Surge Guard - dead

[wa8yxm]

Ok, you 50 amp folks ... He alrady stated it is a 30 amp model.. Original post.

And yes, they do not work with open neutral.. Even if the safety ground is good.

The surge guard may object to open ground as well (not sure have to re-read manual) but the RV will work just fine if you bypass... So long as it does not kill you.

I have a 15 amp to 30 amp "Puck" type adapter (The word PUCK describes it's appearance) and a 3 light outlet tester.. Works well for testing 30 amp holes in the box to check for open ground/neutral and inverse polarity.

[NN5I]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

Ok, you 50 amp folks ... He alrady stated it is a 30 amp model.. Original post.

And yes, they do not work with open neutral.. Even if the safety ground is good.

That's untrue (unless yours is the only RV in the park), and not understanding it can kill you or burn up your appliances or set your whole RV aflame. Although the park's neutral is open somewhere, your part of it isn't open if there are other RVs on the same circuit. Your part is floating, instead of open, and that's bad.

Look at the diagram. Depending upon the loads in the other people's RVs, your voltage may be low, or high, or just right, because your neutral is floating and not open. If it's just right, everything in your RV works and it will be very difficult for you to detect the park's open neutral unless you somehow persuade the other RVs to disconnect so you can test. Good luck with that.

Then a heater, A/C, or something in one of the other RVs gets turned on, or turned off, and your voltage can soar or sag. With any luck, a good protector will then disconnect both your hot lead and your neutral lead.

But if you measure for a minute or two, likely something will turn on or off in some other RV, and you'll see a change in the voltage. So measure!

[wa8yxm]

To the O/P To test the unit without opening the box you will need

A 15 to 30 PUCK adapter (you should have one of these already)
A Three Light Outlet Tester (Likewise)
A "Trouble Lamp" or other lamp. Traditional filiment bulb, 100 watts or greater preferred

Optionally (If testing inside your house) a 30 to 15 dogbone type adapter

Test 1..plug 3LT into Puck into Surge Guard,, Plug in Surge Guard using dogbone if needed..Watch countdown/up When it times in listen for CLUNK and if you hear clunk observe 3LT Indicator LEDs and LCD display IF 3LT lights normally (2 green no red) replace 3LT with lamp.. if lights Surge guard good

Post results for further analysis by forum members.


Why do you need Puck and 3LT? To test park outlets of course before plugging in for open Grounds and reversed polarity.

[ke0me]

we are at Newport News Park cg in Newport News, VA adjacent to Yorktown battlefield.

the voltage here is vey high, averages around 127-130 vac.

if it hits 132, the surge guard trips out until the voltage drops back.

what is nice is that it does it automatically, so I don't have to go and manually reset something every time.

right now on battery waiting for the voltage to drop again, maybe a couple campers will start their Ac or coffee makers and load the system enough to drop the voltage just enough.

I did get my coffee maker running this morning between trip outs, so I'm good for now.

[NN5I]

Dick, that's scary. Do you have a way to measure voltage between the neutral (white) and the safety ground (green)? It should be very small, less than a volt -- usually way less. If it isn't small, there's an open neutral somewhere in the park. If it is small, it could still be an open neutral but more information is needed (it could also be an open safety ground, which can eliminate all your worries forever).

If there's a 50 amp supply at your spot, even if you're using only the 30 amp, you can measure the difference between each hot lead (one black, one red) and the neutral (white). When one (say red) goes up while the other (say black) goes down, this unequivocally shows an open (or high-resistance, doesn't have to be totally open) neutral somewhere if the difference is more than a couple volts; and it will do so even if the safety ground is also open, enabling you to pinpoint the open neutral (but not necessarily eliminating an open safety ground, which can occasionally exist at the same time).

[Radio]

Originally Posted by ke0me

I did get my coffee maker running this morning between trip outs, so I'm good for now.

I have a dandy stainless steel percolator that I sometimes think about leaving home. But then I always change my mind and bring it along.

I guess that's why. Besides, the coffee pot weighs a pound at best. What's one pound amongst 7800?

[wa8yxm]

In another forum I read about a RVer who plugged his surge guard into the 30 amp outlet at a friend's house and spent a night without electricity (Well Shore power)...

He posted wondering what was up.. next morning he investagited

it was a Dryer/Welder/Air compressor/Other 240 volt outlet


The surge guard (TM) worked as designed and protected his rig.

now.. are they superflorus or not?

Second story (personal times about 4 so far)

Just earlier this week (and 3 times prior) power went out here in the park for like 1 second.. now,, I've seen A/C's try to re-start "Hot" they make kind of an ugly sound, then the over heat cut out kicks in or the breaker trips.

Surge guard (TM) held power off for the required nearly 3 minutes.. Time delay on the A/C (A few seconds) took care of the rest of 3 minutes.. 3 Minutes is the MINIMUM recommended "Time off" for the compressor.. All 4 times the re-start was normal.

Another factor.. Oftren when power "Blinks" like that the first few seconds are kind of wild. Major rollar coaster voltages spikes can break 1,000 volts and dips to 50 or less. This can mess you up some.

Surge Guard (TM) and Progressive Industries EMS units hold you off for way longer than it takes the rollar coaster ride to end.

So yes, they are needed, times 3 at least.

[KA0WS]

When my wife and I bought our fiver, dealer service installed a new power connector to the cable as the previous owner had removed the original, for some strange reason. I installed a hardwired surge guard with the remote readout as I wanted the protection it afforded. Several years later my wife called me at work and said we lost power and the CG said it was a problem on our trailer. The next day we lost and gained power a number of times as the surge guard kept kicking out and resetting. I found that when the new connector was installed one wire was much shorter than the others and the cable weight was pulling on the shorter wire causing a make and break situation. The shorter wire was the neutral line. So when it broke connection, the surge guard dropped out as it sensed a bad the improper situation. I reworked the wiring in the connector and there have been no problems since. Had the surge guard not been there, what might have happened to the trailer? Fortunately, I'll never know.

Since that time we have been to several campgrounds and found bad power on the pedestal as the remote readout from the surge guard told us so and the system refused to engage. I relied on the surge guard to look out for us and it was flawless. As with everything, there are pros and cons to a surge guard but from my experience it was money well spent.