Bad adapter design

Don't believe everything you read or watch online…

From my RVelectricity by Mike Sokol Facebook Group

Hey Mike,

I found a video on the Camco website which is definitely misleading... - Ron

Watch the video HERE.

Dear Ron,

Thanks for finding and posting that. This is wrong on so many levels. As you noted in your screen grab, “What this means for you is you can plug your 30 Amp RV in a home and it’s less likely to trip the breaker”.

That’s a complete crock! This gadget isn’t going to somehow increase the amount of current your 15 or 20-amp circuit breaker can supply. I believe this misleading statement is due to the urban myth that voltage drop automatically causes more current draw, and that’s simply not true. While low voltage on an air conditioner compressor does increase the current draw due to reduced back-EMF voltage, the majority of electrical loads in an RV will draw less current as the voltage sags. You can’t make more power this way!

This thing flips the ground pin

While the designers thought this was a good idea, if you plug it into a campsite receptacle with the ground pin properly oriented towards the top, the 30-amp outlet now has its ground pin at the bottom. This will flip your 30-amp shore power plug upside down, increasing the tendency for it to pull out.

This adapter jumpers the two hot contacts together

This is a problem on several levels. First of all, if you plug it into your house duplex receptacle, many of them will be on two separate circuits. That’s what allows the top outlet to be turned on and off from a wall switch. And there’s nothing to guarantee that the top and bottom outlets in a switched duplex receptacle are wired on the same leg of split-phase power. That would create a dead short-circuit (and a big arc) when you plug this in.

The other danger is someone using this on the end of an extension cord as a 15 to 30-amp adapter. If you do that, it will leave one of the hot contacts exposed which is a serious shock hazard.

This is a bad design with misleading marketing

I hate it when companies get influencers to promote their products. And many times those influencers really don’t understand what they’re talking about. This is especially dangerous when this misinformation is included on a company website.

Get a proper 15/30-amp adapter and make sure your contacts are clean

If you need to plug your 30-amp RV into a house receptacle, then best thing is to get a correctly oriented 15/30-amp dogbone adapter. While the straight 15-amp plug version works, some are available with a right-angle plug that has the 15-amp ground pin at the bottom. That allows the dogbone adapter to hang down properly reducing the tendency to pull out of the outlet. Here’s the only one I’ve seen so far that’s built like this. I found it HERE.

Let’s play safe out there… Mike