Surge Protector/EMS Need

[RVhiker]

Reply to Hitch Pin
EMS = Electrical Management System

Reply to general thread content:
I had a fifth wheel without an EMS for ten years and never had a power problem - that I knew about.

I've had an EMS for about four years and it has protected my trailer on several occasions:
1) Stopped the flow of electricity to my trailer when the voltage was less than 104 volts, protecting my AC compressor (several occasions)
2) Stopped the flow of electricity to my trailer when the voltage was over 132 volts, protecting sensitive electronics (one occasion)
3) Protection from unknown surges

Nobody has too have an EMS. The electrical systems on a trailer seem to be rather robust. But an EMS does provide an additional level of protection.

[Seann45]

Originally Posted by RDUBYA448

While the park may have posted the standard, innocuous "Not resposnsible" warning, these, as a rule, hold no water in the legal world. So, either the insurance company, or his lawyer will be seeking reimburement for damages paid if it's confirmed that the surge was caused by negligence on the part of the park! And, if he had replacement cost on his RV policy, he is indeed getting all new appliances, wiring, etc. for the cost of his deductbile!

In the meantime your trip is ruined.. if you enjoy staying in a hotel you would not be in an RV..

[Hitch Pin]

I picked up one of these a few weeks ago.

[RVhiker]

That looks interesting, Hitch Pin. What is it?

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by RVhiker

That looks interesting, Hitch Pin. What is it?

+1. What is that thing?

[Pappy]

To use surge protection or not.....another of the topics where opinions vary greatly.

My DW and I researched this quite a lot and we can't imagine that investing $250 or so in our Progressive Industries PT30C is a bad thing, especially considering what we invested in our TT/TV package as a whole, and considering what replacement appliances cost.

To each his own.

Cheers,
Greg

[nbhybrid]

Originally Posted by RVhiker

That looks interesting, Hitch Pin. What is it?

it is an "auto former" unlike the others that cut the supply of electricity off if you get low voltage this will boost the voltage and keep things running

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by nbhybrid

it is an "auto former" unlike the others that cut the supply of electricity off if you get low voltage this will boost the voltage and keep things running

How does that work? Is it rechargeable? Does it get voltage from the battery? Where does it get the voltage to "boost"?

[howie]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

How does that work? Is it rechargeable? Does it get voltage from the battery? Where does it get the voltage to "boost"?

This is the info from their site:

"Autoformer provides protection from low voltage damage by boosting the park voltage to your RV. "Sense" circuit automatically turns the 10% boost on when the park power is less than 117 volts and turns it off when the park power reaches 118 volts. Built in grounding continuity test offers protection against damage from open ground, open neutral or reverse polarity - if the light isn't on, do not use the power source."
https://www.hughesautoformers.com/in...d=2&Itemid=170

[nbhybrid]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

How does that work? Is it rechargeable? Does it get voltage from the battery? Where does it get the voltage to "boost"?

it has windings in it just like a transformer to produce voltage. look up Faradays law

[krsmitty]

Originally Posted by Hitch Pin

I picked up one of these a few weeks ago.

X 2 Picked up one about 6 months ago.

[Hitch Pin]

Originally Posted by RVhiker

That looks interesting, Hitch Pin. What is it?

It called an auto former, in other words it's a voltage booster. It also has a built in Surge Protector.

https://hughesautoformers.com/

[Camper_bob]

Wow, those are kind of pricey. Do they work better than the Progressive Industries EMS? Would it be worth the extra cost to get the Hughes instead?

[krsmitty]

This is the only surge protector device I have ever used, so I can not compare.

[nbhybrid]

it does everything the EMS does except it doesn't shut off like they do when you have a low voltage. It keeps things going.

[Big Sky]

I'm impressed with the autoformer. This provides both surge protection & low voltage protection?

[nbhybrid]

I would just get an EMS. You don't need the autoformer....

[Hitch Pin]

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

Wow, those are kind of pricey. Do they work better than the Progressive Industries EMS? Would it be worth the extra cost to get the Hughes instead?

I got mine a Amazon, no tax’s and no shipping.

We used it all last week, the park where we camped has very low voltage out put, most people there couldn’t run their ac at all. We was able to run the ac the fridge and the hot water heater and the voltage never went below 116 volts in side the rv with everything running.

If we didn’t have the auto former last week we would have fried just about everything in the rv, most of the other campers didn’t have more than 110 volts in side their rv with nothing running.

So to me it was totally worth what I paid for it.

[nbhybrid]

Originally Posted by Big Sky

I'm impressed with the autoformer. This provides both surge protection & low voltage protection?

an EMS does as well.....The only difference is the EMS will shut down and not restart until the voltage has corrected itself.

[Hitch Pin]

Originally Posted by nbhybrid

an EMS does as well.....The only difference is the EMS will shut down and not restart until the voltage has corrected itself.

That's the thing, hard to tell how long it will take it to correct itself. A few min. or a few hrs.?