March 25, 2025 • 19 mins
SoftStartUp was provided to us for free, but all information in this podcast are our own.
Are you ready for some mooch docking mayhem?! 🤯 In this episode, we put our RV's power limits to the test with SoftStartUp to see just how much we can run on a 20 amp connection. 💪⚡
🔥 What We Tested:
✅ One AC unit (success!)
✅ Two AC units (kind of... for a while 😅)
✅ Microwave magic (sometimes yes, sometimes no!)
✅ Air fryer feasting (hit or miss 🤷)
✅ Dryer drama (success, thank goodness for clean clothes!)
Along the way, we laugh, fail, and figure out exactly what you can (and can't) get away with when you're mooch docking at a friend's house. Because the last thing you want is to trip their breaker at midnight trying to heat up a Hot Pocket! 😂🥶
Don't forget to like, subscribe, and ring that bell 🔔 so you don't miss more RV adventures with us! 🚙💨
👉 Want your own SoftStartUp? Check it out here: softstartup.com/wanderingrvbabe
📌 Follow Us:
📸 Instagram: https://bit.ly/3MAV2sC
📘 Facebook: https://bit.ly/3GBAYT7
🎙️ Podcast: https://bit.ly/3o2pC4a
🎵 TikTok: http://bit.ly/41hT1FB
🏕️ Happy Camping & Stay Safe Out There!
Byyyyeeeeeee! 🚐✨
Support us through our Amazon Store: https://podcast.wanderingbabe.com/amazonstore
*Special thanks for our Intro/Outro music to Stock Media provided by stockmusic331 / Pond5
Are you ready for some mooch docking mayhem?! 🤯 In this episode, we put our RV's power limits to the test with SoftStartUp to see just how much we can run on a 20 amp connection. 💪⚡
🔥 What We Tested:
✅ One AC unit (success!)
✅ Two AC units (kind of... for a while 😅)
✅ Microwave magic (sometimes yes, sometimes no!)
✅ Air fryer feasting (hit or miss 🤷)
✅ Dryer drama (success, thank goodness for clean clothes!)
Along the way, we laugh, fail, and figure out exactly what you can (and can't) get away with when you're mooch docking at a friend's house. Because the last thing you want is to trip their breaker at midnight trying to heat up a Hot Pocket! 😂🥶
Don't forget to like, subscribe, and ring that bell 🔔 so you don't miss more RV adventures with us! 🚙💨
👉 Want your own SoftStartUp? Check it out here: softstartup.com/wanderingrvbabe
📌 Follow Us:
📸 Instagram: https://bit.ly/3MAV2sC
📘 Facebook: https://bit.ly/3GBAYT7
🎙️ Podcast: https://bit.ly/3o2pC4a
🎵 TikTok: http://bit.ly/41hT1FB
🏕️ Happy Camping & Stay Safe Out There!
Byyyyeeeeeee! 🚐✨
Support us through our Amazon Store: https://podcast.wanderingbabe.com/amazonstore
*Special thanks for our Intro/Outro music to Stock Media provided by stockmusic331 / Pond5
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, podcast listener, thanks for listening to us on your
way to work or you know, to your next camping trip.
This is a YouTube first show, so if you want
the full experience, go check us out on.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
YouTube two too too, Too, Too too two. So you
know what's really fun? What mooch stocking? You know what's
more fun?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Mooch stocking with power, mood stocking with AC units.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Oh, good call, that's actually better.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's actually better. So we picked up soft startup.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We use this when we don't have a full fifty
amp connection and a lot of campground pedestals will have
a thirty amp to a fifty ant connection, which this
comes in handy. But we've never tested it with just
a twenty amp connection before.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well, we're gonna find out today how it goes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Let's roll. Welcome to the Wandering RV Show.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Your source for our stories, our scripts, and our success
is living the full.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Time RV life. I'm your most care of the Wandering
RV bit. This is my driver, Ryan Honeywa.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So uh, what is mooch stocking.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, mooch stocking is when you plug your RV. Well,
you actually don't have to plug your RV.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hold on now back up.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's let's start that over. Moochtocking is
when you.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Park your RV in somebody's yard or driveway.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, like you know, a friend's house or family's house.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I mean something like that, Yeah, something like that. I
mean boondocking is when you're you know, out there without
any electricity or anything. And mooch stocking is just actually no,
mootch stocking is when you're plugging in, because mooching is.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Mooching your mooch off of their electricity to power your RV,
which comes in really handy for a setup like ours,
where we don't have a generator, we don't have solar.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
All we have is our.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Onboard batteries on our RV, and quite frankly, it's not
really enough to go more than just like one day
dry camping.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
And that's only to keep the fridge running, not anything else.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It's true.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
But mooch stocking is where you take.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Your standard household plug twenty am or fifty am fifteen
amp I think one amp.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so there's so many numbers.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's so confusing, and in our case we're adapting from
a fifty amp. Your RV might be a thirty amp,
So you might be adapting from thirty down to twenty
or fifteen, we're going to be adapting from fifty down
to twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, and we normally use soft startup. Oh, I got
it up, and of course I cops. You did, just editor, man,
just redo that part.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I don't think you can. You don't think so?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
No, Okay, Well, we normally use soft startup when we're
at a camp site that only has a thirty amp
connection at the pedestal because we have an RV with
two AC units. There's some RVs that even have three
AC units. Those RVs need a fifty amp connection in
order to get those AC's all working. And trust me,
when it's warm and you're camping in the summer or
(02:48):
the spring or the south, you kind of want those acs.
