Community Forums

Ray,IN · 07-19-2024, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BonS

Soft start devices for our AC's and heat pumps are now seemingly everywhere. A year ago many were, or still are, paying almost $400 each for them. About a year ago I purchased mine from Briidea and they were a bit under $200. You get little warranty but they did the job at reducing the compressor surge at start up and limiting inrush to around 20 amps instead of 60+ amps. I installed the Briidea units on three units and they all worked just fine. Briidea also has a very good tech support section to assist with wiring their 5-wire devices to all the major HVAC brands.

Flash forward to this week. I again reviewed the offerings and found that a lot of companies are now selling soft starts and prices are all over the place for what appears to be the same, China made, devices. I picked the lowest cost brand and ordered three for my new-to-me coach. They arrived without any instructions whatsoever. There is a schematic on the label, along with some misspelled words, and that will help the pro HVAC tech. Otherwise you'll need some help. That's where the Briidea web site came in handy. The 5-wire devices seem to all work, if not be, the same. The same box and wire color coding. Handy! Using the Briidea diagrams, which are very good by the way, I quickly hooked up all three to my AC's. They all are working perfectly. Very quiet.

Now for the best part. I paid $76 each. Okay, only a 30 day warranty, but at that price it's worth it to me to take a flier. I'm an electrical engineer so my experienced eye tells me that the PCB and components are comparable to the others and likely come from the same factory. Time will tell I suppose.

This is what I bought. And this is where I got my instructions.

Whether you install soft starts to reduce the noise or to extend the life of your compressor they're a really good deal at this price point. I had a third reason as my coach came with a lame 8.5KW generator and I could only run two units at once. Now I can run all three with power to spare. I used to dislike my generator but now I can appreciate it's lighter weight, less noise, and more frugal diesel consumption under light loads. Win, win, win.

Contrary to what you wrote, (run all 3 with power to spare) no soft start device will reduce running amperage, in fact there is no device to reduce a motors running amperage with any degree of reliability, only start-up spreads out total starting amperage for a longer time span, which lowers the peak.

Mark 7 · 07-19-2024, 09:17 PM

I just installed this one this afternoon and it works OK. Seems to have reduced inrush from almost 40 amps to about 18 on my 15K unit.

It was not without some "head scratching" though. Their manual link did not include my older Duo Therm unit. As soon as I figured out that the Duo Therm is very similar to Dometic, I was able to claw my way through the connections to my unit, though many of the wire colors were wrong, but the connections were all correct. I do have a tiny bit advanced electrical knowledge and can read a schematic and that was helpful.

I was surprised at how big the soft start was, but I found plenty of room to get it installed. Should have taken some pictures to share, but I didn't. Too anxious to get off of the roof in the 90˚ heat.