AC electrical problem getting crazy!!

[Mario Tranquilein]

Hi friends: I have my New Year Eve trip at the corner and still don't find my problem. The port breakers from saloon sink counter to V berth including bathroom dead suddenly. One day my boys are looking Tv and the zoom no power. First I tested and no ground appear no nothing all outlets dead but the outlets of the aft cabin in port side connected to that breaker are good. I checked several times and yes that outlets are connected to the same breaker. I changed yesterdey all switches and outlets in the dead area but nothing changed. This is getting me crazy, I checked for burn cables or terminals nothing for the moment. I put power in one outlet ground and the breaker jump to off so that's the breaker and his working because I have a portable air cond in the aft cabin connected to the outlet. Please any advice? Thanks and Happy New Years Eve! Mario

[eze2bme]

You should have a ground fault outlet in the forward head ... check that it didn't trip out thus cutting off the rest of the outlets in that circuit beyond it. There should also be a ground fault outlet in the galley ... check it also.

[Boatsb]

The GFI outlets will trip and shut all the other outlets down the line off. As stated above that sounds like a real good place to start.

If they do not look like they tripped press the test and reset buttons anyway. If the do not reset check for current going in to them.

[Dan Mapes]

+1 on a single GFI dropping all the outlets. If you changed all the outlets and they are not working at all something else is wrong. If the GFI pops immediately then something is miswired or grounding by accident.
If the latter is the case disconnect everyone else from the GFI and test the circuit with an ohmeter.

[fissioneng]

When I bought my boat, it had a 6 from 2 receptacle expander plugged into one of the outlets. The GFCI on that circuit (upstream) would trip intermittently until I unplugged that expander. Apparently it was leaky. If you have anything like this, try removing it.

[Boatnut]

Be sure to check your ground connections, if neutral and ground are reveresed this problem can occur, it could be on anything connected to the faulty circuit. You can try unplugging or disconnecting things on that branch of the circuit, wjhen the problem goes away that was the culprit causing the problem. The GFI compares the diffenence between the hot and the neutral, if they are unequal then another path for return current is present, and can be dangerous. Ground and neutral should not be tied together except at the source.

[Mario Tranquilein]

Hi: the only strange thing I noticed replacing the outlets was a outlet in thr top of the bathroom (outside) beside the windows. This one was very rare and don't have ground connected the ground was hanging. When I installed the new outlet I attach them. Other thing was an outlet in the head that have a switch beside them that switch was completly loose in his interior and I don't know what is the purpoise of them. I still don't change them he have a black cable that came from the outlet, ground that came from the outlet and a black cables that goes behind the wall I think to light that the previous owner installed in the wall that don't want to work either. Apart to that I completly lost here. Thanks to everyone I will try again tomorrow