So we use this to convert thirty amps into essentially
allowing us to run both AC units or an AC
unit in a microwave or whatever combinations we need at
the time to get the power that we need to
get where we otherwise wouldn't have a full fifty amp connection.
But we've never ever come across a camp site with
(03:10):
a twenty amp connection until now.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Well, We've come across sites with twenty AM connections, but
where we're at right now has one, So we're going
to test it because we wanted to test it to
see if it works on twenty AM.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
We should probably take a moment, though, to talk a
little bit about our setup, because everybody setup is going
to be different, Your power needs are going to be different,
and I think it's worth telling everybody what we got
going on.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So that when we get to the testing phase, you
have that context.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
So a single AC unit can run off of twenty AM.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
It actually in our RV specifically, I don't know about yours,
but in ours, we have a twenty amp breaker inside
of the RV that's for each AC unit, So each
AC unit can use twenty amps and that and when
you're on a fifty AM connection, that means everything else
is running across set. So if you just use a
kind of you can kind of assume one AC unit
(04:02):
works on twenty ams. Well, what about girl math?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
How does that work? Girl math means I.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Can run my blow dryer whenever I want.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yes, I can run my blow dry See, girl math
means I need both acs because I get hot and
angry and so we got to just be able to
run multiple things at the same time.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Saying all that, we know one AC unit can run
off of this, and what this is doing is I'm
presuming it's just building up some sort of capacitance so
that that way when a secondary thing turns on, it
allows that initial jolt, but then once it gets down
to running ampriage, everything's okay. Now I don't know what
running ampriadge is on an AC unit, so I don't
know if two AC units ten amps plus.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Ten ams is accurate or not. But we also have
a bunch of stuff up here.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So there's a gaming computer, a router, there's a PS five,
but it's not actually on right now, starlink, all that
stuff is gonna stay on, so we're not gonna turn
off any of our other things.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
So when we turn that one ACU it, it's that one.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
When we turn that one AC unit on, it's gonna
be competing with everything else that's also going, which includes
the fridge, all that and our lights which are twelve volts,
so they're actually running off of the battery, so I
don't think but the battery has to recharge obviously, but
I don't think that's really going to affect anything.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
So you'll see that the lights stay on and everything
like that.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
But and that'll stay on hopefully unless we throw a blow,
unless we blow a breaker. But we don't just want
to run one AC unit and even these things that
are up here. We want to be able to run
our microwave, we want to be able to run our
air fryer.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
We want to potentially be able to run two AC units.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So we're going to test all of that today and
see what we can get away with before that breaker blows.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because if you're moochstocking, say your friend goes to
bed at like ten PM and you decide you want
to heat up some midnight snacks and you blow the
breaker inside their house, do you really want to wake
them up to get them to turn it back on.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
No, So we're gonna test for you. You know what
you can get away with.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
First things.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
First, turn off the power you don't want to shock,
Plug it into that dog bone adapter, Plug it into
the pedestal, turn the power back on, run the diagnostic,
and off we go. First up, we're testing one AC
on the twenty ant circuit, and as we predict, it
should work just fine.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, like we know it's going to work. Like this
is a foregone conclusion. It's just kind of a test
to prove that the one AC unit works.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Then we'll go on to the.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Two exactly moment of truth. All the modes, it's working.
