A/C Breaker

LGMI_Camping · 05-26-2010, 11:31 PM

Turned on my A/C for the first time this year and the 20 amp breaker has popped twice in the last 3 days. it has been 87-90 here in Michigan, so it has been getting a workout.

After resetting the breaker, it runs just fine for a day.

Any ideas? Would the breaker be bad? Would the startup capacitor be going bad? Or is it just letting me know it has been a while since it was used?

Thks!

scott · 05-26-2010, 11:54 PM

Once a breaker pops a couple of times I believe it begins to get weak. It sounds like the start up load combined with the weak breaker is the problem. Are they still using single pole double's on todays new rigs? Mine had 30amp main and the 20amp AC all on one single pole breaker which is a terrible idea. I would replace the breaker to see if that solves it, if it doesn't and you have the double breakers I would see about separating the A/C to a breaker on it's own.

Hunter11 · 05-27-2010, 12:54 AM

Is there anything else on when the AC breaker trips (ie microwave, water heater on electric) that could be overloading the 20amp breaker? Your trailer is an 09 so if it is just the AC tripping the 20 amp breaker I would have the dealer check it out under the warranty. On our old 05 CruiserI moved the AC unit to its own 20 amp breaker because we had this same issue and never had the problem again once I isolated the AC on it's own breaker. I don't know if the new units come like that from the factory or even have room in the breaker box to add another breaker.

fhenn · 05-27-2010, 02:12 AM

On our cruiser an 2008 the ac was hooked up to the hot water heart. Gave the Ac its own breaker that part has worked well since

seabee · 05-27-2010, 08:37 AM

If the Main and A/C are together [a double breaker], move the A/C to another breaker.

there should be room to install another breaker.

There is heat transfer in the double breaker, which will ultimately cause it to fail.

What you are describing is similiar to what happened to me and finally the main stopped working.

KennyB · 05-27-2010, 09:14 AM

Hunter11, my new 30SK looks like it has two vacant breaker slots but when I asked the dealer service tech if I could add more he said no. I haven't dug into it further but after all the conversation I think I will. Maybe he was concerned that I was going to add more breakers to add another appliance or something and that would overload the main.

dalemac377 · 05-27-2010, 09:20 AM

Go ahead and add the new breaker as Hunter and others have said. You are not increasing the total electrical load, so it won't hurt anything. Those double breakers can be a real problem if both poles have high loads. I did this in our '07 and everything was fine.

Hunter11 · 05-27-2010, 10:41 AM

I used Square D breakers on the Cruiser and bought them at Home Depot. If you get that AC on it's own 20 amp breaker it should solve your problem.

Robbie Ribbins · 05-27-2010, 01:11 PM

Feel of the breaker while A/C is running and see if it is warm. It should not be warm, which means the breaker is going bad if warm.....good luck

scott · 05-28-2010, 01:03 AM

If you don't have room to add more breakers, you might be able to find a 30/15 to replace the 30/20 main the A/Cis hooked to. Then you can buy a single 20, move the A/C to the single 20 then move one of the 15amp circuits over to the 15 amp side of the new 30/15 main. Does that make sense?

Better yet, they shouldn't put the a/c and main together at the factory.

shoetravel · 05-31-2010, 02:54 AM

I wonder why Crossroads continues to use these 30/20 tandem breakers for the main/ac? There is room on the panel for individual breakers and owners have been posting here the problems with the AC side tripping and resolving by moving toseparate breakers.

The Square D breakers are not that expensive.I moved mine to separate breakers about 4 years ago. I don't think it was more than $20.00 forindividual 30A and 20A. I can say my 20A AC breaker hasn't tripped since.

LGMI_Camping · 05-31-2010, 01:33 PM

My main is a 50amp. The AC is on a double Square D breaker. 15 on one side and 20 on the other. The back AC is the only thing on the 20 amp. the Microwave is on the 15 amp.

With noting on, when the AC starts and you hear the breaker buzz/sizzle. It even overloaded my generator this weekend. Tomorrow morning, I am dropping it off at the dealer to check this out.

