Another power plug mishap.....

[Codger2]

It's an 80 year old design, created so aircraft factories during WWII could move equipment around the shop floor.

I fact checked Steve's 80 year old claim and as usual, he's correct! My apologies to all.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

Does anyone use Boeshield T9 as a water repellent- anti corrosion spray on their shore power cables? Any suggestions on what might be a superior product? Thanks Cliff

I've used it and CRC 656 for decades on boat electrical without issue. Boeshield was explained to me by a retired Boeing engineer who was working part time at a local West Marine. That was way back when chandleries had knowledgeable employees.

My understanding of how these work is that they leave behind a waxy residue that stops corrosion. If you have a perfectly clean contact, T9 will seal it and any corrosion on the outside can't creep into the connection. It even runs up under the insulation a bit and keeps that area corrosion free.

The idea of a product that actually conducts and prevents corrosion interests me, assuming that it has the same corrosion resistance. Old dog, new tricks, hmmm.

 

[HiDHo]

Thanks Northern Spy for the confusion I had with the pin material, nickel plated brass vs stainless steel.

 

[Comodave]

Yes, the Smart Plug really only fixes the problem on the boat end. It can’t fix the problem on the dock end because all the docks use the twist lock connectors. However I would much, much rather have a fire on the dock end than on the boat end. If the fire starts at the power pole on the dock chances are that the power will go off to the boat and the boat, maybe with us sleeping on the boat, will probably not catch fire. If that happens rather than the fire starting at the boat end it starts at the dock end, then the Smart Plug will have done it’s job and paid for itself.

 

[HiDHo]

Thanks, I see as you mentioned more burnt power cord plugs on the power pedestal plugs than on the boat ends. Not much hope that the thousands of 1938 style twist lock power pedestal plugs will ever be upgraded to SmartPlugs. Still as you mentioned changing everything over on the boat to SmartPlug is probable a wise decision.

 

[boatpoker]

Our two 30amp cords are hard wired to the boat. thats 12 (I think) fewer connections to go bad. I did that over 20yrs ago after the same experience as the OP.

 

[twistedtree]

I think rather than replacing a crappy 30A plug design with a better proprietary plug, I'd go with a standard IEC 60309 plug used everywhere else in the world except North America.

 

[Beaverlake]

First hand experience earlier this year. Our power pedestals do NOT have a locking ring on the pedestal. Very many of us have rigged some type of support and/or shock cord set up. We had some very very strong wind gusts that apparently corrupted the connection at the pedestal. We have a liveaboard neighbor who, along with the dockmaster, stopped the flames and killed the breaker. Amazingly, total damage to the post was only $72 and the repaired post still has no retaining ring threads. (Dock is being upgraded to 50 amp this summer.)

We have never had an issue with the boat side of the cord - we use the retaining ring.

 

[Steve DAntonio]

I fact checked Steve's 80 year old claim and as usual, he's correct! My apologies to all.

;-) I only know because I had to research it when I wrote an article about SmartPlug when they first came out.

 

[Steve DAntonio]

An example of why a circuit breaker won't protect you from overheating shore cord ends, btw...

https://stevedmarineconsulting.com/october-2011-newsletter/

 

[ghost]

It's hard to say if this one is just under more load than the others. Realistically, if the hottest point on it is still only a few degrees above ambient, I wouldn't call it a problem. It might be worth cleaning the contacts to see if that improves it, but a little bit of heating is normal in any connection being run close to its rating. Feel the plug from your vacuum cleaner after 15 - 20 minutes of vacuuming and I bet you'll find it warm, even if it's brand new and plugged into a new outlet.

You make some great points, don’t want to sound like I’m negating them at all.

Lots of variables, and without knowing what is running on the boat and whether it is already at max load, I can only say that compared to every other boat on the dock, this was the one that stood out. Further investigation externally found an old looking cord, stained insulation, crooked cord in its socket without strain protection and without the securing ring. Is that definitive, probably not, but it gets my attention that close to me and under cover. He is a nice guy, but does not come down very often and been on the fence about selling for a few years. If I inspected 15 minutes later, maybe another boat would have its heater running and I might find it was the worst one. All I can say is that on about 6 different days, this one was consistently noticeable. Also, I’ve noticed that other Marinco cords when showing heat are usually just in the plug area, few seem to back into the cord itself. First year I’ve done this so I’m sure I would learn more on how to interpret readings the more I do. Plus, I would love to dissect that cord and prove whether it has the typical Marinco corroded wires. I’d still bet that it does!

Also, ambient temps were in the 30’s at the time so if we believe the temp reading, it was 40 degrees above ambient. Still failed the feel for heat test, so if someone took its temp externally I think we would not flag it.

Just really want to dissect that cord to prove my suspicions one way or the other. Finding cords “going bad” would be way better than cords that are already obviously unsafe.

 

[ghost]

First hand experience earlier this year. Our power pedestals do NOT have a locking ring on the pedestal. Very many of us have rigged some type of support and/or shock cord set up. We had some very very strong wind gusts that apparently corrupted the connection at the pedestal. We have a liveaboard neighbor who, along with the dockmaster, stopped the flames and killed the breaker. Amazingly, total damage to the post was only $72 and the repaired post still has no retaining ring threads. (Dock is being upgraded to 50 amp this summer.)

We have never had an issue with the boat side of the cord - we use the retaining ring.

View attachment 102521

View attachment 102523

I had a power pole burn down on me once! I would not call any fire safe, but the fact that the pole sat a few feet distance from other things really mattered. Flames out the top about a foot, no more. I think it would have self extinguished, though we hit it with about 3 small extinguishers.

It was running about 25 amps at the time, so it had a pretty good load on it, and the cord end never melted, it was something further inside. The Port of Everett came down about an hour later and replaced it with a power pole that looked even more crusty than the one that just burnt down. I was hoping maybe the internals had been rebuilt, but I suspect not! I moved out a couple months later for reasons unrelated.

 

[Rossland]

I think rather than replacing a crappy 30A plug design with a better proprietary plug, I'd go with a standard IEC 60309 plug used everywhere else in the world except North America.

I too have wondered why we weren't all using IEC 60309

 

[twistedtree]

I too have wondered why we weren't all using IEC 60309

Nothing to stop you from replacing the boat-side connections, just like many replace with SmartPlugs.