It's working all right.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Now that we're kind of letting it get through that
initial amperage surge, we can go test two.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
AC units and see if that works and all the.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Modes, we'll do auto and drop that down so it
actually actuates.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, it can get pretty warm in here when it's hot.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
It's starting out.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Okay, it's starting up.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Let's give it a minute, because remember that initial power
surge can sometimes blow the breaker.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It seems to be working, though.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
There's no way it's.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Working all right. Two AC units confirmed.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
This is kind of a shocking outcome. I really did
not expect both AC units to work on twenty apps.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, we actually kind of pretested this a little bit
in advance and it failed. So I don't know what's
going on right now, So we're gonna give it a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I wonder if we didn't wait long enough for one
to start up before we did the second one.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
It's possible so let's see it just died.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, So it worked for maybe five minutes and then
did both of them die?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yes, okay, well the circuit the circuit blew.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Okay, So two AC units worked for a couple of minutes,
then it blew. So we called that a little too quick.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Two AC units not confirmed.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We were literally in the process of about to test
the mi carave with the two AC units, so that's
why we were over here. But clearly the two AC
units kind of failed. We kind of predicted that that
was kind of a known quantity. But now I think
it's a good time to test one AC unit and
the microwave exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Although I do have to say it's kind of funny
my watch keeps going off because our power supply that
tells us when the power goes out at the RV
text us, which is really awesome story for another day
and video for another day, but it's really handy when
we leave our dog and we go venturing out to
know if for some reason we lose power at the
(08:28):
campground and it is going haywire right now.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So yesterday I mentioned earlier, we did a little bit
of pretesting when we tested it yesterday obviously, we only
got one AC unit to go, and then the second
a AC unit pretty much failed almost immediately.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Then we got it back up and running. We had
one AC unit.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And we turned the ceiling I had the ceiling fan
and on just for airflow, which, by the way, our
ceiling fan runs off of shore power. It's not like
running off of the twelve volts, so it's actually on
shore power. And we had one AC unit and the
ceiling fan fail. Now we went back, we tried it
again and it did work. So we're just giving you
all the information. We weren't able to reproduce that failure.
(09:07):
But again this is where we were talking about. Everybody's
setup is different, and so there might have been something
that maybe the computer grabbed an update or something right
at that moment, drew just enough power that then all
of a sudden, So this is all information for you
to absorb.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Next up, one AC unit and a microwave. You know,
it's funny as every time the power goes out like this,
we lose all of our like clock settings, so everything's
just blinking on zero zero zero zero zero.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Here we go. Moment it's truth. Oh well, it flickered,
but the microwave is still going? Is the AC still going?
Oh it's trying. Oh not it finally died. Well that
was interesting.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Yeah, so this is another deviation for us.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yesterday we were able to get one AC unit and
the microwave to run perfectly fine, issues whatsoever.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
So it's like we got a little bit more power
this time.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And we got two of the AC's running, and now
it kind of feels like everything's a little wonkafied and
we're not getting as much. So we're gonna tell you
you might be able to get an AC and a
microwave going. We were yesterday, but as you can clearly
see today, we're not.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, So one AC and one microwave maybe next up
one AC unit and an air fryer.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
What is all this? Gotta move this out of the way,
clean clean up.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
We got to prep for dinner. Come on, we gotta
prep for so I want to can you give me
some space, get on camera.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Is this what we're having for dinner? Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
It is?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Okay, okay. So one of the things I want to
talk about is the fact that we are at a
campsite and not at somebody's house, so there's always a
chance that we're not truly getting a full twenty amps.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
We might only be getting fifteen amps. Kind of unknown.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So those again all the factors that we just want
to present to you so you can kind of make
a decision if buying one is right for you.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
There you go, moment it's truth.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
So here we're going.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Through a preheat process, right, yeah, So this should be
when it's consuming the most power.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Should be that in theory, that's when it's consuming the
most power. We use our air fyer all the time, though,
So I'm gonna be really sad if this does not work.
I hardly ever use my RV oven. They're terrible.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
They're terrible.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I would love to have a big air fryer and
then it just like a convection microwave in place of the.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
RV oven and the regular microwave.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Just putting that out there for any RB manufacturers who
might be looking for ideas.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Hint, hint.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I feel like she's also putting this on my honeydeo list.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Don't what's talking about? Ooh, it just shut off while
it was in the preheat mode.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Didn't even get to the actual cook mode, didn't.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Get to the cook mode. Oh, this is such a
bummer when I see you on it and an air
fryer not so much.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So yeah, again, I'm telling you all this for your information.
Yesterday we marked no kind of We got through the
preheat process and then it started counting down and then
it cut off.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Yeah, it still didn't work either way.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Not long enough to heat something up.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, so you it's definitely not a non starter, but
so you know it, it will might get through the
preheat process.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Darn airfryer pulling way too much power.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Now, let's test the microwave by itself, just to see
with no AC, no nothing else going on, just to
see if that'll work by itself on that twenty APP connection.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Well, not know nothing. We still have all that equipment going.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, well you know something.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, I mean a lot of electricians will tell you
that a microwave should be on its own circuit, and
it is on its own circuit. But then where everything
is getting combined and going into another circuit.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, moment of truth. Barely it fluttered, but it's going.
