surge protector

SoundGuy wrote:
As an addendum to this discussion about surge protectors, particularly the Surge Guard ........ ;)

Yesterday was the warmest day we've seen yet this spring, mid 60s F, so I thought I'd fire up the trailer's A/C for the first time this season to check it out. Even with a Surge Guard protecting the trailer's electrical system the A/C started up and ran just fine on shore power, just as it had last season. I then switched over to my recently acquired Honda EU2000i for source power - with the A/C in fan mode only it ran fine but as soon as I switched on the A/C compressor the initial (significant) voltage drop sent the Surge Guard into spasms, chattering away like crazy, probably from an internal relay that sure didn't like what it was seeing. This did surprise me a bit as I expected the Surge Guard would simply shut it all down, not keep trying to pass voltage. Now before anyone jumps in with - "You can't run a 13.5K BTU A/C with a 2000 watt genset" - don't bother, I've been there before, having owned another EU2000i previously, understand what works & what doesn't, and have in the past been quite successful in doing so, repeatedly. This however is the first time I've ever had a Surge Guard inserted in the system so clearly if I intended to actually do this on a regular basis I'd want to bypass the Surge Guard whenever running off the genset. In my case, based on my previous experiences, I've decided I'm personally not interested in running my EU2000i hour after hour all day long just so I can power the A/C but others that do and may have a Surge Guard protecting their trailer's electrical system might want to take this into consideration.

As I have previously mentioned I have a Surge Guard 34730 on order so I am very interested in what you are talking about. It is my understanding that upon sensing low voltage for 8 seconds the Surge Guard drops power for 128 seconds. I am guessing that the voltage dropped so low that the relay could not remain pulled in. What I don't understand is why the electronics did not just drop the relay. I guess the electronics were just trying to keep the relay energized for the additional 8 seconds. Have you called Surge Guard's tech support line (800) 780-4324.