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What do I need to hook up my R-pod 182g to my outside 3 prong electrical outlet? I don't want to fry anything and my house is 15/20 Amp and the Rpod may need 30/50 amp? I guess I need an adapter? and will not be able to run big items. Could this be harmful to rpod elec system? If I do get an adapter is that safe to use to charge the battery and move the slide in and out and maybe run the pump? Is there any manual or electrical dos and do nots articles out there?
It's more convenient to have a 30A plug available, but plugging it into a 20A works just fine. Just don't run a lot of stuff at the same time. AC will probably run by itself but if you run other stuff with it when it's starting and stopping, you may trip your breaker. You can buy converters to go from 30 amp to a standard household plug. In fact, that's how mine is connected right now. I have a 30A plug available, but its connected something else.
30A is ideal. You can get an outlet installed. If you have it done, make sure to emphasize that it is a 110V 30A RV outlet you want. Some electricians may just hear 30A and assume 220V, which will fry your R-Pod. You can connect to 20A and run the AC OR the refrigerator, but not both at the same time. With 15A, you can run everything with the exception of the AC, especially if anything else is on the same circuit. In my house, the ouside outlet will not run the AC without tripping the breaker. It might be okay if I were to turn the breaker for the converter off, but the main reason to be plugged in is to make sure the batteries remain fully charged.
30A -- Run everything. 20A -- Run everything, but not simultaneously. 15A -- Run everything except AC but not simultaneously; maybe run AC if nothing else is running (including converter). The main usefulness of having it plugged in, even if you only have a 15A outlet available is for keeping the battery/batteries charged, providing lighting, keeping the constant parasitic draws from draining your battery/batteries, and for pre-chilling your refrigerator so you don't waste propane doing so. Also, if it is cold, you could run a small ceramic block heater instead of running the furnace. If you do choose to plug in, make sure you use a good, heavy-duty (10 or 12 gauge) extension cord. No 14 or 16 gauge please. Those are too small a conductor to take the load you can expect to put on the cord, especially if you are running the AC.
Is the house circuit you’re connecting to 15 or 20 amp? You can look at the circuit breaker to tell, it will be labeled. If it’s 20A you should be fine unless you try to run the microwave and a/c at the same time. If it’s 15A then the a/c might trip the breaker, but no harm will result. You can select which items you want to run by disconnecting the circuit breakers in the rpod electric panel. They’re labeled with what each on does. Be sure that the one for the water heater is switched off and if you’re on a 15A house circuit then turn off the charger if you’re running the a/c. You’ll need an adapter to connect your trailer power cord to your house outlet.
We have our R-pod plugged into a 15A outlet "most" of the time (through an adapter). We have run the microwave (alone), and we have run the AC (alone, but not for very long). So if the plan is to just keep the batteries topped up, and not the AC or microwave, you can get by with not a lot of power. If I were expecting to run the microwave **OR** the AC, then I would use a 20A plug if you have that available. If I were expecting to run the AC **AND** the microwave together, then you will need a standard 30A RV receptacle.
Looks like I need an adapter. I should have posted I only want to charge batteries and chill fridge and no plans on running microwave or AC. If you have access to your house circuit you can just leave the charger on all the time, its not a problem. If you are charging intermittently, then you should disconnect the battery when not being charged as there are some small parasitic loads in the trailer that you can't easily get rid of. Then, reconnect the battery and turn on the charger overnight every few weeks or so. However you charge them, you should check the battery water level every few weeks as well. We leave our 179 connected to a 15A circuit at storage to trickle charge the batteries. The suggestion to check the water levels is a good one: at one point, our batteries had run almost dry. Make sure you use only distilled water.
You will do yourself a big favor by getting a digital voltmeter. they are under $10. You don't want to let the batteries rundown to more than 50%, or 12.2 v.
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