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Home Shore Power, no power

sab

Regular Contributor
My boat is 250ft from the nearest house AC GFCI receptacle. I wish to use the AC battery tender, installed on the boat, powered from my [lake] house, e.g., like shore power.

I installed, across from my house (road), a Male outdoor enclosed AC receptacle. Near the boat (225’) is a female enclosed outdoor GFCI. The cable (wire) between the two receptacles sits an above ground type UF (?) underground 14-gauge 3 conductor gray cable. I planned on using a temporary grounded extension cord from the house GFCI to the male plug to power the GFCI near the boat. (Note the house AC GFCI is new and trips/resets correctly, and both the house AC GCFI, and the 225’ away GCFI near the boat are in series, if that matters.)

Problem: The female GFCI near the boat (225 ft) has no power. Water and wring are not the issue.

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The female GFCI near the boat wont trip/reset, has no power, but the GFCI equipped led light is lit green. I replaced the GFCI with another GFCI, same issue.

- If I replace the [near the boat] GFCI with a simple home receptacle the LED idiot test light shows properly grounded lights (two yellow) but again no power to the tender. Another tester shows 110 Amps.

Is the problem really a voltage drop for 225’? I’m going to do some more testing, inspect the wire, and use a better tester for voltage but wanted to post this first.

In the past, I’ve daisy chained 250’ worth of extension cords and they seem to work fine (drills), so I wanted a more permanent solution. Thanks.
 
There shouldn't be any voltage drop with AC. It's likely you have bad connection somewhere. You can use extension cords but use the heavy duty ones that are rated (UL) for outdoor use. They make these waterproof boxes that you use for the connection between cords, so if you are using 2 x 100" and one 50' you'll want to get a few for those connections so that water won't get in the plugs.
I ran over 200 feet out to my pond for the bubblers and that's what I used. 5 years so far no issues.

In 1/60 of a second, the speed of the electricity flows through that wire roughly 5 million meters, so your 225 feet is not even a thing.
 
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I'm trying to get away from running extension cords and just run them to the male plug and the boat. The only WB I haven't opened is the one with the male plug top of hill. Will do that today. I'm thinking get rid of the fancy plastic hinged water tight WB's and get male plug for the top of the hill and a female plug for the bottom where the boat is... I've made unicorns and I should of only made a deer
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Found problem: wire in sealed work box cut (sabotage). That's all I can say. Looks somebody wants to stay with old ways.....thanks
 
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