Supply and demand Francais. If folk wish to know if polarity is reversed and are prepared to buy equipment to check it then that market will be supplied. From a technical pov there is no danger and the subject is only discussed on camping forums. Folk go all over the world and plug in stuff via adaptors at hotels and holiday homes, if there was a danger then I'm sure tour operators would highlight it.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 22/8/2015Well our Sunncamp EHU has a warning light for when reverse polarity is present, when that comes on I simply insert the reverse polarity adapter and the warning light goes out.
Job done.
But it begs the question, if reverse polarity is not an issue, why would Sunncamp even bother fitting a warning light on the EHU to inform you of it's presence.
Probably because forums like this make people scared ... I re-iterate: can anyone give me a single example of RP having caused any sort of injury or damage on a campsite ... ever? Note: not the lightning 'seldom' or 'hardly ever' ... but, 'EVER'?
Our FC has an RP indicator on the EHU unit ... from time to time it has lit up ... never changed anything we've done ...
I agree about forums worrying people - every new poster who asks any sort of question is told authoritatively about reverse polarity by those who worry about it. Those of us who don't are just trying to give balance to an answer and to make people aware that it isn't as 'dangerous' as it's made to seem.
When we first went to France thirty-five years ago there were no forums, no internet, and we weren't members of any club, so we just packed and went, buying whatever we needed, extra, once we were there. We never worried a jot about plugging in to 'strange' electrics, just as we'd never worried in any other country when staying in hotels and guesthouses. Nothing happened, so it was a revelation when suddenly reverse polarity popped up as a topic. We decided that as we'd managed for about twenty years, we would just carry on.
Unfortunately newcomers learn about the 'dangers' of reverse polarity and so most probably go out and buy or make up whatever is suggested. However, sometimes this can be dangerous advice - reversing the leads advice lead to someone (on this forum I think) coming back to show what he'd done, just to check, and he'd reverse the wrong leads! Now that really could have been dangerous!
So my take is 'take sensible precautions when using electricity'. Before doing anything which involves working on an electrical item, unplug it. That even means unplugging the caravan if there is a problem with a fuse, a lightbulb, or the fridge. That way we make sure we are protected when we need to be.
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Topic: Reverse Polarity
