Several of the places we dock have standard household 3-prong outlets for
shore power. We want to buy an adapter to match the shore power cable from
our boat to this kind of outlet. I see two kinds. One is called a hand
adapter and is simply a block of plastic about 4" long with the plug and
socket molded into it. The other is a 1 foot long cord with the plug and
socket at the two ends. Is there any reason to prefer one over the other?

--
Peter Aitken

Peter Aitken wrote:
Several of the places we dock have standard household 3-prong outlets for
shore power. We want to buy an adapter to match the shore power cable from
our boat to this kind of outlet. I see two kinds. One is called a hand
adapter and is simply a block of plastic about 4" long with the plug and
socket molded into it. The other is a 1 foot long cord with the plug and
socket at the two ends. Is there any reason to prefer one over the other?

--
Peter Aitken

Yes.


The problem with the solid block adapter is that when combined with the
mass of the connecting portion of your normal 30 or 50 amp cable, the
entire, bulky works tends to fall out of some shorepower receptacles.
Particularly with the 15-amp adapter you will want the pigtail. There
is no "locking" tang on the 15-amp 3-prong fitting. I have a 20-amp
solid block adapter and its a TPITA. Even when the adapter itself stays
firmly secured in the shorepower outlet, there are times when the
shorepower cable jiggles just slightly loose
and there's no longer an adequate connetion. No problem with pigtail
adapters, as the connection can hang straight down from the box and
there is less strain at the final connection.

Another small consideration, some shorepower stanchions have covers
that can be closed once you are hooked up. Many of these will close
with a pigtail in place- no problem- but some cannot be closed when
there is an additional 2-3 inches of connector sticking out.