You might be able to heat up that hot pocket.
Let's do it one more time just for good measure.
Fluttered again, but it's going.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's like that initial amperage draw is just enough to
kind of push it on the edge, but not quite
enough to pop the breaker.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Right. Yeah, I'm gonna call that confirmed microwave by Itself
twenty eighth connection.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Good to go.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Now, because we cook way more often on our airfryer
on a regular basis, I want to test the airfier
by itself.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
As well, So let's go now.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Obviously, we're giving the air fire a little bit of
an advantage because it was already you know, kind of
warmed up a little bit, so we'll.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
See them it's preheating. That's a good sign.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Also, if you want to pick up this air fire
for yourself, we absolutely love it. We cook pizzas in here,
we cook all kinds of stuff in here. It's actually
in our Amazon shop cart. We'll either link it below
or go check our profile to check it out. Preheat
complete and it is going he Hey one Airfier by Itself.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Confirmed, so you can heat the place.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
You just can't cool things down while heating it. Yeah,
So we're not gonna sit here and you know, wait
for it to cook for like twenty or thirty minutes
without the AC on. We're in Florida. It's pretty warm hot.
You should be able to cook on it because the
preheat process is where the heater is on the entire time,
and then after that it just turns on. Everyone's while
to maintain the temperature. So you should be solid with
(14:06):
an air fire.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Based off of that test, just don't forget and turn
your AC unit on while your pizza's cooking, because otherwise
you won't have a problem. Our last test is one
AC unit and our dryer. Yes, we have a washer
and dryer in our RV. It's a game changer ready
to go.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Seems to be working. I didn't even hear any fluttering
in the power either.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I don't know how long the heater takes to kind
of get going on on a dryer, but I mean
that seems pretty reasonable. I guess try throwing on a
high heat for a second.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Hopefully it doesn't shrink our clothes.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I said, for just a second.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Okay, that seems really good. So one AC unit and
the dryer confirms.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Oh fresh AC.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
It still hasn't cool down and the rest of the
camper yet, but you know, come back here.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I'm connected into the bedroom.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
List said in the summer well, it's not even in
the summer in.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Florida, like it gets hot.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
It could be nice outside and get hot inside really
easy with that sun just beating down on it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I think it's only in the mid seventies today, but
it was pretty toasty in the camper with it with
all of the testing going on.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So the conclusion of our test is some things work,
some things don't.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
If you're working with a setup like ours, no generator,
no solar power, this is actually a really good option.
But the one variable that you're always still going to
have to be aware of is are you actually getting
a full twenty amps or in some cases thirty amps
from the power source.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, and honestly, I really recommend soft startup mostly for
the use case scenario of I want to connect to
a thirty amp connection.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It's the most useful scenario.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
You get two AC's off of that thirty amp or
an AC and a microwave or air firers for sure
off of that.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
No big deal, but this will make life a lot
more com if you're mooch stocking for a couple of
days or up to a week or something like that,
and you're not in like super extreme temperatures for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Okay, I have one little issue though, so what is
your complaint? This is the dog bone that soft ship
Soft start Up.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
It's really hard to say.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Soft Startup ships to you as part of your package, which.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Is actually kind of nice if they ship you a
dog bone with the package as well.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, I mean it's it's got the fifty amp connector
on it, so you can use it as is to
kind of soften the blow, especially if you don't have
like a full fifty amp connection. Really useful for that scenario.
But the issue is when you go to plug this in,
so this would normally go onto your pedestal, this is
facing the wrong I don't know if y'all can even
see that this is facing the wrong direction. You have
(16:51):
to flip this over, go down the chain, and now
your power connector is upside down going into it, and
this is facing towards the ground. You can't look at
the diagnostic that's a problem. This is the thirty amp
connector that we bought when we first started our being.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Which by the way, is good to have whether you
have a soft startup or not. Thirty amp to a
fifty amp dog bone.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
That's a plus, but see how it goes opposite directions.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So now.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Plug it in and you can see the diagnostics.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
So a little bit of a criticism.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
It's nice that they give you the dog bone, but
be nicer if they gave you the correct dog bone.
I think there's their thought is like, if you're mooch stocking,
what you could do is have it like this and
then a plug that goes into somebody's garage or something
like that. I think that's kind of their concept, but I.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Think it's more useful to have it this way.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Just my two cents either way, though, we absolutely love
our soft start.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
We've been really really happy with.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It and we've used it at all kinds of places,
especially with that thirty amp to fifty amp connection. Been
able to run both acs and no way, no no
problem at all. So if you want one for yourself,
definitely hit us up. Go to www dot soft startup
dot com slash Wandering our Vbabe for a sweet sweet deal.