Hamops · 06-01-2010, 01:12 AM

There were only five slots for breakers so I replaced the dual pole breakers for single pole breakers as follows: 30A for the Main Supply, 20A for the A/C, 15A for the Microwave and a 15A for the water heater. I kept one dual pole 15A breaker for the wall outlets on the front and back of the trailer. I never had any breaker trips with the dual pole breakers but I replaced them before had any problems.

LGMI_Camping · 06-12-2010, 01:19 PM

Update...

Had to take the 5er into the dealer last week to fix the broken slideout. Had them look into the AC for me too.

They ran it for for two days without any issues. turning it on and off, trying to get it to bob the circuit. With nothing. So we will keep an eye on it. Maybe it was just something with the early season "De-Winterizing" HAHA

Question for everyone, any idea of what Hard Start capacitor is needed to replace the original on the 15K unit on my 30SKP?

http://www.supco.com/

has several to offer and I saw on modmyrv.com that it can easily be changed out, but do not know which one to purchase. Need the capacitor to have the AC work with the generator.

Hunter11 · 06-13-2010, 02:02 AM

"Question for everyone, any idea of what Hard Start capacitor is needed to replace the original on the 15K unit on my 30SKP?"

It should not be needed to run the AC on shore power.

Robbie Ribbins · 06-13-2010, 03:07 AM

There are 2 types of Caps. for A/C units. One is a start Cap, and its purpose is to help start the unit when there is low voltage and it is hooked to the Start side of the compressor. There are two types of start cap, one being a hard start , and it has a cap and a relay that will drop out the cap when unit is started. The other is a solft start kit and it is all electronic and does the same as the hard but not quite as heavy duty. The other is a run cap. and its purpose is to help the unit run on lower than normal voltage. Example is on a 230 volt system the A/C will run ok, but as load on the power company get higher the voltage will drop and as it drops you will pull higher amps and this creates heat. By having a run cap it will help the unit keep running down to approx. 200 volts, and then it will shut down when this voltage gets to low. I sure you have a 120 volt A/C and some of these units will not have a cap from the factory so it could be a problem wiring it up. You will find the low voltage problem more in the country than the city. Good luck

salda01 · 06-14-2010, 01:22 AM

I have noticed with my unit the A/C breaker will trip when the Water heater is set to electric, and we have just set up camp. I feel with the water heater heating and the A/C cooling to much heat is being generated within the dual pull WH / AC breaker. I'm going to look at breaking them out separately.

Hamops · 06-14-2010, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by salda01

I have noticed with my unit the A/C breaker will trip when the Water heater is set to electric, and we have just set up camp. I feel with the water heater heating and the A/C cooling to much heat is being generated within the dual pull WH / AC breaker. I'm going to look at breaking them out separately.

In the meantime, you could run the water heater on gas which heats it quicker. With the A/C running and electric water heater on, the converter going and any other device running, you are probably drawing well over 30A of AC current. I normally run the WH on gas so that I'll have about 11A of AC current always available for other uses.

Changing the breakers won't totally solve your problem because if you still run your systems the same way, then you are still going to have a breaker trip. Edited by: Hamops

salda01 · 06-14-2010, 11:55 AM

Thanks George... I haven't thought about the total drain and guess this is why the main trips when DW uses the blow dryer.

Guesstimate
A/C 20 amps
WH 10 amps
TV on lounge area 1-2amp
TV on MB area 1-2 amps
Lights +-1amp
Blow Dryer 5-8 amps

Going forward with A/C running use the WH on gas for initial heat-up, electric to maintain, then if we have back to back showers switch to gas. I just hate using propane when I'm paying for electric.

I'll still perform the breaker separation as I feel it will only aid in the cooling of the breakers.

Thanks again.

Edited by: salda01

ClassicHammond · 06-14-2010, 03:13 PM

When the DW runs her blow dryer she turns off the AC. It'll blow the breaker, last time on the stalk, every time.

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