Surge Protection - a requirement or nice to have

RVFreshman · 09-16-2019, 03:45 PM

I have been going through the store and various online recommendations and thought this would be a good place to check. When staying at various camping and using the 30AMPs that they provide, would you recommend the use of a surge protector or do you think it is something that is just nice to have. I was surprised to see them at $250 and above. Also if you have any recommendations on where to purchase or brand/model to purchase that would also be helpful.

Thanks RV Freshman.

**ThomB** · 09-16-2019, 04:34 PM

Requirement in my opinion.
(Most will recommend the one from Progressive Industries)

30 Amp Portable:
https://www.amazon.com/PROGRESSIVE-I...8669746&sr=8-1
You may want to also get a lock so you can secure it to the pole which is why we went hard-wired on our (50A) coach.
Hard-wired would cost you a bit more.
https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-I...8669847&sr=8-6

SLOweather · 09-16-2019, 04:37 PM

It's no more of a requirement than other forms of insurance. How big of a gambler are you? (Willing to risk a lot of expensive electronics and A/Cs and such in the middle of a trip?)

emiddleb · 09-16-2019, 04:49 PM

Don't think of it as just "surge protection." Then you'll be in the mindset of wondering when the last time you were hit by lightning etc.

The better ones (I agree with the Progressive recommendation) check for mis-wired pedestals, low voltages, bad grounds etc. Much more common than you'd think. They are really cheap insurance... buy one now, it will protect you for years.

thompwil · 09-16-2019, 05:01 PM

We’ve been RVing for well over 30 years, rigs were never older than a few years having current level electronics. We never used one until we got the Winnie two years ago. We’ve camped in many a lightning storm before with no problems. Last summer a lightning storm in NJ took out the new surge protector. It was still under warranty so the Mfg. replaced it, no charge.

There certainly are reported incidents of severe damage from strike surges, I suppose we were lucky all those years before but I do wonder if that particular incident would have caused damage or not. At any rate, I don’t want to find out the hard way, and for the price, I've decided it’s a wise investment.

NXR · 09-16-2019, 05:55 PM

A plain old surge protector is not enough protection for your rig. It protects against spikes in voltage and that's it.

You really want something that will test the pedestal wiring for certain conditions and shut the power off automatically if any are detected at any time: Wires in the right place (not swapped on the plug), all wires in the pedestal actually connected (no open neutral or open ground), low voltage conditions (low voltage will cause an motors to draw more power and overheat, such as air conditioners).

There are a few other checks but those are the biggies. Some low-cost units only test but do not protect. Their manual says "Plug me in first but do not plug your cord into me until you check all the lights." That's because they cannot protect you and if a fault shows up later on they will happily allow the park's electrical system to fry your stuff.

My preference is a hard-wired unit but that takes some skills to install. Hard-wired will protect you from defects in your power cable and defects in your power plug while most portable units will not do that. But something is a lot better than nothing so go portable at least.

I use a Progressive Industries unit. SurgeGuard is another big vendor. Either will protect your stuff.

HTH,

hfbundy · 09-17-2019, 12:34 AM

I thought I was lucky and recently plugged into a miswired 220 volt 4-prong receptacle with my 220 volt/110 volt adapter. Apparently it sent 220 volt power to my 110 volt system. The damage I have discovered is smoking my inverter and AC power to my refrigerator. I have a Surge Guard Model 34930 monitor on order from United RV (unitedrv.com). The purchase price was $210. If I hadn't experienced this problem, I probably would have purchased a plain surge protector which wouldn't have protected my system from overvoltage.

Kayak73 · 09-17-2019, 08:47 AM

Never have used any rig without an EMS. It protects far beyond surges. I even installed a hard-wired EMS30 in this little rig. I plug in with minimal fear and feel they are worth the investment in dollars and time. If you can have an RV you can get an EMS installed or do it yourself, really it's on the top of the list with TPMS, oil changes, etc.

AZAspect · 09-17-2019, 11:03 AM

We use a Progressive Industries and always have. Haven't ever had an issue but a nice bonus is that it reads how many amps you are drawing. We spent 10 minutes running all of our different appliances, A/C, and portable appliances (coffee maker, toaster, griddle, etc) to see how many amps each draw. Yes, we have a Kill-A-Watt (recommended) that helped with the small appliances but it was nice to see actual amperage at full draws so we don't overload our system.