Hey campers, we'd love to stay connected. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
(18:17):
and YouTube at Wandering our v Babe. Thanks for joining us,
Let's do it again next week and happy camping.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Hi, Okay, there's gonna be a lot of criticism. So
one of the things we didn't do is we didn't
actually test what we could have done on twenty amp
without the soft startup. And so you know, I'm gonna
preempt those comments right now and tell you what you
(18:43):
need to reply and what you could say, or those
of you who are still listening to us, is the
whole reason that we didn't test it on a regular
twenty amp without the soft startup is because you're getting
twenty amps no matter what. This is really only designed
to handle like spikes. So we know an AC can
run off of twenty amps.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
It's just that it's gonna spike.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We've got other things running like this is just trying
to soften the blow, and personally, I don't want to
go out there.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
And constantly having to turn it off and on in
this heat. Yeah, it's just not worth it to me.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I honestly will say, Like, the better confirmation is if
you have to do twenty amps, you should just have
one of these.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
It's gonna protect.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Your RV to have a little bit of extra power
in those spiky moments to.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Give absorb that extra push.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, it's it's different from from a surge protector. So
SARGE protector is protecting you from the power from the
pedestal coming in. This is kind of just protecting you
from an additional power demand from your RV in one
of those moments, I personally would not look up to
a twenty amp without one.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
I have hooked up to a thirty amp without one.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
But it's nice to have that because you can actually
run two AC units off of it pretty smoothly.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, it comes in clutch.
Hey, podcast listener, thanks for listening to us on your
way to work or you know, to your next camping trip.
This is a YouTube first show, so if you want
the full experience, go check us out on.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
YouTube two too too, Too, Too too two. So you
know what's really fun? What mooch stocking? You know what's
more fun?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Mooch stocking with power, mood stocking with AC units.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Oh, good call, that's actually better.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
That's actually better. So we picked up soft startup.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We use this when we don't have a full fifty
amp connection and a lot of campground pedestals will have
a thirty amp to a fifty ant connection, which this
comes in handy. But we've never tested it with just
a twenty amp connection before.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Well, we're gonna find out today how it goes.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Let's roll. Welcome to the Wandering RV Show.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Your source for our stories, our scripts, and our success
is living the full.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Time RV life. I'm your most care of the Wandering
RV bit. This is my driver, Ryan Honeywa.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So uh, what is mooch stocking.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, mooch stocking is when you plug your RV. Well,
you actually don't have to plug your RV.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Hold on now back up.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's let's start that over. Moochtocking is
when you.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Park your RV in somebody's yard or driveway.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, like you know, a friend's house or family's house.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I mean something like that, Yeah, something like that. I
mean boondocking is when you're you know, out there without
any electricity or anything. And mooch stocking is just actually no,
mootch stocking is when you're plugging in, because mooching is.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Mooching your mooch off of their electricity to power your RV,
which comes in really handy for a setup like ours,
where we don't have a generator, we don't have solar.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
All we have is our.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Onboard batteries on our RV, and quite frankly, it's not
really enough to go more than just like one day
dry camping.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
And that's only to keep the fridge running, not anything else.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It's true.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
But mooch stocking is where you take.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Your standard household plug twenty am or fifty am fifteen
amp I think one amp.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so there's so many numbers.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's so confusing, and in our case we're adapting from
a fifty amp. Your RV might be a thirty amp,
So you might be adapting from thirty down to twenty
or fifteen, we're going to be adapting from fifty down
to twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, and we normally use soft startup. Oh, I got
it up, and of course I cops. You did, just editor, man,
just redo that part.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I don't think you can. You don't think so?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
No, Okay, Well, we normally use soft startup when we're
at a camp site that only has a thirty amp
connection at the pedestal because we have an RV with
two AC units. There's some RVs that even have three
AC units. Those RVs need a fifty amp connection in
order to get those AC's all working. And trust me,
when it's warm and you're camping in the summer or
(02:48):
the spring or the south, you kind of want those acs.
So we use this to convert thirty amps into essentially
allowing us to run both AC units or an AC
unit in a microwave or whatever combinations we need at
the time to get the power that we need to
get where we otherwise wouldn't have a full fifty amp connection.
