Electric Skillet

wbdmadvt

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
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554
15C210P

For those that use an electric skillet to cook with outside so camper doesn’t smell like a commercial kitchen, what outlets do you use?

If I am reading the manual correctly, the outlet above kitchen sink and the one under the 3rd seat are fed by the 750W inverter. Use of these would clearly trip the inverter. The other outlets are in back on the drivers side. I think these would be fed by either shore or generator power

these will require a suitable sized extension cord
 
I ran a 14/2 romex down from the breaker panel to the seat pedestal and installed a double outlet in the pedestal facing the aisle. This provides an outlet independent of the inverter circuitry. I primarily use it to run a small electric heater for heating in cold weather when I have shore power. I also use it to power an induction cooking plate. Outlets on both sides of the pedestal can be powered from this circuit.
 
I ran a 14/2 romex down from the breaker panel to the seat pedestal and installed a double outlet in the pedestal facing the aisle. This provides an outlet independent of the inverter circuitry. I primarily use it to run a small electric heater for heating in cold weather when I have shore power. I also use it to power an induction cooking plate. Outlets on both sides of the pedestal can be powered from this circuit.
You really shouldn't have to worry about the inverter circuits as there should be an internal automatic transfer switch to power the the two or three outlets that come on when on batteries from the inverter. Usually the audio cabinet and kitchen outlets and maybe one more in the armoire on the kitchen side if you have that. All the other outlets are powered from the fuse panel just like the ones you added and and the 2 or 3 have full shore power current but it comes from the inverter charger transfer switch.
 
The inverter-fed outlets are connected to shore power within the Tripp-Lite. With AC shore tie or generator, the TL operates as a battery charger and also passes the 120vac thru to the two outlets you mention. They become the only outlets powered by the inverter if no external AC is present.

As for an outside outlet, I added this, fed from the GFCI located near the main door.

I modified my system to have the inverter return power to the entire panel, mainly to have convenience of running small items, chargers etc off any outlet. This requires some load management, so I open the breakers for the HW heater and Air Conditioner when running on inverter. Here is a length thread explaining the changes...
 

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You really shouldn't have to worry about the inverter circuits as there should be an internal automatic transfer switch to power the the two or three outlets that come on when on batteries from the inverter. Usually the audio cabinet and kitchen outlets and maybe one more in the armoire on the kitchen side if you have that. All the other outlets are powered from the fuse panel just like the ones you added and and the 2 or 3 have full shore power current but it comes from the inverter charger transfer switch.
What I worry about is that the power to the inverter, which is passed through by the internal transfer switch, is supplied through a #16 AWG cord terminated in IEC connectors rated for 10 amps continuous current. These would be bound to get hot when using an electric cooking appliance or electric space heater.
 
What I worry about is that the power to the inverter, which is passed through by the internal transfer switch, is supplied through a #16 AWG cord terminated in IEC connectors rated for 10 amps continuous current. These would be bound to get hot when using an electric cooking appliance or electric space heater.
Are you talking about the internal wiring of the inverter/charger? If so, they would have calculated the wire sizes and lengths to be safe, in the design stage. The visible wiring is all full size romex cable, I think. It is very common to have "undersize" wiring internally in a wire device as they calc the heat rise based on the conditions the wire sees. A wire in free air will be OK at a considerably higher amperage than on in a harness with other wires for instance. A lot of the charts are based on voltage drop, but a few allow you to figure in heat, the Blue Sea circuit calculator is one of them.

IIRC from when we had a Tripplite, it had a feed from the 10v circuit panel in the roadtrek and than passed through with the same size wiring to the inverter outlets. It is hard to believe that the internals of the unit would not handle that current in an old school inverter/charger.
 
My 1500/3000 w inverter came with measly 10 or 12 gauge with a small print instruction that said suitable for small loads, higher gauge wire recommended for actual anticipated loads. I initially used 4 awg, but recently upgraded to 0 awg all with shop installed terminals. While it worked for most loads, the 4 awg proved insufficient when a connection melted without blowing the previous fuse. The inverter is now protected by a 150a breaker, which is appropriate for the 120v 1500w output.
 
My 1500/3000 w inverter came with measly 10 or 12 gauge with a small print instruction that said suitable for small loads, higher gauge wire recommended for actual anticipated loads. I initially used 4 awg, but recently upgraded to 0 awg all with shop installed terminals. While it worked for most loads, the 4 awg proved insufficient when a connection melted without blowing the previous fuse. The inverter is now protected by a 150a breaker, which is appropriate for the 120v 1500w output.
The connectors are often a problem, I think, and 4ga with a standard hand crimper could be issues for sure.

There are decent crimpers on the market for larger cables and wires, but the lever action ones are quite expensive. Way back in the beginning of the many upgrades on our van I bought a $20 "hammer" crimper which is just a guided punch in a base. As long as you have a solid base for it to pound it hard with a 2.5 pound mallet. I have used it on many, many, connectors up to 4/0 with it and have no issues. I do always check the resistance when done and temp in use. The downside is you have to remove the cable from the van to get it to bench to be able to have a solid surface. My bench is 2X10s on the top of douglas fir with a 2X2 foot square steel plate in one corner where the vise is mounted so very stout.

