Hughs Autoformer

Well let me tell u what,we got one, and it works, have seen it in action. Feels good to know it is on the job.wish I had one yrs ago .and now it's all -happy-camping

SteveB wrote:
Thank you (re: elec WH question) sorry for the mini hijack.

Ditto on my "stealing power" question. The OP should consider it a compliment for asking such a good question that others, like me, seek to expand on it.

What parks mean by an Autoformer "stealing power" is probably this: Watts equals amount of current times the amount of voltage. If your RV is needing so many watts of energy when the park voltage sags below a certain point, then the Autoformer ups the voltage that your RV sees. It can only continue to deliver the higher voltage to you RV at the cost of taking more current from the campsite's power pole so overall wattage being supplied to your RV remains the same.

When your Autoformer takes more current from the power pole, the voltage gets even lower for the rest of the campers in the campground because it is overall current draw on the campground's power poles that makes it's overall campground voltage lower in the first place. Soooo ... Autoformer users are experiencing great power in their RVs at the expense of worse power (lower voltage) at the power poles used by the rest of the (non-Autoformer) campers. In other words, your voltage winds up being higher than it was by making the voltage a little bit lower than it was for the rest of the campers.

This could be interpreted as "stealing" from the other campers. I guess it's alright for all of the campers to wind up with ruined appliances from an inadequately powered campground, but not alright for a single Autoformer user to save their appliances while all other campers get their appliances ruined. Of course it's extreme hot weather or extreme cold weather that causes temporary power over-draws on the campground's system. The proper solution is for the campground to have it's power grid rewired to a higher amperage service so nobody's voltage sags even if every power pole is delivering it's maximum rated current to each RV connected to every power pole during extreme weather.

It is a case of people not knowing how they work, and they think somehow you are stealing power. Over the years I have stayed in a couple of parks that posted no autoformers. When I purchased one I decided that one that was hard wired in was the best option, out of sight out of mind. Older parks with 30 amp only will have more problems, my progressive industries surge protector and my autoformer have saved me quite a few times.

Thank you (re: elec WH question) sorry for the mini hijack.

Never ran into a park that banned auto transformers and use electric HWTR all the time.

ljr wrote:

CJ5 jeeper wrote:
....There are some parks that do not want you to use them, as they think you are stealing power.....

I hope I'm not stepping into one of those topics that gets everybody upset but can you explain the reasoning behind that belief? I've never encountered it (yet) but I've talked to others that have.

50A/240V is 12kw. Why would somebody believe something plugged into a 12kw pedestal can draw more power than that? Am I completely misunderstanding how this works?

I'm firmly placed in your corner on this issue. My unit is a 30 amp unit. My shorepower connection is protected by a 30 amp breaker. In theory (the perfect world) if I try to draw 31 amps, it trips the breaker. So how can I steal power?
I have run into a bunch of parks that won't allow the autoformer, thats why mine is hardwired in. Yet I've found a couple parks that sell the autoformers...go figure.

SteveB wrote:
I have a Franks Autotransformer purchased after a stressful trip to a DC campground in 2010. Embarrassingly I have never used it. I even wired up a nice plug-in setup in the rear compartment.
Never really needed it though as I also picked up a Kill-A-Watt meter and use it to keep tabs on incoming volts but that is also no guarantee that trouble is not looming.
I am concerned that (I read somewhere) it is NOT to be used with a resistive load which means NO ELECTRIC WATER HEATER. I don't know why it would make a difference as long as all loads are withing the design capacity. Not that propane is a problem but I don't want to "accidentally" turn it on to electric and blow up a $450 device.
Does anyone here use their electric water heater with an autoformer?

I have for years !!!!

CJ5 jeeper wrote:
....There are some parks that do not want you to use them, as they think you are stealing power.....

I hope I'm not stepping into one of those topics that gets everybody upset but can you explain the reasoning behind that belief? I've never encountered it (yet) but I've talked to others that have.

50A/240V is 12kw. Why would somebody believe something plugged into a 12kw pedestal can draw more power than that? Am I completely misunderstanding how this works?

SteveB: Our Hughes Autoformer is hardwired in place all the time. I'm sure you know that if the voltage is high enough, its just a pass through unit and it doesn't even work. But only kicks in when voltage drops to a near danger zone.
As for the electric water heater theory, I've never hear of that but my Hughes was bought used nearly 9 years ago and with no instructions or manual. We do use our electric water heater with is as well as any other appliances in the mH.