Reverse polarity extension leads help please

[darby]

Hello all. We are hopefully off to our first visit to France ! But have been told we need a reverse polarity extension lead been to our local sales shops and they do not stock them can any one help with we're we can purchase one from please regards darby

[Tracker]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

You will need a continental adaptor anyway so you could always order two of these and switch polarity on one of them - don't forget to mark which one in waterproof markings though!

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kampa-Continental-Adaptor-Caravan-Electric/dp/B0029OIVQU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378299597&sr=8-1&keywords=polarity+converter

 

 

One of these is handy too so that you can tell.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mains-Polarity-Tester-Plug/dp/B002QW3SL8/ref=pd_bxgy_sg_img_y

 

 

That said as everything these days tends to be double insulated I doubt you will even notice if the polarity is reversed and I doubt any harm will come to you.

 

Other leads and devices are available!

[Retread24800]

Ah yes reversed polarity, this is a problem that only affects British caravanners. The cunning Continentals switch off both the Live and the Neutral wires. Due to a basic design fault the British only switch off one wire.

You will need a polarity tester to check if the supply you receive is as you would expect in the U.K or reversed so that your switches will only' turn off ' the neutral wire.

Normally French sites have the standard blue socket we are used to seeing in the U.K and no further adaptors are needed, however some, out in the sticks, will need the standard ( Schuko) 2 pin and hole for the earth plug and that is what the previous poster was referring to.

To make a reverse polarity adaptor take a blue socket and a blue plug and a short length of 2.5mm Cable. Wire one end correctly but wire the other end with the live and neutral wires reversed, in all cases the Earth wire must never be messed with. When you plug into the site socket post (Borne) with the blue plug or the blue plug and the two pin adaptor lead, check your polarity state with the polarity tester and only if the polarity is reversed do you need to use the adaptor on the end of your existing lead, I tend to put it at the caravan end. Bienvenue !!!   

[Dave225]

Unless you have very dodgy electricals then you really do not need to worry about reverse polarity. All the equipment will still work as normal so unless you decide to poke the toaster with a fork when it is on, you are unlikely to see any difference. If your van has been made, or has EU approved parts, then it is likely the circuit breakers will handle either way anyway. If you have still a wariness then use a safety plug in the 3 pin socket and that will detect any malfunction before you go up in a pile of sparks. Making up crossover leads is not a good idea as you may forget what you have done and use the wrong one.

 

Note that most UK electricals have 13 amp fuses which will probably blow you before they blow.

[spospe]

Dave225 - 2013-09-10 8:58 PM

 

Unless you have very dodgy electricals then you really do not need to worry about reverse polarity. All the equipment will still work as normal so unless you decide to poke the toaster with a fork when it is on, you are unlikely to see any difference.

 

 

Our Eberspächer diesel heater will not work on mains if the polarity is reversed; diesel yes, mains no.

[spospe]

Retread24800 - 2013-09-04 9:06 PM

 

Ah yes reversed polarity, this is a problem that only affects British caravanners. The cunning Continentals switch off both the Live and the Neutral wires. Due to a basic design fault the British only switch off one wire

 

 

 

We switch one wire for safety reasons. With one wire switched a circuit is either isolated, or not. With switching two wires, if the switch partially fails (and this has happened to me) the circuit could be left live even though it has been 'switched off' (this happens when the switch fails to open both Live and Neutral and only opens the Neutral).

[Retread24800]

spospe - 2013-12-02 6:19 PM

Retread24800 - 2013-09-04 9:06 PMAh yes reversed polarity, this is a problem that only affects British caravanners. The cunning Continentals switch off both the Live and the Neutral wires. Due to a basic design fault the British only switch off one wire  

We switch one wire for safety reasons. With one wire switched a circuit is either isolated, or not. With switching two wires, if the switch partially fails (and this has happened to me) the circuit could be left live even though it has been 'switched off' (this happens when the switch fails to open both Live and Neutral and only opens the Neutral).

 

Ahhh we continentals tend to unplug our appliances before messing with the internals, in fact in my Van and home there is a distinct lack of switched sockets. and each circuit is protected against leakages to earth via my body for which I'm truly grateful :-)

 

[Derek Uzzell]

spospe - 2013-12-02 5:13 PM

 

Our Eberspächer diesel heater will not work on mains if the polarity is reversed; diesel yes, mains no.

 

Presumably you are referring to the "Airlectric" mains-powered heater that could be added to an Eberspacher "Airtronic" air-heater?

 

Odd that it should be polarity-sensitive as this would radically limit its marketing scope. Does it actually warn of this in the Duetto handbook?

[Dave225]

I guess there is always at least one exception to the rules. I would venture to suggest that the vast majority of people travelling from the UK to France will not need to worry about this issue, as long as their system is up to standard. 9 times out of 10 a problem arises due to poor maintenance. More and more sites in France have converted to the normal blue plug system and it will only be in more remote sites such as Municipals where you may still find the old plug system. I also suspect, from experience, that in such a case it will be trying to find a socket that actually works rather than the polarity

 

You could make up 2 leads to cover the eventuality but even if you mark them there is always the possibility that someone not familiar with what you have done, uses them with possible bad results.

[Derek Uzzell]

The simplest ploy for dealing with a reversed-polarity mains power-supply is to add an adapter to the end of the hook-up cable that connects to the leisure-vehicle.

 

Then the power-supply's design of outlet and any adapter that might need to be added to the 'power-supply end' of the hook-up cable can be removed from the equation.

 

If one is able to connect to the mains power-supply (and find its polarity is reversed) introducing a reversing adapter at the end of the hook-up cable that connects to the leisure-vehicle will straightforwardly correct the polarity.

 

This was discussed here

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Hints-and-Tips/Reverse-polarity/32435/

[bolero boy]

.....agreed, Derek, as reverse polarity can be found on both on the older 2 pin power supplies and the more recent 'EEC' blue adaptor supplies.

[Dave225]

As an addendum to this topic, if you buy one of those polarity checkers that plugs into a socket, you will note that it has 3 options. The 3rd option is that the supply has a poor, or non existent earth. I have found this on at least one French campsite and in this case I would advise to not touch it at all. This was on a CC recommended site but after my advising??? them of the situation, they dropped the site.