What's left of Our Progressive EMS Unit
This is whats our EMS unit looks like after our last excursion. The box got fried. Bought it in 2009 and it has worked flawlessly up until a couple of weeks ago. No I don't know what or how, but it s...
Forum Discussion
OP, can you post some photos of the interior of the EMS.
No way on god's green earth would I let a dealer install a PI EMS. Must be many thousands of these installed by other than a dealer and operate just fine.
I have to wonder if there was a bad connection(s) (despite thinking it was tight enough) or there was a surge from the poco.
What I do not like about these PI EMS units is the how the terminals on the contactor have flat surfaces and contact a round wire against 2 sides which could result in a less than ideal connection. If you look at a circuit breaker for example, the contact surfaces are concave shaped. When I installed our EMS, I used stranded #10 SOW cable to connect to the contactor.
Photo below shows the contactor and how a solid wire would be in the contact and you can see how a round wire is pressed against a flat surface by a flat-surfaced screw. Maybe as well, but I would think unlikely, bouncing in an RV from travelling down the road loosened a connection(s). I would hazard a guess that the average non-electrician would not know how much torque to apply to the screw.
I also don't like the way they want you to make the ground connection inside via a small stud on the side of the plastic enclosure. I wired the ground wire straight through with a wire nut then a 3rd wire over to the lug. I read about one case involving a lightning strike that fried an EMS and it's possible it was due to a poor internal ground connection.
*If* the OP's connections were not done properly I could see the manufacturer denying a claim, but without having the unit in hand, how would they know. The contactor itself could have been faulty too.
I hope they don't start making these things in China. PI's warranty has been stellar and hope this situation is an anomaly. I didn't think PI repaired these and normally shipped you a replacement?
No way on god's green earth would I let a dealer install a PI EMS. Must be many thousands of these installed by other than a dealer and operate just fine.
I have to wonder if there was a bad connection(s) (despite thinking it was tight enough) or there was a surge from the poco.
What I do not like about these PI EMS units is the how the terminals on the contactor have flat surfaces and contact a round wire against 2 sides which could result in a less than ideal connection. If you look at a circuit breaker for example, the contact surfaces are concave shaped. When I installed our EMS, I used stranded #10 SOW cable to connect to the contactor.
Photo below shows the contactor and how a solid wire would be in the contact and you can see how a round wire is pressed against a flat surface by a flat-surfaced screw. Maybe as well, but I would think unlikely, bouncing in an RV from travelling down the road loosened a connection(s). I would hazard a guess that the average non-electrician would not know how much torque to apply to the screw.
I also don't like the way they want you to make the ground connection inside via a small stud on the side of the plastic enclosure. I wired the ground wire straight through with a wire nut then a 3rd wire over to the lug. I read about one case involving a lightning strike that fried an EMS and it's possible it was due to a poor internal ground connection.
*If* the OP's connections were not done properly I could see the manufacturer denying a claim, but without having the unit in hand, how would they know. The contactor itself could have been faulty too.
I hope they don't start making these things in China. PI's warranty has been stellar and hope this situation is an anomaly. I didn't think PI repaired these and normally shipped you a replacement?
