devices for surge protection

pianotuna wrote:
So is the 20,000 amps from a lightening strike? Or?

A surge also known as a spike, transient, or direct lightning strike can even be a 20,000 amp microsecond event. Homeowners earth a 'whole house' protector so that robust protection already inside appliances (up to 600 volts for 120 volt appliances) is not overwhelmed. So that current is not inside hunting for earth destructively via appliances.

Informed homeowners properly earth a 'whole house' protector.

Campgrounds typically suffer from other surges including low and high voltages that might rise above 140 volts or drop below 90 volts. These typically exist for seconds or hours. RVs need a Progressive type protector especially for motorized appliances that are at greatest risk from this anomaly.

Electronics appliances are perfectly safe for all voltages below 120 volts. Motorized appliances are not.

Progressive that addresses these anomalies is highly regarded.

A Progressive protector is for common anomalies found in campgrounds. MOVs do little for typical campground anomalies. A 20,000 amp transient is a rare anomaly averted by MOVs in a homeowner's 'whole house' protector because it is earthed. So that all appliances are protected for tens of years. Properly sized and properly earthed MOVs do not fail as others would have us believe.

A third device, a plug-in protector is ineffective for both requirements. Plug-in protectors address a completely different anomaly typically made irrelevant by protection already inside all appliances: electronic and motorized. MOVs in plug-in protectors can be grossly undersized to fail in a sacrificial manner. These are marketed to naive consumers with obscene profit margins. Undersizing and a resulting catastrophic failure gets naive consumers to assume sacrificial MOVs are acceptable.

Protectors for RVs are for anomalies completely different from properly earthed protectors for homes, businesses, factories, broadcast stations, munitions dumps, server centers, and telephone COs. Different anomalies (all called surges) require different solutions (all called protectors).