Smart Plug install

On the weekend we discovered that our new electric block heaters had overloaded our old Marinco twist lock plug.

We managed to completely burn out one of the poles of the twistlock receptacle as well as on the cord end. We were very lucky to not have anything catch fire as there were some clear marks of heat damage on the receptacle and housing.

I picked up a new smart plug receptacle and cord end on my way home from work today. Although it costs a lot more than the Marinco twist lock ones, I was extremely impressed with the quality of construction as well as the built in safety features of the smart plug.

The smart plug is a straight blade plug that can only be inserted in a single orientation, so smart plug claims they get get more surface area contact for the same real estate.

It will be interesting to see if enough people convert to the smart plug to allow the marinas to convert from their twist lock receptacles to the new generation of smart plugs on the shore connection side.