Installing Surge Protector

Tincup · 10-11-2005, 01:28 AM

I recently picked up my 2005 Bounder. First upgrade is a surge protector. I haven't decided on which one yet, either the SurgeGuard Model 34560 or the EMS HW 50. Two questions;

Can the forum members give me pros/cons for each.

Where is the best place to physically locate either device, and did you have any problems? I know it will be before the xfr switch but precisely where did you mount yours.

Having an electrical/electronics background I will be doing the installation myself.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Tincup · 10-11-2005, 01:28 AM

I recently picked up my 2005 Bounder. First upgrade is a surge protector. I haven't decided on which one yet, either the SurgeGuard Model 34560 or the EMS HW 50. Two questions;

Can the forum members give me pros/cons for each.

Where is the best place to physically locate either device, and did you have any problems? I know it will be before the xfr switch but precisely where did you mount yours.

Having an electrical/electronics background I will be doing the installation myself.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Steve Val · 10-11-2005, 04:01 PM

Paul
In our last 2 coaches, I mounted mine in the electrical compartment inline with the powerr cord.
I have the Surge Guard, researched it before I bought, and liked the specs, and their policy of repair/replacement if it gets a hit. At the time, the EMS wasn't that common, so I really didn't check into it - I have been very happy with the Surgeguard - it works, and proved itself at the National Rally. Almost every day it was tripping, and I have since found out that several people sustained damage from over/under voltage problems.

GStream40 · 10-11-2005, 05:25 PM

Paul,
We have the Progressive Ind. EMS 50 that is the "portable" model. What I did was install a plug/recept. in the compartment so that I would have it installed in-line in the compartment.

The reason I did this was so that if/when we decided to get another coach we could just unplug it and take it with us.

In August when we were in Tenn. the EMS saved the wiring and all electronics in the coach when we took a hit of lightning thru the park power lines. It ruined the surge board of the EMS. I called Progressive Ind. and they had me sent it to them.

They sent me a brand new unit within a few days, No Charge.

I thought that was great since the failure was definitely not their fault and it saved our coach. I love the over/under voltage feature and also the wiring checks it does before turning the power on. It also saved our coach wiring due to faulty wiring at a CG last year.

Yep, Nothing but Progressive Ind. EMS units for me from now on.

Ron

ronboc · 10-20-2005, 12:56 PM

Hi -

Do the SurgeGuard and/or the ProgressiveIndustries units provide a hard shutdown?

In other words, do they slowly disconnect the output if voltage goes too high or low, or is it fast like flipping a switch? I was told one of 'em (forget which) gradually ramp down to 'save' memory/etc in the connected devices, but that sounds counterproductive to me... if the voltage is wrong, I'd think it would want to drop offline as fast as possible.

TIA,
Ron

Grumpy Dave · 10-20-2005, 01:50 PM

Progressive is either on or off. The second it senses a problem it cuts power to the coach.Had the hard-wire model installed 2 years ago. The weekend after we had it done my wife came to me in the evening because the AC power in the coach kept cutting out. Ended up being a bad groundfault recepticle up the line from us which the campground owner had no idea about.It's in the power bay on the wall.

Steve Val · 10-20-2005, 04:05 PM

The Surgeguard is instananeous as well.

Tincup · 10-21-2005, 05:19 AM

Ron,

I have some experience with surge protectors in my home and in my job. Any one I've ever seen does a hard shutdown. I can't imagine why one would slowly shed a load, that could tend to fry equipment on a high voltage situation.

Thanks for your response.

Grumpy Dave · 10-21-2005, 10:01 AM

ronboc Thinking about the "shedding" aspect you mentioned I think some manufacturers have a Energy Management System (EMS) that moniters usage and will shut down a pre determined sequence of loads as power usage nears or exceeds input. That may be where you picked up the information...As has been stated surge guards at least to my understanding are either on or off.

ronboc · 10-21-2005, 02:04 PM

Yup, y'all make sense as a sanity-check. I thought maybe I'd missed something there. Can't see as how a soft-stop would help.

Your comment makes a lot of sense, Grumpy-Dave. Thanks all.

Ron

Steve Val · 10-21-2005, 06:34 PM

Ron, don't feel bad. I've seen a lot of confusion with what the EMS system does. I think that because they chose to call it EMS, it gets easliy confused as an Energy Management System - I've seen it happen several times on several forums.