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Review on Camco 21050 Heavy Duty PowerGrip Maximizer 45 AMP Adapter - Efficiently Boost RV Power with Combined 15 & 30 AMP Outlets (55025) by James Salem

Revainrating 3 out of 5

great if you understand the limitations

As usual, most of the bad reviews on this product come from people who don't understand how it works or what it can and can't do based on the laws of physics. If you know what you're getting into and what the limits are, this is a very useful device. ;) In the past we installed a 30 amp outlet in our house for our trailer, but recently we replaced it with a trailer with two 50 amp air conditioners. Luckily we have a 20 amp non GFCI outlet nearby in the garage so I bought this to be able to run both air conditioners when we use the caravan as a guest house. Combined with our Progressive Industries PT50C (http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UC4SWM) I can control the power on each leg so I know what I can and can't work at the same time. You may not know, a 50A RV connector is actually giving you 100A over two independent 50A anti-phase legs. Some devices in your motorhome are on one leg and others are on the other. By watching the power monitor above, you can turn devices on and off to find out which devices are on which leg and how much power they're using. The leg is 20 amps so you still need to know what you're using, but you're better off than being stuck with just 30 amps. In my living room, air conditioning, microwave and refrigerator are on the 1st leg (30 amp plug). In my bedroom, the air conditioner, water heater and charger are on branch 2 (15/20 amp branch). So I know that if I run the water heater on propane and don't have recently dead batteries connected, I can safely turn on the bedroom air conditioner at the same time as the living room air conditioner on the other leg. Please note you cannot use this with a 15/20A GFCI socket. This will turn off the switch. This means you can't use this at most RV parks as the code requires them to be GFCI exits.

Pros
  • Power and Electrical
Cons
  • weak