But we've never ever come across a camp site with
(03:10):
a twenty amp connection until now.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Well, We've come across sites with twenty AM connections, but
where we're at right now has one, So we're going
to test it because we wanted to test it to
see if it works on twenty AM.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
We should probably take a moment, though, to talk a
little bit about our setup, because everybody setup is going
to be different, Your power needs are going to be different,
and I think it's worth telling everybody what we got
going on.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So that when we get to the testing phase, you
have that context.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
So a single AC unit can run off of twenty AM.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
It actually in our RV specifically, I don't know about yours,
but in ours, we have a twenty amp breaker inside
of the RV that's for each AC unit, So each
AC unit can use twenty amps and that and when
you're on a fifty AM connection, that means everything else
is running across set. So if you just use a
kind of you can kind of assume one AC unit
(04:02):
works on twenty ams. Well, what about girl math?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
How does that work? Girl math means I.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Can run my blow dryer whenever I want.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yes, I can run my blow dry See, girl math
means I need both acs because I get hot and
angry and so we got to just be able to
run multiple things at the same time.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Saying all that, we know one AC unit can run
off of this, and what this is doing is I'm
presuming it's just building up some sort of capacitance so
that that way when a secondary thing turns on, it
allows that initial jolt, but then once it gets down
to running ampriage, everything's okay. Now I don't know what
running ampriadge is on an AC unit, so I don't
know if two AC units ten amps plus.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Ten ams is accurate or not. But we also have
a bunch of stuff up here.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
So there's a gaming computer, a router, there's a PS five,
but it's not actually on right now, starlink, all that
stuff is gonna stay on, so we're not gonna turn
off any of our other things.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
So when we turn that one ACU it, it's that one.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
When we turn that one AC unit on, it's gonna
be competing with everything else that's also going, which includes
the fridge, all that and our lights which are twelve volts,
so they're actually running off of the battery, so I
don't think but the battery has to recharge obviously, but
I don't think that's really going to affect anything.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
So you'll see that the lights stay on and everything
like that.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
But and that'll stay on hopefully unless we throw a blow,
unless we blow a breaker. But we don't just want
to run one AC unit and even these things that
are up here. We want to be able to run
our microwave, we want to be able to run our
air fryer.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
We want to potentially be able to run two AC units.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So we're going to test all of that today and
see what we can get away with before that breaker blows.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Yeah, because if you're moochstocking, say your friend goes to
bed at like ten PM and you decide you want
to heat up some midnight snacks and you blow the
breaker inside their house, do you really want to wake
them up to get them to turn it back on.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
No, So we're gonna test for you. You know what
you can get away with.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
First things.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
First, turn off the power you don't want to shock,
Plug it into that dog bone adapter, Plug it into
the pedestal, turn the power back on, run the diagnostic,
and off we go. First up, we're testing one AC
on the twenty ant circuit, and as we predict, it
should work just fine.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, like we know it's going to work. Like this
is a foregone conclusion. It's just kind of a test
to prove that the one AC unit works.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Then we'll go on to the.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Two exactly moment of truth. All the modes, it's working.
It's working all right.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Now that we're kind of letting it get through that
initial amperage surge, we can go test two.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
AC units and see if that works and all the.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Modes, we'll do auto and drop that down so it
actually actuates.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, it can get pretty warm in here when it's hot.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
It's starting out.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Okay, it's starting up.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Let's give it a minute, because remember that initial power
surge can sometimes blow the breaker.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It seems to be working, though.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
There's no way it's.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Working all right. Two AC units confirmed.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
This is kind of a shocking outcome. I really did
not expect both AC units to work on twenty apps.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, we actually kind of pretested this a little bit
in advance and it failed. So I don't know what's
going on right now, So we're gonna give it a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I wonder if we didn't wait long enough for one
to start up before we did the second one.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
It's possible so let's see it just died.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Okay, So it worked for maybe five minutes and then
did both of them die?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yes, okay, well the circuit the circuit blew.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Okay, So two AC units worked for a couple of minutes,
then it blew. So we called that a little too quick.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Two AC units not confirmed.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We were literally in the process of about to test
the mi carave with the two AC units, so that's
why we were over here. But clearly the two AC
units kind of failed. We kind of predicted that that
was kind of a known quantity. But now I think
it's a good time to test one AC unit and
the microwave exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Although I do have to say it's kind of funny
my watch keeps going off because our power supply that
tells us when the power goes out at the RV
text us, which is really awesome story for another day
and video for another day, but it's really handy when
we leave our dog and we go venturing out to
know if for some reason we lose power at the
(08:28):
campground and it is going haywire right now.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So yesterday I mentioned earlier, we did a little bit
of pretesting when we tested it yesterday obviously, we only
got one AC unit to go, and then the second
a AC unit pretty much failed almost immediately.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Then we got it back up and running. We had
one AC unit.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
And we turned the ceiling I had the ceiling fan
and on just for airflow, which, by the way, our
ceiling fan runs off of shore power. It's not like
running off of the twelve volts, so it's actually on
shore power. And we had one AC unit and the
ceiling fan fail. Now we went back, we tried it
again and it did work. So we're just giving you
all the information. We weren't able to reproduce that failure.
