Electrical Protection

ShawnAZ10 · 08-15-2015, 10:05 PM

A friend of mine told me it would be a good idea to get a surge protector and voltage regulator to protect all of my electrical devices. He just purchased Technology Research 34850 Portable Surge Guard and TR's 10175 Voltage Regulator. I know that Progressive and Autoformer make similar products and was wondering what the forum thought about the ideal set up to protect our homes. It's a several hundred dollar purchase, want to get this right

You would think that when you bought a Redwood that there would be some surge protection built in and you wouldn't need it. Any help would be great, thank you!

**piper guy** · 08-15-2015, 10:25 PM

I use the Progressive Industries portable. About $400. Consider it cheap insurance as we have quite a bit of extra electronic equipment on board.

ShawnAZ10 · 08-15-2015, 11:21 PM

Does it cut your power off very much where you would need the voltage regulator to kick in? I was thinking about Progressive's Electric Management System, which might be what you have, but was wondering if later down the road if I did get a voltage regulator if the EMS would cut power to the regulator and keep it from doing its job boosting or reducing the current.

scott&phyllis · 08-15-2015, 11:24 PM

We have the Progressive Industries portable as well. Very happy with it.

**piper guy** · 08-15-2015, 11:37 PM

The Progressive unit monitors line voltage and if it goes too high or too low will kill power to the coach before it does damage to coach electronics. When it does this, it starts the 2 minute check cycle again before it resets. I don't see any need for a regulator with using it.

Rick and Mindy · 08-16-2015, 01:34 AM

We also have the Progressive portable and it has saved us many times, especially in some of the State Parks.

mhs4771 · 08-16-2015, 01:36 AM

We've had the Progressive Hardwired unit with remote display in both of our RWs. Had a portable prior, but was worried we might forget it or it might develop feet and walk away.

travelin' texans · 08-16-2015, 01:44 AM

Been using the portable also. I would highly recommend using one as we fried the 1st one at a small/old park, which saved our equipment & the park a lot of $$ replacing that equipment.

ShawnAZ10 · 08-16-2015, 06:35 PM

Sounds like no one uses a voltage regulator to keep their voltage boosted and I shouldn't worry about it

Doesn't hurt my feelings, wasn't looking forward to dropping $600 on it. Most of you are using a portable unit like Progressive Industries RV Surge and Electrical Protection industry lea or the hardwired version.

I'm new to RVing, and found myself full-time chasing work around the country with more than a few questions. You're comments are very helpful, thank you!

rob_fla · 08-16-2015, 09:02 PM

Yep, that is what we have too, I still work fulltime and we move around the country about every 2 weeks, have not had a issue with power levels in 4 years of fulltiming.
I do have a volt meter plugged into a wall outlet to keep a eye on the voltage level, especially during the busy summer season when parks are full and everybody is running their A/C units hard.

mhs4771 · 08-17-2015, 01:23 AM

That's the nice thing about the Progressive Hard Wired unit with the remote display. Give you the Voltage on each Leg, plus the current draw of each leg, so no other meters required.
Those Boost Xformers are nice, but are pretty heavy to carry around for the few times you might need it.

atom ant · 08-17-2015, 03:55 AM

Read the specs - they don't all do the same - I don't think the portables do all the things the hardwire units do.

We got the Progressive Dynamic EMSLCHW50 without the remote readout, and wish we had gotten the remote readout because it's fun to watch! I have to stick my head in the front cabinet to see what is going on.

I've had it shut us down several times, and restore power. not sure why, except one time it shut us completely down because the pedestal breaker started arcing and one side was less than 20v. I would like to say the surge suppressor saved us, but I don't really know what would have happened without it. I'm glad we installed it.

mhs4771 · 08-17-2015, 04:15 PM

The display on the unit should give you a readout of the fault so you know why it shut down.

atom ant · 08-17-2015, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhs4771

The display on the unit should give you a readout of the fault so you know why it shut down.

