Surge Guards, to buy or not to buy

I first bought mine 7 years ago. I was camped at an RV park in Nogales, AZ waiting to cross into Mexico the next day (It was the Bates motel of RV parks, BTW). A guy in a class A pulled in and I asked him if he was headed into Mexico. No, he told me, he was on his way home after 1 week. his fridge board was blown due to bad power. Next morning i doubled back to Tucson and got a surge guard. 7 years of RVing in Mexico later, the thing shuts down often 3 or 4 times a day due to low or high voltage. All my electronics re still intact.

Bumpyroad wrote:
well first of all it will probably be more than $200. and I wouldn't be without one, but make it a multi function one that protects against over/under voltage, mis wiring, delayed AC restart, etc. don't cheap out because "I've camped for 150 years and never needed one". you only need it once. remember one night in Austin a bolt of lightning hit the campground and after the smoke cleared I was about the only RV in the park that had any lights on. all those others probably hadn't had a problem for years either. :s
bumpy

x--2

I have never had a problem either, BUT the guy across the street had a pedestal go bad on his site and when I left his insurance company had replaced in excess of $2000 worth of electronics. Everything in a modern RV unit has some type of circuit board waiting to be fried.

For those that claim they have never needed them or had a problem, there may of been instances they simply were not aware but hidden damage could be the result.

We purchased or 30 amp portable unit from Progressive Industries in 2009 and since that time we have had the following instances:

Open ground 3 different times in 2 different locations
Low voltage - 1 instance
High voltage - 2 different times including one at my home. (power company at fault there)
Reverse polarity - 1 time

The open ground situations probably would not do any damage to equipment but could be very dangerous in wet conditions.
Low voltage - potential serious damage to equipment.
High voltage - definitely would seriously damage equipment.
Reverse polarity - the scariest of all situations. Receptacle was wired incorrectly.

We feel our investment has paid for itself many times. State and municipal parks are suffering from budget constraints and unless you camp in the most high end exclusive resorts, you will find that things happen electrically and using these is like an insurance policy without the hassle of making a claim for replacing equipment.

In all my years of camping I had never used one but for some reason I recently decided to get a Surge Guard 30 amp portable unit (about $220 at CW). On the first trip with the unit we pulled into a horrible campground for an overnight. On the 30 amp plug the surge guard kept indicating reverse polarity/open ground. Using a dogbone I tried the 50 amp plug and the surge guard showed only 90 volts. Tried several other pedestals, we were the only ones there, with the same results. I can't begin to guess how many dollars damage I would have incurred had I not had the surge guard and had plugged into that power. I am sure many times the $220 I had spent on the surge guard. You can bet I will never again plug in without checking first.

would not be without one saved me with low voltage!

I wouldn't even think twice about it mine saved my electronics one day at Meramec Caverns when they had some kind of an electrical problem.

Yesterday evening I moved our TT & truck to the driveway in front of our house to head out today. It's normally off to the side of our property along with a dedicated 30 amp RV recept. that has #8 back to the panel. I installed a hardwired Progressive Industries EMS at the beginning of this season.

We have a built-in vacuum cleaner in our TT (on a 15 amp brkr.) and I tried to clean the floors. Lo and behold, the power kept switching on an off. Checked the EMS display with the vac running and it was getting down to 98 volts! I am very surprised. The 15 amp recept. I plugged into loops around the 2 car garage with #14 ga. wire before it connects to the panel. Open circuit voltage at the recept. was 117 volts. Plugging the 30 amp shore power cord right into the garage recept. (with adapter) made no difference. The vac unit draws 12 amps and nothing else was on.

This clearly demonstrates how much voltage drop there can be when plugging in at home. With a smaller #16 gauge extension cord, it would be even worse. A #12 gauge or larger extension cord would not have helped.

Without an EMS, it would easily be possible to damage anything that is voltage critical like AC units. You could even measure the voltage at your camper and think you are fine, but then damage your AC.

Bottom line - an EMS unit is definitely worth it and there when you need it.

I have a surge guard, Built in. I RV a lot in Mexico and in some parks it is blocking power more often than it is letting it through. I have seen 2 people blow fridge boards without them so far. In one RV park they had a 220 hookup that somebody plugged into by mistake, that fried everything.

The progressive industries unit looks nice, but I already have the surge guard. If it packs in, I may go with the PI.

Power surges and low voltage conditions have an accumulative damaging effect. You might not see any damaged equipment on the first or even the second incident. But it all adds up to an expensive failure.

Buy a surge protector. It's like buying insurance or bear spray. It seems too expensive until you need it. I was out in Yellowstone four months hosting a campground. My first week there we had a park electrical surge while we were cooking in the microwave. The microwave blew. It's one of the fancy built in ones loaded with convection oven etc. Then IO ordered a surge protector(after the horse was out of the barn). It could have been the Fridge, tv, or A/C !