50A surge protectors

hotpepperkid wrote:
What about surge protectors V something like Hughes autoformers

If you want a small car to zip around town you buy a small car, if you want a truck with adequate towing capacity you buy a truck - different animals for different purposes. If you need both then buy both - same for an EMS w/surge protection vs an autoformer. Different solutions to different problems. Most will opt for an EMS and just live with those times when it shuts down power to the trailer because of an error in the source power, including low voltage, whereas an autoformer's primary purpose is to boost low voltage whenever it may occur and therefore avoid the need to shut down power to the rig. If you want both solutions, buy both. ;)

The Hughes manual says it has an amber light that comes on to tell if there is a fault in the shore power connection, and the user should not connect the power. It doesn't say what the fault may be. The units protect against surge. They correct voltage by 10% if it sags to below 115 volts.

Thoughts about using both:

Order. If the ems comes "first" (shore power-->--ems-->hughes-->rv) then low voltage will not be corrected, defeating the purpose of the Hughes.

If the Hughes comes first (shore power-->hughes-->ems-->RV) Now the ems is essentially useless and would only disconnect on a bad neutral or incorrect polarity. But then there is that nice amber light on the Hughes--does it prevent connection on over voltage? Or is it a polarity checker?

Perhaps someone who owns one could let us know, as the manual does not give details.

I see very little reason to use the ems in series with the Hughes--because the only time it makes sense is if it is later in the chain--after the Hughes has already massaged the power.

I do not use a Hughes, preferring the much better three layers of boost and one of buck from the Sola Basic. There is also the ecowise (spelling) unit that keeps voltage dead on 120. I do have better surge than the current crop of ems units as an add on to the Sola Basic. It doesn't hurt that the Sola Basic is about 2/5'ths the price of the Hughes--and less than the top of the line ems units. (the surge only are going to protect from almost nothing and are a waste of money)

The lowest shore input voltage I've seen is 97 volts which the Sola corrected. The Hughes would probably not get me to my comfort voltage of 108. I've moved the "trigger" voltage up by 2 volts from 110 to 112.

I still believe, that even with an ems, that it behooves an RV'er to check voltage under load before plugging in, as well as polarity. It is easy to do. If you are in a 30 amp RV that more or less obviates the need for an ems. Do monitor voltage.

I did burn one connection this year--because I plugged into a borrowed cord that was faulty. As it happens it was the input for the Sola Basic. Voltage was maintained even with the plug frying itself.

I do place the Sola basic near the RV and then run a shore power cord to the Sola. I do limit my input to 24 amps using the Magnum hybrid inverter/charger.

I see they have one now with surge protection but I'm not seeing where it protects from miswired pedestals, bad freq. and open neutrals. Does it do that too?

AFAIK the Hughes autoformer only "protects" your rig from line source errors in the sense that it has indicator lights to warn you of an issue. However, unlike an EMS it has no ability to do anything about these errors, it merely tells you there is a problem, so if you still plug in any error will be passed on to your rig. An EMS in this same situation will not connect power to the rig even if you do plug in. This is all the more important if you're already plugged in and a problem then occurs - the Hughes will simply pass that error on to the rig, an EMS will instantly disconnect power to the rig. Ergo the reason for both if you want full protection - Source Power > Autoformer > EMS > Rig.

The Progressive Dynamics 1970's style display is superior to a single lit LED.

Oldman2

Trying to link back to prior conversations and threads seems to be next to useless because this topic is a source of huffing and puffing of different viewpoints. Politics, sports, wimmen.

For other genders it would be movie stars, fashion and gossip.

Useless To Complain

So in other words if you have an extra $800 buy both

hotpepperkid wrote:
So in other words if you have an extra $800 buy both

IMHO get the EMS (I prefer the EMS-HW50C) and if you have extra money get the Autoformer.

hotpepperkid wrote:
So in other words if you have an extra $800 buy both

That's about it. ;) For those who full time in parks where power is problematic an autoformer is probably worth the cost but since we're just occasional RV campers I chose to buy an EMS and just live with those times it might decide power to the trailer needed to be disconnected.

I was full time up to one month ago. I never needed a surge device--but used the autoformer 9 times out of ten.

Autoformers are especially useful in winter time so that the full wattage on electric heating becomes available.

Here is an example:

power 750 watts at 120 volts (120 x 120)

power at 100 volts (100 x 100)

750 X .6944 ~= 520.8 watts

That makes a huge difference of slightly over 30% more power at the correct voltage. Since I generally heated 100% electrically this was important. My peak load was 7000 watts and the average about 5200 in the dead of winter.

Personally, I bought the EMS because our new rig is 50A and I didn't want to worry about open neutrals and the like. If it was 30A I wouldn't have bothered and would have just installed individual surge protectors on TV's and appliances like I did on our last RV.
I have never in nearly 30 years of RVing had a problem with low voltage at any park so I haven't given any thought to getting an autoformer.