Polarity

[Allyson]

Do I need to buy a polarity plug and what exactly do they do?

We are off to le bois masson a Siblu site at St Jean-de-Monts for 17 days.

 

[VonRyan]

Hi Allyson

There are several answers to your question.

Firstly you need to confirm the polarity 0f the 230v coming into your van. This is done easily with a polarity tester that are available from most caravan shops and is a simple device that you plug in to a mains socket in your van once you have hooked up to the electric hook up(EHU) Once plugged in a series of lights will illuminate confirming the polarity from the EHU is correct or not(follow this link www.towsure.com/product/545-mains_polarity_tester_plug)

If all is O.K you need not take any action. Get out a beer and chill.

If the plug says the polarity is reversed you need to change it back again which is done by reversing the polarity:

1/ Buy 2 x continental adaptors. These have two pins and a small socket for the earth(see link www.wilmond.co.uk/acatalog/mains_connection.)

One of these you will have to reverse the polarity by reversing the brown(live) and Blue(Nutral) at the Blue end of the lead.(If you are not sure how to do this safely get a competent person to do this for you) This will correct the polarity coming into the van, make sure you clearly label which is normal polarity and which is reversed.

You may not need the continental adaptors as many sites in France and Europe are changing over to the system used here, but again the polarity may be reversed in which case you will need another polarity changer.

2/ In this case this will be made up of two blue connectors as used on your site lead(One male and one female)but you will require a short piece of orange site lead and one end has to be wired as normal Brown live, Blue nutral and Green/yellow earth. The other end that you have will have to have the neutral and live reversed (Brown to nutral/blue to live). Again if you can't do it get a competent person to do it for you. (See wilmond site for the connectors)

These options will give you every variable to deal with reversed polaraty abroad.

If you find that the tester plug says the EHU has no earth speak to the site and tell them you need a EHU with an earth. This has only happened to me once in 30 years of going overseas, but reversed polarity is quite common as both the nutral and live are fused in Europe.

NEVER change the location of the earth wire.

Hope this helps

Rob

 

[Allyson]

Hi Rob

Many thanks for your quick response, we already have one of those adaptors so I will get another just in case, and also pick up polarity tester.

Many thanks

Allyson

 

[VonRyan]

Hi Rob

Many thanks for your quick response, we already have one of those adaptors so I will get another just in case, and also pick up polarity tester.

Many thanks

Allyson

Hi Allyson,

You and your family have a great time! St John du Mont is a great place and we hope the weather is fine. Don't worry too much about the polarity as it does happen, but the French who,s culture I love are slowly coming round to the fact that Brits are their biggest customers and trying to meet their needs.

Have a great holiday.

Are you the Allyson with the Bailey??

Nicky and Rob

 

[Allyson]

Hi Allyson,

You and your family have a great time! St John du Mont is a great place and we hope the weather is fine. Don't worry too much about the polarity as it does happen, but the French who,s culture I love are slowly coming round to the fact that Brits are their biggest customers and trying to meet their needs.

Have a great holiday.

Are you the Allyson with the Bailey??

Nicky and Rob

Yes Rob I am, I was going to ask you the same question.

How's your Burgundy?

I hope you have a good Summer are you off anywhere nice?

Allyson

 

[Allyson]

Yes Rob I am, I was going to ask you the same question.

How's your Burgundy?

I hope you have a good Summer are you off anywhere nice?

Allyson

 

[johno1]

Sorry if this request is a bit cheeky but I,m off to St Jean du Monts mid August could you post a report on the forum please? thanx John o

 

[VonRyan]

Hi Allyson,

The Burgendy is great, still as pleased with it as we were when we first got it 18 months ago and no problems.Not too keen on the New S7 too dark inside for Nicky and I. Keep looking at the Wyoming but Nickys not too happy about twin axels!!

Any way off local as such and no further than Normandy this year as we have had a couple of continental hols with out the caravan and the budget was a little restricted due to going to a wedding in the South of France at Fraisjus then came north to stay with friends in the Cluney area and a quick week in Malta before it got too hot.

Missed the caravan like mad so really looking forward to crossing the channel at the end of this month and meeting up with many friends at Etang des Haizes, La Haye Du Puits C&CC Rally. Just hope the weather is better than last year.

Rob

 

[Allyson]

Hi John O

Don't mind at all.

What type of things would you like me to report back so I can look out for these things?

Allyson

 

[Allyson]

I rang the site to ask about the lead and it's polarity on site a very nice English lady asked the owners, she came back and said the plug was European with 6 being equal? She was not sure what they meant by this.

Can anyone else help?

I think we'll buy another lead just in case so we have both leads with us.

Many thanks

Allyson

 

[RogerL]

Allyson - on the continent, electrical standards use double pole switches which disconnect both live and neutral - so in any one connection it doesn't matter which way round live and neutral are connected. On any given camp site, expect half the sockets to be wired the "wrong" way round.

In the UK, electrical standards use single pole switches so it's vital that the live is switched, not the neutral.

The difference in standards is applied to UK-built caravans which means there's a need to check the polarity and then reverse it if necessary.

Only by checking the caravan with a polarity tester once connected to site electrics can you know if a polarity changer needs to be used - for that particular connection.

 

[RogerL]

The simple answer to this problem would be for UK-built caravans to use double pole switches throughout but that would cost

 

[ThePlotter]

The simple way is to have your normal mains lead,and another about a foot long wired with poitive and neutral reversed on only one end,and a french adaptor.

If you find it is reversed plug the short reverse lead into the van,plug you normal lead into that and then that into the hook up,if it needs a french lead add that at the hook up end.

So that means one normal lead and just two short leads which in my case live in the battey locker.

 

[Reg]

Just spent a few weeks in May/June at St Jean du Monts on the camp site "Campeole les Sir

 

[wendylois]

Just thought it worth mentioning that have returned from a month in France staying on 10 different 4 star campsites through Camping Cheques. More than 50% had reversed polarity, so glad we had a tester and a short conversion lead which my husband made up. Also one site had a continental socket, so we now keep a box in the 'van with all our 'continental site' bits in.

 

[ThePlotter]

As I think somebody said in France it is of course wired correctly as they use a bette system than us which is much safer as when you switch off you switch both live and neutral off.