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deicer

steven

Sustaining Member
My new deicer (Taylormade 3/4hp) turns on for a minute and then shuts down.
Five or so minutes later it repeats.

Taylormade Support says it has to be plugged into a 110v GFI circuit.
Whereas I have it plugged into a 30amp to 120v dock adapter.

Is there such a thing as a 30amp to 110 GFI ?
Or would I need an inline outdoor 110 to 110 GFI to go to the 30amp adapter ?
Or maybe plug it to on an onboard GFI circuit ?

This is a surprise (didn't see it in the literature - maybe I missed it).

Anybody have experience with deicers ?
Does this make any sense?

thanks

--Steve
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Our whole marina converted from conventional 30 amp marine twist lock, to 30 amp GFI outlets a few years ago. A handful of boats had problems with their shore side breaker tripping, but no individual AC devices. Most of the problem boats had OEM hot water heaters with the usual 115 amp AC heater coil inside for heating water with shore power. I have not heard of any problems with any other AC tools or devices plugged into those outlets. Hope you can find your answer.
We do not need de-icers here, so have no thoughts on that.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
No, doesn't make sense. Perhaps this is normal behavior for your unit? Is there a thermostat setting?

If there were a ground fault, the GFI would simply trip and stay off until you reset it. 110/120VAC extension cords with built in GFI are available at your nearest hardware store. But look to see if your pedestal has one already (there would be a reset button, maybe underneath.)

None of the outlets on your boat are likely to be wired or fused properly for a 3/4 hp motor. If you don't blow a fuse, you could start a fire.

If something is wrong with the unit, causing it to overheat, it might go into thermal overload shutdown. In which case it wouldn't turn on again until it cooled down. But usually this takes more than five minutes (maybe not if immersed in ice water?) and usually requires toggling the power off and on.

If there are a bunch of adapters, make sure all connections are solid and dry. Poor connections could create high resistance/low voltage.

As a last resort, RTFM.
 
Last edited:

peaman

Sustaining Member
West Marine says the unit is available with an optional thermostat control. I wonder if the bottom water temperature there is not yet cold enough to need the unit to run continuously? Just a thought, since your description of the electrical setup does not sound like a problem.
 

steven

Sustaining Member
this unit does not as far as I know have a thermostat.
Seemed to run fine when I tested it in Nov in 47deg water

However, does not work on any of the five 30amp dock outlets that I tested today.
Also tried four different 30amp to 110v adapters to no avail.

I also ran it into the boat shore power and sure enough it trips the outlet GFI or the shore power breaker or both.

Seems either power to the dock circuit has got a problem or the unit is defective.
If I get a break in the weather I'll pull it, take it back to the house - see if it works on house current.


--Steve
 
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