(09:07):
But again this is where we were talking about. Everybody's
setup is different, and so there might have been something
that maybe the computer grabbed an update or something right
at that moment, drew just enough power that then all
of a sudden, So this is all information for you
to absorb.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Next up, one AC unit and a microwave. You know,
it's funny as every time the power goes out like this,
we lose all of our like clock settings, so everything's
just blinking on zero zero zero zero zero.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Here we go. Moment it's truth. Oh well, it flickered,
but the microwave is still going? Is the AC still going?
Oh it's trying. Oh not it finally died. Well that
was interesting.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Yeah, so this is another deviation for us.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yesterday we were able to get one AC unit and
the microwave to run perfectly fine, issues whatsoever.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
So it's like we got a little bit more power
this time.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And we got two of the AC's running, and now
it kind of feels like everything's a little wonkafied and
we're not getting as much. So we're gonna tell you
you might be able to get an AC and a
microwave going. We were yesterday, but as you can clearly
see today, we're not.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, So one AC and one microwave maybe next up
one AC unit and an air fryer.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
What is all this? Gotta move this out of the way,
clean clean up.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
We got to prep for dinner. Come on, we gotta
prep for so I want to can you give me
some space, get on camera.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Is this what we're having for dinner? Yes?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
It is?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Okay, okay. So one of the things I want to
talk about is the fact that we are at a
campsite and not at somebody's house, so there's always a
chance that we're not truly getting a full twenty amps.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
We might only be getting fifteen amps. Kind of unknown.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
So those again all the factors that we just want
to present to you so you can kind of make
a decision if buying one is right for you.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
There you go, moment it's truth.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
So here we're going.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Through a preheat process, right, yeah, So this should be
when it's consuming the most power.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Should be that in theory, that's when it's consuming the
most power. We use our air fyer all the time, though,
So I'm gonna be really sad if this does not work.
I hardly ever use my RV oven. They're terrible.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
They're terrible.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I would love to have a big air fryer and
then it just like a convection microwave in place of the.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
RV oven and the regular microwave.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Just putting that out there for any RB manufacturers who
might be looking for ideas.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Hint, hint.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I feel like she's also putting this on my honeydeo list.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Don't what's talking about? Ooh, it just shut off while
it was in the preheat mode.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Didn't even get to the actual cook mode, didn't.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Get to the cook mode. Oh, this is such a
bummer when I see you on it and an air
fryer not so much.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
So yeah, again, I'm telling you all this for your information.
Yesterday we marked no kind of We got through the
preheat process and then it started counting down and then
it cut off.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Yeah, it still didn't work either way.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Not long enough to heat something up.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, so you it's definitely not a non starter, but
so you know it, it will might get through the
preheat process.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Darn airfryer pulling way too much power.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Now, let's test the microwave by itself, just to see
with no AC, no nothing else going on, just to
see if that'll work by itself on that twenty APP connection.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Well, not know nothing. We still have all that equipment going.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Okay, well you know something.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, I mean a lot of electricians will tell you
that a microwave should be on its own circuit, and
it is on its own circuit. But then where everything
is getting combined and going into another circuit.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, moment of truth. Barely it fluttered, but it's going.
You might be able to heat up that hot pocket.
Let's do it one more time just for good measure.
Fluttered again, but it's going.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's like that initial amperage draw is just enough to
kind of push it on the edge, but not quite
enough to pop the breaker.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Right. Yeah, I'm gonna call that confirmed microwave by Itself
twenty eighth connection.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Good to go.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Now, because we cook way more often on our airfryer
on a regular basis, I want to test the airfier
by itself.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
As well, So let's go now.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Obviously, we're giving the air fire a little bit of
an advantage because it was already you know, kind of
warmed up a little bit, so we'll.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
See them it's preheating. That's a good sign.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Also, if you want to pick up this air fire
for yourself, we absolutely love it. We cook pizzas in here,
we cook all kinds of stuff in here. It's actually
in our Amazon shop cart. We'll either link it below
or go check our profile to check it out. Preheat
complete and it is going he Hey one Airfier by Itself.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Confirmed, so you can heat the place.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
You just can't cool things down while heating it. Yeah,
So we're not gonna sit here and you know, wait
for it to cook for like twenty or thirty minutes
without the AC on. We're in Florida. It's pretty warm hot.
