Surge Guard

Personal choice. I had my Progressive Industry EMS unit internally mounted. Display is mounted in cabinet with the rest of my tank levels and switches. In hind sight I probably should have had it mounted somewhere more accessible. I have to pull the wall in my basement to get to mine but you really don't have to do much with it.

My 50 amp is permanently mounted in the converter department. A permanent mount is one less thing to set up and take down if you move a lot.

Bill

You should be looking for and energy management system, EMS. The coverage of these devices far exceeds simple "surge protection". The measure of the surge protection capability of a device is calibrated in joules. The higher the joule rating the higher the capability of the device to protect against an electrical surge. The EMS devices provide substantially more protection than a simple surge protection device. An argument for hard wired is the capability of a remote display, ie. the ability to monitor the device from within the rig. The hard wired device is much safer as regards the possibility that the portable device may be stolen however, that issue doesn't seem to be as big a problem in reality as it is in the fear of theft. It is likely that a review here regarding the selection of an EMS device is very likely to indicate a strong preference for the Progressive Industries products. Furthermore is also appears that PI has a far better track record as regards customer service and device support. The EMS devices are relatively expensive however, replacing a "bunch" of electronics on-board is clearly far more costly than the EMS device. A device that is simply a volt metre will tell you when the disaster occurred, assuming you are looking at the "thing" when the spike hit. A voltmetre simply measures current, it gives you absolutely NO protection from the damage that an electrical surge may cause. The moral of the story is again, you get what you pay for. Thinking a $10 voltmetre can appropriately and adequately replace a much more expensive EMS device is a fools folly.

We have a portable 50amp Surge Guard and I like the idea of having it test the campground power before I ever have our MH connected.

On the one occasion we had a 50amp leg missing at a campground it was easy to show the local "tech" guy they had a problem and I didnt connect until he had it repaired.

This is why I use a portable at the pedestal instead of hardwired:
http://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12061
It matters little that the link is from 2011. When a hardwired unit takes a bad hit and then cannot switch over to 'bypass' I don't want to be outside at 10 o'clock at night, with a flashlight in my teeth, on my knees, in the rain, performing surgery on it to restore shore power. I opted for a portable unit that hangs on the pedestal. When it does its job and fries itself, I can unplug it and then plug the shore cable into the pedestal. Easy-peasy, done. The trade off being security. Sometime the life less complicated also includes less secure.

Now vic46's over-the-top endorsement of Progressive Industries EMS would have one believe that any unit without the word 'EMS' in its name is inferior. I beg to differ. My 30A portable Surge Guard has protected my MH from bad pedestals/power on several occasions.

Here is a link to Technology Research Corporation's RV power protection products, even hardwired units.

Which ever way you decide to go get a Progressive Industries unit, the absolute best and a life time warranty. :)

tvman44 wrote:
Which ever way you decide to go get a Progressive Industries unit, the absolute best and a life time warranty. :)

X2 without a doubt!

gotsmart wrote:
This is why I use a portable at the pedestal instead of hardwired:
http://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12061
It matters little that the link is from 2011. When a hardwired unit takes a bad hit and then cannot switch over to 'bypass' I don't want to be outside at 10 o'clock at night, with a flashlight in my teeth, on my knees, in the rain, performing surgery on it to restore shore power. I opted for a portable unit that hangs on the pedestal. When it does its job and fries itself, I can unplug it and then plug the shore cable into the pedestal. Easy-peasy, done. The trade off being security. Sometime the life less complicated also includes less secure.

Now vic46's over-the-top endorsement of Progressive Industries EMS would have one believe that any unit without the word 'EMS' in its name is inferior. I beg to differ. My 30A portable Surge Guard has protected my MH from bad pedestals/power on several occasions.

Here is a link to Technology Research Corporation's RV power protection products, even hardwired units.

I'm not a statistician, but it seems to me if you're camped someplace and the Surge Protector trips because of a storm or faulty power then the chances are pretty good that it will trip again - assuming it's still storming or you're still camped at the same place. So if you bypass the Surge Protector the first time it trips and fries you're risking frying everything in the RV the next time the power glitches. If you're willing to risk that then why waste the money buying the Surge Protector in the first place?

BTW, I have a Progressive Industries in my RV. It's in the equipment bay and I didn't bother getting the remote display option. If it trips I'm just going to roll over and get a good nites sleep and check on it in it in the morning if it doesn't reset itself in the meantime.

How hard is it to install a permanent mounted EMS? That question asked, understand my electrical abilities and knowledge is, limited? (when my kids were small I noticed my wife had put plugs into the wall outlets. I thought she was saving electricity--not the kids!)

So, DIY with instructions or leave it to the folks at a dealership when we buy and add one as an accessory?

I have the Progressive EMS portable unit, and it has saved us twice that I know of by shutting down when the voltage dropped below 108 volts.( 64 volts and 76 volts) Both times it was at night and I had both AC's running.

The other reason for getting the Progressive unit is that it has a life time warranty. Surge Guard only has 1 year warranty.

Mine got wet during a rain storm (not sure how, because I had it covered) and failed. One call to PI, and I shipped it to them, and had it back in about 2 weeks at no charge. ( I guess there was a charge for me to ship it to them, but it was minimal and well worth it.)