Cheap ammeter for power hungry RV's

SoundGuy wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Sound Guy,

You know very well that low voltage causes far more damage to RV's than surges and/or high voltage events.

Well I wouldn't agree it's quite that simple, which is why I invested in an EMS rather than just a simple surge protector which since the purchase has saved the day quite a few times already. :B

As for potential damage, yeah I've had the experience. Lost the Dometic microwave oven in our previous KZ Spree for no apparent reason, other than there must have been some sort of power line error that occurred here at the house where the trailer was parked ... one day it worked just fine, next day it was toast and I was forced to buy another. Each season on average we experience power problems of one sort or another 3 or 4 times each season while camping, the most common being low voltage, although now that I'm running a Progressive EMS I've noted several Previous Error 2 codes which means loss of ground. Last year, for whatever reason, one side of the 240 buss entering the house went low - took out the power supply in the television in the living room which was just plugged into a duplex receptacle, no protection of any kind. The same event blew out the duplex receptacle in the den, destroyed the surge protector that was plugged into it, and I discovered later destroyed the video card in my iMac. :M The television I fixed with a new power supply board, the iMac has gone to heaven and is replaced with the MacBook Pro I'm writing this on. As it happened our current trailer which was plugged into the garage receptacle was on this same low side ... no worries, my EMS immediately shut down the feed to the trailer, no harm, no foul. :B So ... while low voltage is the most common issue I've run into while camping there's likewise no question that other anomalies such as an open neutral, open ground, reversed polarity, etc, are in fact very real. The only issue I really haven't noticed as being a problem is frequency which rarely to never is anything but 60 Hz. FWIW, I did last year buy a used TRC voltage regulator ... good idea that didn't work out so well when I discovered it was already toasted but especially when I called TRC to buy a replacement circuit board, only to be told they wouldn't sell replacement parts for any TRC product and wouldn't repair it themselves if it wasn't under warranty, their only solution being to buy another new TRC. Not happening, I'll rely on my Progressive Industries EMS and it's lifetime warranty, including availability of replacement parts for as long as I own the unit. :B

Either you have really REALLY bad luck, or you have really REALLY bad electricity with all of those blown up electronics. I would have thought the answer was to fix the electrical in the house. In all my years I've never had a television "lose it's power supply" or a computer so badly damaged that it couldn't be fixed it and it "went to heaven" even Mac's with video cards built into the Motherboard can be repaired, silly. the vast majority of electronic devices are built using the 30% rule, so a little blip here or there won't kill them. Most modern devices - like that microwave - have either slow blow fuses, PTC's or reset capable breakers inside that either reset at cool down or can be reset manually. Same for the television unless you had one of those awesome flatscreens from Visio that had a fatal flaw in the power board due to in improperly sized cap. and a poorly soldered shunt.

"For whatever reason" and "there must have been..." seem to be acceptable answers for your electrical woes. Those words wouldn't even make it into the conversation, had I had the problems you describe above. There are a few places in life where "I guess" and "must have been..." doesn't cut it. Aviation, Electrical/Electronics, Network Security are a few. I make a living in two of the three.

All due respect, I know EXACTLY how to research things. Ever hear that knock-knock joke that Agent Hanratty tells to Agent Amdursky in "Catch me if you can" ? Funny joke.

Frankly, this thread wasn't a contest to see who could race to the bottom of their wallet the fastest either. (I already have a hobby, thanks.) It was about a $17 ammeter. Of course there are tons of products out there that are more expensive and have more features. and do more things and offer more "protection." I don't think anyone is going to see this little gadget (or this thread) and mistake it for a total power protection solution.

I'm happy you're happy with your EMS from Progressive Looks like a great unit. Good for you. Here, have a cookie.

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