Hauling them in to get crimped is not on my list of things, I think. Sometimes, when space is critical, I have to redo a length by a bit and at home it is the cost of a connector and a little cable.
 
My 1500/3000 w inverter came with measly 10 or 12 gauge with a small print instruction that said suitable for small loads, higher gauge wire recommended for actual anticipated loads. I initially used 4 awg, but recently upgraded to 0 awg all with shop installed terminals. While it worked for most loads, the 4 awg proved insufficient when a connection melted without blowing the previous fuse. The inverter is now protected by a 150a breaker, which is appropriate for the 120v 1500w output.
I assume the 150a breaker is a typo as 120v 1500w output is only 12.5 amps, so a 15 A breaker would be appropriate
 
I assume the 150a breaker is a typo as 120v 1500w output is only 12.5 amps, so a 15 A breaker would be appropriate
He is referring to the 12v side of the inverter not the output which would be 110v and under 15 amps.

Inverters are always somewhat in efficient so if you have 1500 watts output, you need probably 10-20% more watts than 1500 to power it on the 12v side.
 
Are you talking about the internal wiring of the inverter/charger? If so, they would have calculated the wire sizes and lengths to be safe, in the design stage. The visible wiring is all full size romex cable, I think. It is very common to have "undersize" wiring internally in a wire device as they calc the heat rise based on the conditions the wire sees. A wire in free air will be OK at a considerably higher amperage than on in a harness with other wires for instance. A lot of the charts are based on voltage drop, but a few allow you to figure in heat, the Blue Sea circuit calculator is one of them.

IIRC from when we had a Tripplite, it had a feed from the 10v circuit panel in the roadtrek and than passed through with the same size wiring to the inverter outlets. It is hard to believe that the internals of the unit would not handle that current in an old school inverter/charger.
Booster, I am not referring to the TrippLite internal transfer switch but rather the in and out 120 volt connections on the inverter. Please see the picture, that IEC connector is rated at 10 amps continuous and the wire in the 3 wire cords is 3/14 AWG I think.
 

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Booster, I am not referring to the TrippLite internal transfer switch but rather the in and out 120 volt connections on the inverter. Please see the picture, that IEC connector is rated at 10 amps continuous and the wire in the 3 wire cords is 3/14 AWG I think.
On AC circuits for 15 amps AC are rated for 14ga copper wire in all conditions except long cable lengths that would get too much voltage drop.

The rating on the output plugs in the boxes is after the Tripplite, and if yours is like the current literature there would be two output breakers on the unit rated at 6 and 8 amps so a 10 amp outlet would not be overloaded.

As mentioned earlier, the Roadtrek system is not typical because of how they do the "inverter" outlets that are usually kitchen, audio and maybe one other.

Shore power comes into the van and goes to the breaker box. The breaker box then feeds all the outlets except the three above. The power for those three goes through the Tripplite and right or wrong they may be limiting the output of those outlets. If they combined the outputs, you would have 14 amps, if they didn't you would probably get 8 or 6 depending which breaker. The Tripplite is a small unit that charges at 45 amps max and has 750watt modified sine wave inverter so they count on the entire unit taking no more than 15 amps of 110v AC and then the split off the charger allotment. The breaker that feeds it from the panel is 15 amps. It sorta kinda makes since to limit to the same output on shore power as max output on inverter, but also not really unless the transfer switch is too small, and that is likely in a unit of that size.

The 750 watt modified sine wave inverter is getting pretty out of date as it will not run a lot of current electronics or appliances because of the modified sine wave.

If you want to run a 1500 watt heater or appliance, obviously it has to be on shore power or generator. To do that you probably need to just plug into a "non inverter" outlet which are all them except the ones mentioned above. Extension cord would work, and rewiring the kitchen outlet isn't terribly difficult, I have done that in the past. All you do is run a cable down from the microwave outlet above it and disconnect/cap the original cable to it.

All the above is why lots of us have ditched the Tripplite. Our van has been modified to a much larger inverter/charger and wiring changed so all outlets can run on inverter and shore power through the unit. They are are at rated power with no limiting because the Transfer switch in the inverter charger is large enough to run 30 amps.
 
All the above is why lots of us have ditched the Tripplite. Our van has been modified to a much larger inverter/charger and wiring changed so all outlets can run on inverter and shore power through the unit. They are are at rated power with no limiting because the Transfer switch in the inverter charger is large enough to run 30 amps.
Do you have a link for more information on this?
 
Here is our original update to big invert/charger in 2015.


Since then it has incremental upgrades over the years, including going to 618ah of lithium about 3 years ago and just this year, the Magnum failed and they were out of business so couldn't get another. It now has a 3000 watt/130amp inverter charger by Samlex in it.

These are major upgrades the are expensive even doing the work myself.

I think it would help if we knew what kind of batteries you have and how large the battery bank is, plus what you trying to accomplish with it all including camping style and charging preferences. Depending on your needs and wants going forward there are probably reasonable ways to get there, like the previously mentioned kitchen outlet rewiring.
 

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