Reason I'm up reading it is because the power went off at about 4:00AM and woke me when the AC quit. All day we've only had about 105 volts so I figured our Surge Guard detected low voltage and shut down. Went out with a flashlight to the post and checked. Voltage is in the mid 130's. Surge Guard shuts down at 132v I think.
Would 130 something volts have damaged the 2 AC's? Referigerator? Ice Maker? Satellite? 40" LED TV? Surround Sound? Freezer in the basement? I-Pad or I phones charging? Microwave? Probably not in the short term.
Was I happy we have the Surge Guard? With it protecting about $15K of electronics you bet I am. BTW we are in a campground we've used many times and never had a problem. The electrical system is less than a year old. You just never know.
I am interersted in this discussion as well. We had just returned from a trip , and our first night home we had a terrific electrical storm. Next day we found the followiing:
Spa hot tub has destroyed circuit board.
Dish sat receiver has burnt out modem (killed our phones).
Office room TV has destroyed color picture.
Furnace won't operate needed new circuit board.
Excercise bike console fried.
garage door opener won't operate.
2 GFCI receptacles will not reset.(All of them had tripped)
The kicker is that I have a Cutler Hammer whole house surge protector installed on the main panel. It appears that Cutler Hammer will honor at least some of my warranty claims, and they have sent me a new surge trap to replace the existing one.
So, the surge trap did not really protect the whole house, and since it has an attached equipment warranty I will get some reimbursement. The RV surge devices I have seen do not seem to offer any warranty beyond the replacement of the surge protector for 1 year after purchase. So,if there is a spike that the RV device does not clamp down on rapidly enough, you will get equipment damage, and also surge protector damage since they lose effectiveness once hit.
I don't know what if any surges I've gotten since 2004 when I started using the PI unit. But I'm sure that nothing will protect home or RV from significant lightning. I'm also not aware of any related RV warranty or insurance.
From my experience CG's and especially older ones are much more likely to have problems where the PI unit can help. In my case high voltage, low voltage, open ground and miswired plugs have been detected and preventned. I've never gotten error codes for line frequency or to replace the surge module.
And the inside display has been very helpful for power management when I'm plugged into 30A. Good to know I'm using 25A and turn something off before starting the coffee pot for example.
OK, so I have a question. Since I haven't yet bought our TT, though we now have it narrowed down to a small handful, where are the PI surge protectors generally mounted? Are you all mounting them behind the converter, or an opening nearby? I'm not positive where the shore power cord connections are generally located....just curious. So I've been an "active lurker." Been active in discussions and asking questions to learn as much as possible.
If you can mount a hardwired surge protector into your TT depends on the model and how it built. For example, my unit the power cord comes into the unit in the back. It goes into a small storage box inside the TT that sits between two chairs. That box also has the water pump inside. So, there is no room there for a hardwired protector.
The Convertor is mounted inside the cabinet under the refrigerator, and no room for more equipment.
So, I have to use a portable surge guard.
My portable surge guard has protected my TT two times that I am aware of and I am very happy that I purchased it.
Bob
2001 2500 Silverado LS 4x4 6.0, 4.10
2007 Jayco Eagle 288RLS
Cocktails for 6, Dinner for 4, Sleeps 2
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End of dirt road, no signs in sight, sun going down: I am not lost, just getting ready to go camping.
Thank you for the info. We're also making our "wish list" of must have items, and am very interested in a PI hardwired unit, but since we haven't bought our trailer yet, I can't very well go to the dealer's lot and tear their trailer apart.
To me it is a small price to pay for peace of mind. As a HAM radio operator I'm well aware of damage from a near by lightning strike, only a well grounded system with the proper chokes will keep you safe from a direct strike. Tall buildings as well as broadcast towers survive strike after strike with the proper protection. Providing this type of protection for a TT is just not practical so we do what we think is best, for me it's a surge protector.
We have a PI hardwired EMS. I mounted it on the outside of the plywood box that holds the coiled up power cord - this is under a bed.
The unit has protected our TT at least 3 times. One CG it showed reverse polarity. Another CG it showed open ground. And at home one time while I was working on the TT the unit shut down because of low voltage - we were having a brown-out.
I finally purchased a Progressive Industries EMS-PT30C from HERE before our first trip of the season a couple weeks ago. We stay almost exclusively at State or National parkland campsites, went to our most favorite one last week where we've been going for years. Woke up one morning and found the 120 power had shut-off during the night...low voltage error. I'm glad I invested in it!
FoCoNoCo wrote: OK, so I have a question. Since I haven't yet bought our TT, though we now have it narrowed down to a small handful, where are the PI surge protectors generally mounted? Are you all mounting them behind the converter, or an opening nearby? I'm not positive where the shore power cord connections are generally located....just curious. So I've been an "active lurker." Been active in discussions and asking questions to learn as much as possible.
Quote: Thank you for the info. We're also making our "wish list" of must have items, and am very interested in a PI hardwired unit, but since we haven't bought our trailer yet, I can't very well go to the dealer's lot and tear their trailer apart.
To your first question. Every unit is gonna be different, even within the same MFG. Only models within a MFG would be similar and perhaps others that have similar floor plans between MFG's but that's no guarantee. What you could do is from the outside look at where the power cord enters the RV and then go inside the unit and see what it looks like and whether or not it would be feasible to put an EMS in the space available.
To the second question. You wouldn't have to tear it apart, it would be pretty apparent. For example, my Jayco 314 BHDS has a cabnet and drawers where the power cord comes in and conects to the electric pannel with circuit brakers. For me it was just a matter of pulling the bottom drawer completely out to see it all. I mounted the EMS right on top of the "wooden box" Jayco built for the power cord.
I'm not saying that every body's is gonna be this easy, just giving an example but it could be that easy. I also purchased the HW30C I got from Lawrence RV accessories with the wired remote & display since in the cab, I wouldn't be able to see it.
The other thing you can do is purchase the unit you want up front and have the dealer install it as part of the purchase agreement. You can negotiate that and either choose to pay for the install or not, your call. Depending on the TT you end up getting would determin for me anyway whether or not I'd agree to pay for the install as part of the purchase. The only reason I say this is because the time it took me to install mine would be worth about 45 minutes to an hour tops and really closer to 45. Consider this too, I had a learning curv meaning I had some things to consider while I was doing this. More than likely, yours wont be the first EMS they've installed making it that much easier for the tech to put it in.
To those that say I've never in 10, 20 or 30 years. It's been probably 20 years since I've had a collision that was my fault that required insurance but here I am year after year paying for it for that next or 1 more time I need it.
For the $300 or so dollars you pay for it, the first time you need it, it will pay for its self and unless you look at the display you probably wouldn't even know. One mans opinion FWIW, hope all this helps.
* This post was
edited 05/28/12 10:52am by E&J push'n wind *
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know much, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
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