Boy, did we ever get an earful.
"This 'solution' is more of a money maker for the seller than anything else," said one reader. Others raised many technical concerns, indicating that in practical terms, the device wouldn't really do what RVers wanted it to. We took those concerns to Camco and asked for their comments. It took a while, but finally, Jeff Russell, one of the company's mechanical engineers, returned our call and settled in for a chat about the device.
Rusell admitted that the concept of plugging into two different outlets on the same power pedestal wasn't new; it's just Camco had concerns about overloading an RV's neutral wire, and so that was the reason they designed it to pull a 30 amp leg and a 15 amp leg, the thinking that the combined 45 amp maximum draw wouldn't overload the neutral. And yes, the system isn't designed to provide 240 volts, but rather simply 120--so if your RV's power management system looks to "see" 240 volts, it won't work for you.
Are there power "limitations," we asked? Could you really draw 45 amps? The answer was a "yes and no," situation. You could conceivably pull 45 amps--provided the power loads in your RV were on the correct power legs. For example, if your air conditioner is wired on what the PowerMaximizer "sees" as the 30 amp leg, well and good. But if your air conditioner winds up being wired on the 15 amp leg, you can easily expect to pop the breaker on the RV park pedestal. Of course, the real trouble is, there's really no way of knowing which leg is which. And yes, says Camco's Russell, the RV with a 50-amp service typically can draw 100 amps--two 120 volt legs of 50 amps each. As a result, the "Maximizer's" 45 amps is going to be a pretty paltry supply. But Camco argues it's better than 30 amps provided through a "dogbone" adapter.
Of course, if the RV park you land in has Ground Fault Interrupters in the RV outlet box, you are really dead in the water--the system simply won't work at all. You'll forgive us, dear reader, as the number of times we end up in a commercial RV park in a decade can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. We haven't surveyed just how many parks have GFIs--but by your experiences as related from your comments, it's as one reader said, "That means this device will normally be dead weight in the storage box."
We appreciate your feedback, and the opportunity to give Camco a shot at responding to your thinking. We look forward--maybe with a teesny bit of trepidation--to your next salvo!
Thanks to suneko on flickr for the "shout" photo
