Camco power defender, please help!!

burnsy · 01-13-2015, 09:56 AM

Hello all,
I'm hoping for some more expertise from the forum! I just got a 50amp camco power defender surge protector. I also purchased a camco power maximizer adapter, 50amp female to 30amp and 15amp male. I wanted to try it out and make sure it works properly, so I plugged it into the adapter and plugged the 15amp end into the wall. I got a green blinking light then after 5 seconds it went to solid red light. It says the red indicates a over/under voltage. I checked the voltage at the outlet, and it is 125 which is in tolerance. I contacted camco and they are clueless, they told me power at a pedastel and power at your home is different. Which I know is wrong. Any thoughts or does anyone have one of these units? Thanks for your help!

**sourdough** · 01-13-2015, 10:22 AM

I'm not sure I'm of any help on this but;

When you plug your 50A surge protector into a 30A adapter into a 15A adapter you are going to confuse the surge protector I suspect. The surge protector is looking for certain voltages on certain leads. I think my 50A shows that I have 2 incoming leads with 120 - 125V I believe (from memory). That's when connected to a 50A receptacle. Your home 120V 15A plug is not going to provide that so the surge protector says.....somethings wrong! I only use my 50A surge protector on a 50A outlet. At home I use a 50A to 15A pigtail adapter and just plug into the outdoor receptacle at the house. If you use the 50 to 30A adapter very much I would buy a 30A surge protector when doing so. Just my thoughts....and they may be in left field but I don't think so.

burnsy · 01-13-2015, 10:41 AM

I appreciate your response! But to clarify, my adapter is a pigtail adapter as well. One side is 50amp female and the other side has a "Y" lead, 30amp male and 15 amp male. With no load on the surge protector I am under the assumption that it should just be checking for stable voltage? I may be out in left field as well...

**sourdough** · 01-13-2015, 10:56 AM

I don't think you can place the 50A surge protector on a 15A plug. The surge protector is looking for 120v on two legs of the plug. I don't know how the adapter is wired but the typical 30a/15a plugs just have one hot lead of 120v instead of two (to provide 240v capability). If the surge protector sees 120v on one lead but not the other it will show low/no voltage due to the one conductor being "dead". A 30A surge protector would look for 120v on one leg I believe. If the pig tail has split the hot lead from the 15A plug and actually wired it to two legs in the 50a plug then there might be another issue. I would just pull the protector off the adapter and plug the 15a in. Remember you can't run a lot off 15a.

burnsy · 01-13-2015, 11:15 AM

Ok, I think I'm following you. So, these adapters that have a 15amp and 30amp pig tail on one side and 50amp female receptacle are actually designed to both be plugged in at the same time? The 15amp will give you a hot leg and the 30amp will give you the other hot leg. That makes more sense to me. Why does a camper that has no 240 appliances need 240v?

{tpc} · 01-13-2015, 12:03 PM

Sounds like you have it figured out. The adapter you purchased with the "y" is designed so that if your camper needs the 50 amp service but the post only has a 30 and 15, you can adapt it to at least bring 45 amps into your rig. Its combining the two into the 50 amp style plug.

Basically it depends on what plug your rig has. If your cord is for 30 amp service, then I would return both items and get the 30 amp power defender. If your cord is for 50 amp service, then you should be ok, provided you have a 30 amp and 15 amp connected to the adapter first, then the other side to your power defender. It will supply the correct voltage, but you won't have the full 50 amps of power to utilize.

Maybe your rig isn't that power hungry. Or maybe you have 2 ac units and it is power hungry. Every one is different. But this is just my take on it, I could be wrong.

As for your question about why 240 if its not needed, think of it kinda like a detached garage. All the plugs might be 120v, but there is 240 feeding the panel. I believe it is because there isn't enough current carrying capability on just a 120v line, so they bring in the 240, and divide it up so you have enough power for all the circuits you might run in the garage. Or something to that effect. I'm probably explaining it wrong...I see things in my head clearer than I can get them out sometimes lol.

burnsy · 01-13-2015, 12:45 PM

TPC,
Thanks!! I'm totally with ya on that now! I have a 2015 fuzion 371 which does have a 50amp service. Two 120v feeds to split load makes complete sense now that I think about it. And the power defender only being plugged into one of the pigtails on the adapter would give it an undervoltage condition. So if my thinking is correct, I should be able to use my 30amp to 15amp adapter,that came in the starter kit, on the 30amp pigtail, then plug both sides of the pigtail in at the house, and the power defender should read that as normal.... Hopefully that made enough sense for you to form an opinion...

**sourdough** · 01-13-2015, 12:46 PM

With the adapter you have you will have to plug in both legs (15 and 30amp) for the surge protector to see voltage on both legs. If you are doing it at home you will probably need another 30a to 15a adapter for the 30a plug on the adapter cable so you can use your regular outlets. If you do that remember that you need to power each leg into the RV from separate breakers inside your house. You can't pull up to 45amps from a 15a breaker. You'll probably have to have an extension cord to run one side of it. That would apply if you are going to try to use the stuff inside the trailer. If you just want to see if the surge protector works you could probably just use both plugs on a duplex outlet if you don't turn on much in the trailer. Did I make any sense? I think the surge protector will probably work then since I believe it is only looking for the proper voltage on each leg.

burnsy · 01-13-2015, 12:53 PM

Sourdough,
You absolutely made sense! I what your saying is exactly what I was thinking. I just want to power up the surge protector. My camper is at a different location, so I wont be able to try it in a "real" situation until I get to a campground. Thanks for all the help!!!

CarbonFun · 01-18-2015, 11:23 PM

I have used that "Y" adapter you're referring to with a 30 to 15 amp adapter on the 30 amp plug. You need to pull power from two separate circuits. I was having a problem with GFCI outlets popping any time I plugged either end of the adapter into it. Once I found two circuits without GFCI it worked just fine.
Good luck.

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