pretty accurate. But understanding this stuff is pretty basic.

Don't be afraid of it. And speaking of circuit breakers, sometimes they trip and when they trip, you don't put it back on. You turn it off and then turn it back on.

That's what resets it. Some people just try to flip it back on and it won't reset. Turn it off, turn it on. Okay, wax on, wax off. Y' all know that reference, right?

Okay, so let's get out of TV and let's get back to reality here. Now I'm going to have a checklist in the description of this podcast that will have a checklist in there that you can walk through.

Use it as a worksheet if you are having problems. And that checklist will also be on the smartrver.com website.

Now let's get into the quick tips and we're going to discuss this r your electrical connection as a fun fire waiting to happen. And this is what I was alluding to earlier. In RVs you have 110 volt appliances. You have the electrical outlets, you have an air conditioner.

Sometimes junction boxes are put in for something very specific. Somebody wants to add another outlet. An inverter could be installed where there's a little more 110v running through the RV.

And you want to make sure that every one of those connections is rock solid tight. When you're putting in a GFCI outlet, if the wires screw onto it, sometimes they have the push in deals where you push the wire into it.

Not a fan of those. I always use the screw on side because you can get those screws nice and tight. They work very well.

The push in ones work, but I've seen those fail more than I've seen the screw on type connections where you're using the screw and tightening it up. If you're replacing the cord end of your RV, the 50amp or 30amp cord end, yours burn up.

You put a new one on, make sure those wire connections are tight, they're not loose, they're good. Use wire nuts in your rv. I know a lot of people are using Wago connectors these days.

A little lever type connectors, I like them, but in an RV I don't. And on 110v. I like them even less because when there's a problem, it's much bigger. And some electricians are totally against them.

I've seen some of the comments on YouTube channels. I mean, these guys just tear the person apart for even suggesting using the name. We go, oh, my God, you're going to burn down the rv.

Everybody's going to die. Well, that's not the case, but it can be a problem. So I recommend wire nuts.

In fact, you know, recently I talked to Lippert, and they were saying to take out the terminal block in one of their air conditioners because it was suspect of a problem and to put in Wago connectors. And I thought that was really interesting. And we put in wire nuts, not Wago connectors.

And it did solve the problem because the terminal block wasn't really doing what it's supposed to be doing. So that was a potential problem down the road as well. A fire hazard, if you will.

And I'm not saying all your Lippert Furion air conditioners are going to catch on fire. Don't take it that way. I'm not doing a recall here for Lippert. Nothing like that. But just use wire nuts and use the good ones. They're solid plastic.

When you tighten them, they don't have the metal sleeve in there that's going to spin or strip out. You can get them super tight. You can tighten them with pliers.

You pull on the wires, make sure they're not coming out, because bad connections can be fires. Now I'm going to have a picture of this GFCI outlet I'm holding up here, and I'm showing the back of it.

So if you're watching this on YouTube, that's what it is.

And this thing caught on fire because of a bad connection, literally caught on fire, and it melted the wires in the wall in the rv, which really sucked. So that creates a big problem when you have things like this. This is just poor wiring.

And that's all it is because the outlet wasn't put in too long ago or, you know, when this was replaced. So make sure those connections are tight. And that's one of the biggest problems we see is bad connections. Okay?

So make sure they're all good and tight, but don't become so afraid of them, you're not going to touch them anymore. All right? We just don't want you to do something and cause a problem that can be avoided. Simply avoided, very easily avoided.

Now, we're going to keep this theme going Right here in RV Envy and we're talking about low quality electrical outlets. And I know today, you know, money's tight, we got a lot of stuff going on in the world and everything's going up. Fuel's going up, oil's going up.

Creates inflation, right?

Yeah, inflation, it's bad enough, but we don't want to create self inflicted inflation for us when we buy products online, especially if we're going to the Jungle website. Do not buy low quality outlets.

Let's say, for example, you need to replace your GFCI your local RV store has and it's $30, but you can get one on the Jungle website for let's say, eight bucks. I would say there's something wrong with that. And the Jungle website, they don't care what's sold on there.

If it burns your house down, your RV down, not their problem. The company who sold it, they're probably not going to care either. And they're probably not going to even be a company you can find if you had to.

So avoid the low quality products, especially electrical products on the Jungle website or on the Internet in general. If you're depending on what websites you go to, you got to be cautious there. And I'm not saying this just so you spend more money at an RV store.

I'm saying it because these products are bad. And more and more of our customers are waking up to that.

Now they're telling us about the waste of money or the wasted money they've spent on the Jungle website and how they're not doing that anymore because they recognize inflation inflicted upon us by our government or the powers to be is one thing, but when we inflict inflation on ourself, that's ridiculous. There's no reason to do that. So let's avoid that. We're going to move on here. And this is just a reminder for you.

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I'm going to put a link in the description of this podcast to a product on our website called Soul Bio. I've talked about it in the past. S O L B I O Soul Bio. And I'm going to have a discount code in the link or in this description as well.

And you'll be able to save some money if you buy it off our website. And that's just our website.

And this product works great for holding tanks, whether it's your black Tank, Gray Tank, which they both need a product, but it works absolutely amazing. I love it. So I'm going to do that. That'll be in the description.

Now in our next episode, it's going to be 208, and we're going to dig into slide out problems and what to do. So you definitely want to catch that in two weeks. So that's it, guys. We've come to the end of this podcast today, and I want to.

It's just awesome being here. I love doing this. I love sharing this information.

And I know there's a lot of information on the Internet that sometimes seems like it's helpful, but it's not always helpful. I mean, I've seen it. Our customers tell me about it.

And what I've come to the conclusion is sometimes there's videos done by individuals who own an rv. That video is about their specific problem and doesn't apply to anything beyond that.

And sometimes it's taken that it does, and it's not helpful when it's like that. So be sure if you're watching videos on YouTube, on the Internet, that they're accurate and they're not leading you down a rabbit hole.

That's going to bring in more problems. All right, so that's going to do it for today's episode of the Smart rver podcast. Thank you for listening.

I'm Eric Stark, and if you'd rather be camping than sitting repair shop, you're in the right place. Until next time, take care of the little things and enjoy the trip.