Surge Supressors

I have the portable PI 50A version since 2007
It tests power on both lines, tests neutral, tests ground, has Hi/LO voltage trips etc etc

Got it because we had a new RV and were hitting the road FT and would be using numerous unknown power sources.

Over the years it has detected
Loss on neutral, loss of ground, reverse polarity, has dropped connection due to low voltage on several occasions, a mis-wired pedestal

Was it worth the cost?
Kinda like Insurance......only when it was needed. And to late AFTERWARDS.
Unlike insurance which costs every year it is a one time cost
PI has LIFETIME warranty and stands behind it (TRC---limited 1 yr and so-so response)

Worth it.....only need ONE messed up power pedestal source and could costs 100's or 1000's

I have had a progressive industries unit in all my trailers except the tent trailer. You can search for threads and I believe you will see both sides of the needed/not needed fence on here. Is it cheap..no, will it potentially save you a lot of money...yes

I believe the high/low voltage protection has been a real benefit to me as we have had unexpected issues in campgrounds where it was very unexpected. Not needing to fix/replace our fridge/micro/AC/Tv's stereo etc is hard to quantify The damage done may be cumulative or fry it the first time you get bad voltage or an improperly wired post. Truly this is insurance and the choice is yours whether insuring your electronics is worth it to you.

I am a happy customer

Daryll

I bought mine 11 years ago. Paid over 400 then.
My neighbor had a lot of damage when the campground had an underground fault.
High voltage can fry a lot of stuff.

We had an Open Neutral in our cord and it did extensive damage to the trailer.

We had a Surge Guard on the post, however since the problem was after the SG it did nothing to help. Had we had the HW-50 we would not have had an issue. We now have a HW-50 and love it. So yes a hard wired system is worth it.

r2pipes wrote:
I am questioning if this really needed or is it over kill. I can see surges in the line but is a drop or deviation in current common enough to justify the cost of a suppressor like the HW-50, about $300. Anyone had any experience with this..

yes, don't cheap out on protection.
bumpy

Loss of neutral on 50 amp service will fry most of your electrical items. I installed the hardwired one with the remote, top right.

It is like insurance, you hope you never need it, but so glad you have it when you do! Not over kill at all, low voltage is a common problem in RV parks, especially in the summer when everyone runs their A/C! Go for it, a lot of people go for the built in type, but with the portable, you can easily move it to your next RV!

For previous posts search this Forum for `surge'...

DKRITTER wrote:
We had an Open Neutral in our cord and it did extensive damage to the trailer.

We had a Surge Guard on the post, however since the problem was after the SG it did nothing to help. Had we had the HW-50 we would not have had an issue. We now have a HW-50 and love it. So yes a hard wired system is worth it.

The same thing happened to our daughter and son-in-law. The pedestal mounted protection device couldn't detect the open neutral in the shore power cord. The result was over $7,000 in damages. They now have a hard wired Progressive Industries EMS-HW50C system that monitors power as it enters the RV's power distribution panel.

Rusty

Low voltage can be as damaging as slightly high voltage.

I have used the top of the line sp since I starting RVing.