You should be able to cook on it because the
preheat process is where the heater is on the entire time,
and then after that it just turns on. Everyone's while
to maintain the temperature. So you should be solid with
(14:06):
an air fire.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Based off of that test, just don't forget and turn
your AC unit on while your pizza's cooking, because otherwise
you won't have a problem. Our last test is one
AC unit and our dryer. Yes, we have a washer
and dryer in our RV. It's a game changer ready
to go.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Seems to be working. I didn't even hear any fluttering
in the power either.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I don't know how long the heater takes to kind
of get going on on a dryer, but I mean
that seems pretty reasonable. I guess try throwing on a
high heat for a second.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Hopefully it doesn't shrink our clothes.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I said, for just a second.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Okay, that seems really good. So one AC unit and
the dryer confirms.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Oh fresh AC.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
It still hasn't cool down and the rest of the
camper yet, but you know, come back here.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
I'm connected into the bedroom.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
List said in the summer well, it's not even in
the summer in.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Florida, like it gets hot.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
It could be nice outside and get hot inside really
easy with that sun just beating down on it.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I think it's only in the mid seventies today, but
it was pretty toasty in the camper with it with
all of the testing going on.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So the conclusion of our test is some things work,
some things don't.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
If you're working with a setup like ours, no generator,
no solar power, this is actually a really good option.
But the one variable that you're always still going to
have to be aware of is are you actually getting
a full twenty amps or in some cases thirty amps
from the power source.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, and honestly, I really recommend soft startup mostly for
the use case scenario of I want to connect to
a thirty amp connection.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It's the most useful scenario.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
You get two AC's off of that thirty amp or
an AC and a microwave or air firers for sure
off of that.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
No big deal, but this will make life a lot
more com if you're mooch stocking for a couple of
days or up to a week or something like that,
and you're not in like super extreme temperatures for sure.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Okay, I have one little issue though, so what is
your complaint? This is the dog bone that soft ship
Soft start Up.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
It's really hard to say.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Soft Startup ships to you as part of your package, which.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Is actually kind of nice if they ship you a
dog bone with the package as well.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, I mean it's it's got the fifty amp connector
on it, so you can use it as is to
kind of soften the blow, especially if you don't have
like a full fifty amp connection. Really useful for that scenario.
But the issue is when you go to plug this in,
so this would normally go onto your pedestal, this is
facing the wrong I don't know if y'all can even
see that this is facing the wrong direction. You have
(16:51):
to flip this over, go down the chain, and now
your power connector is upside down going into it, and
this is facing towards the ground. You can't look at
the diagnostic that's a problem. This is the thirty amp
connector that we bought when we first started our being.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Which by the way, is good to have whether you
have a soft startup or not. Thirty amp to a
fifty amp dog bone.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
That's a plus, but see how it goes opposite directions.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So now.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Plug it in and you can see the diagnostics.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
So a little bit of a criticism.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
It's nice that they give you the dog bone, but
be nicer if they gave you the correct dog bone.
I think there's their thought is like, if you're mooch stocking,
what you could do is have it like this and
then a plug that goes into somebody's garage or something
like that. I think that's kind of their concept, but I.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Think it's more useful to have it this way.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Just my two cents either way, though, we absolutely love
our soft start.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
We've been really really happy with.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It and we've used it at all kinds of places,
especially with that thirty amp to fifty amp connection. Been
able to run both acs and no way, no no
problem at all. So if you want one for yourself,
definitely hit us up. Go to www dot soft startup
dot com slash Wandering our Vbabe for a sweet sweet deal.
Hey campers, we'd love to stay connected. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
(18:17):
and YouTube at Wandering our v Babe. Thanks for joining us,
Let's do it again next week and happy camping.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Hi, Okay, there's gonna be a lot of criticism. So
one of the things we didn't do is we didn't
actually test what we could have done on twenty amp
without the soft startup. And so you know, I'm gonna
preempt those comments right now and tell you what you
(18:43):
need to reply and what you could say, or those
of you who are still listening to us, is the
whole reason that we didn't test it on a regular
twenty amp without the soft startup is because you're getting
twenty amps no matter what. This is really only designed
to handle like spikes. So we know an AC can
run off of twenty amps.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
It's just that it's gonna spike.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
We've got other things running like this is just trying
to soften the blow, and personally, I don't want to
go out there.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
And constantly having to turn it off and on in
this heat. Yeah, it's just not worth it to me.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I honestly will say, Like, the better confirmation is if
you have to do twenty amps, you should just have
one of these.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
It's gonna protect.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Your RV to have a little bit of extra power
in those spiky moments to.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Give absorb that extra push.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, it's it's different from from a surge protector. So
SARGE protector is protecting you from the power from the
pedestal coming in. This is kind of just protecting you
from an additional power demand from your RV in one
of those moments, I personally would not look up to
a twenty amp without one.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
I have hooked up to a thirty amp without one.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
But it's nice to have that because you can actually
run two AC units off of it pretty smoothly.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, it comes in clutch.
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