Al

blueridge-fl · 09-18-2019, 07:10 AM

We have the progressive EMS that others are recommending and it has saved us twice. Both times were low voltage situations. While surge protection functionality is important, you need much more given the hanky camp wiring we have seen over the years.

BVThunder · 09-18-2019, 08:39 AM

Surge protectors are like insurance policies. You may go years without needing it. I've been using them since 2003. Once during that time period I was in a campground during at summer thunderstorm. A nearby strike and power surge tripped mine. Neighbors were not so lucky. Think about smoking electronics, inverters and microwaves. Compare the cost, time and hassles of repair to the cost of a surge protector.

SCVJeff · 09-22-2019, 02:32 AM

If it were a requirement the coach would have had one installed. Having said that, todays electronics are nothing remotely close as in the last 20 years. Do I NEED Surge protection? No, but I have a 50A SurgeGuard as well as a Hughes Autoformer with additional spike protection. Ideally I hope to never have the SurgeGuard “do it’s job”, but its there as insurance. Same as the automatic AFFF extinguisher in the engine. I NEVER want to see that one working either

mileshuff · 09-22-2019, 05:21 PM

I have a Progressive Industries EMS-PT30X. Currently can be bought from Camping World for $209 using discount code ENDOFSUMMER. If you have 50amp the EMS-PT50X would be the choice.

There are lower priced devices out there but they do not offer the complete protection of the EMS devices. They also make a hard wired version which is preferred but more costly with installation involved.

Newman · 09-22-2019, 05:25 PM

To me it’s required, I got mine for about $125 from Amazon. To me it’s a small price to pay for piece of mind.)

Flash · 09-22-2019, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emiddleb

Don't think of it as just "surge protection." Then you'll be in the mindset of wondering when the last time you were hit by lightning etc.

The better ones (I agree with the Progressive recommendation) check for mis-wired pedestals, low voltages, bad grounds etc. Much more common than you'd think. They are really cheap insurance... buy one now, it will protect you for years.

Absolutely true! DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT!

Jim_HiTek · 09-22-2019, 07:08 PM

With my first 30 amp RV, I didn't bother with an EMS (Electrical Management System) because I am trained in electronics and needed to save money back when I first went full time. And that worked fine for 10 years. Then I bought a Progressive Ind. EMS, hard wired, and wouldn't you know it, I needed it 2-3 times in the 2 years following (then I sold the RV).

In my newer 50 amp rig, I checked Craigslist and found a 50 amp built in for $150 and bought it. Then installed it. Headed on down to Mexico and had 2 major electrical issues at a RV park in San Felipe that fried several other RV'ers equipment. Mine was saved by the Progressive. So I'm a big fan. (Note...the park owner replaced all the fried equipment and there was a lot of it).

What I'm saying is that if you can be on top of things, like unplugging the RV when a lightening storm passes through (which is what I would do) or measuring line voltage all the time every time, and asking to move to another space if the equipment you're plugging into looked dicey, and you can measure and understand when there's a reversal or open ground, etc....than yeah, you can go years without one. It's a roll of the dice though.

I would go with Progressive because of the lifetime warranty and the fact they are built in the US. Also the protection is top notch. JMO.

Swannie · 09-22-2019, 09:05 PM

I have heard first hand on how people have been shorted out because of not using a surge protector. I bought one at Camping World on sale a cheap investment in order to protect your power supply units and electronics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RVFreshman

I have been going through the store and various online recommendations and thought this would be a good place to check. When staying at various camping and using the 30AMPs that they provide, would you recommend the use of a surge protector or do you think it is something that is just nice to have. I was surprised to see them at $250 and above. Also if you have any recommendations on where to purchase or brand/model to purchase that would also be helpful.

Thanks RV Freshman.

Dives2little · 09-22-2019, 09:06 PM

I've had my (Surgegard) surge protector save me a couple of times. It general find open grounds on pedestals and will refuse to pass power to the rig. By-and-large, I would consider high end surge protection to be a necessity!

Rossi6998 · 09-22-2019, 09:16 PM

Agree with just about everyone else... Make it a requirement.

cshodges · 09-22-2019, 09:24 PM

I’d consider it a requirement. We’ve had it cut power on us at one rather large park. It’s not uncommon to wind up in a place that can’t handle the electrical draw of everyone’s AC running at once. The voltage drops down too low, and it will burn out your AC motor trying to run like that. Not to mention the protection from a mis-wired panel.