It does, but mine isn't real easy to get to, and once it restores - I'm back on vacation and not giving it much thought

The one time it totally shut down I could see one leg was reading 20v which was an erroneous number while the breaker was arcing. The park electrician got the same thing.

poormarky · 08-18-2015, 05:29 AM

I have the Progressive portable unit and had problems with it in our camp ground and at the rally. I called them to see about warr and they said you have to have the original receipt or they charge $75.00 to look at it. Mine is 2 years old and of course I can't find the receipt. I have an electrician friend but I don't know if he can get in side to look at it or not. Mine keeps shutting off and then comes back on 10-15 min later. If the electrician can't get in it I will send it in and see what the say.

RomanyLife · 08-18-2015, 09:07 PM

Recently we had our Progressive hard wired unit shut us down repeatedly on one day while we were at a park in Oregon. It was hot outside, and the park was full, and everyone's A/Cs were going. In the past we have stayed at this same park in the same conditions in our SOB and had frequent "brown outs" where the power would dip. I am assuming that this was the cause of our unit shutting down since we had nothing else running inside. This causes me to wonder; CAN you install the voltage regulator upstream of the surge protector to prevent the little dips in power that trip the surge protector and shut the whole coach down?? I have no idea, but it sure would have been nice in that situation. I am probably exposing the empty space between my ears.... oh well.

Elliott & Vicky · 08-19-2015, 01:57 AM

I had had a problem with my Progressive EMS. Sent it back Priority mail and had a new one back in 6 days. Great service, and guaranteed for life.

ShawnAZ10 · 08-20-2015, 12:11 PM

[QUOTE=RomanyLife;52843]Recently we had our Progressive hard wired unit shut us down repeatedly on one day while we were at a park in Oregon. It was hot outside, and the park was full, and everyone's A/Cs were going. In the past we have stayed at this same park in the same conditions in our SOB and had frequent "brown outs" where the power would dip. I am assuming that this was the cause of our unit shutting down since we had nothing else running inside. This causes me to wonder; CAN you install the voltage regulator upstream of the surge protector to prevent the little dips in power that trip the surge protector and shut the whole coach down??

I wrote to progressive,"I'm trying to find the best electrical protection for my RV. A friend of mine bought a surge protector and a voltage regulator to maintain consistent flow to the trailer. If I bought the EMS from Progressive and bought a voltage regulator down the road would they work counter to each other? I would imagine the EMS if plugged in front of the voltage regulator would shut down if voltage went to low and stop the regulator from boosting voltage. Am I understanding this correctly?"

They responded, "Hello Shawn, Your understanding is correct. To properly work, the regulator
should be connected to the shore power, followed by our EMS and then
the shore power connection to your coach. This would present the proper
voltage to the EMS. Thank you for considering our products.
Regards, Donald
Customer Support
919 267-6964"

spindrift · 08-21-2015, 01:58 AM

Progressive all the way. We wouldn't leave home without one. Since installing it over a year ago, never had a shut-down until this week in Shelbyville, KY. It was shutting down on low voltage. Not a good thing for our A/C units for sure. Ended up moving to another site. I agree, this is an accessory that should come standard, or at least as an option, for this type of rig.

Rick and Mindy · 08-21-2015, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spindrift

Progressive all the way. We wouldn't leave home without one. Since installing it over a year ago, never had a shut-down until this week in Shelbyville, KY. It was shutting down on low voltage. Not a good thing for our A/C units for sure. Ended up moving to another site. I agree, this is an accessory that should come standard, or at least as an option, for this type of rig.

I have beenusing the Progressive since I purchased my Redwood. We are not fulltiming yet so we do some weekend camping in some State Parks and the only time it has shut me down was this past spring in Degray State Park in Arkansas. The voltage kept spiking high and the unit would shut me down. I contacted the park and their maintenance guy came out and checked it and said it was normal for the electric company to increase the voltage output to the park because when the campground is busy and all the A/Cs are going, more voltage is needed. He tried to tell me that it was my Progressive unit that was causing all my problems even though his meter showed the voltage variance. I then asked if he would take care of damages if I disconnected my Progressive since he was so sure it was the unit causing the problem. Of course his reply was "no way". Needless to say, I kept it connected and the unit would shut me off about 2 times per hour and this went on all night. I checked other pedestals to see if I could change sites but they were all doing the same thing. I probably won't ever go back there for that reason.

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