tireman9 Report post Posted July 7, 2021 Been using Surge Guard 30A unit for 3 years. It has warned me a couple times of miswired power pedestal. last week on my way from Ohio to Gillette I used the Surge Guard the first night with no problem. The second night it went through its normal check and all was OK, but when I connected the RV plug I had no power in the RV! Did this a couple times but never got power to the RV. I pulled the Surge Guard out of the system and plugged the RV directly and all was OK. I could not figure out why I could not plug the RV cord into the Surge Guard. For the rest of the trip I was able to plug things in normally with the Surge Guard in the system. I figure there is a relay and switch inside the Surge Guard and the switch is failing. Is the Surge Guard rebuild-able? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jleamont Report post Posted July 7, 2021 1 hour ago, tireman9 said: Is the Surge Guard rebuild-able Give them a call. I had a problem with one of My Surge Guards and they sent me a replacement at no charge with a return label for the one in question. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manholt Report post Posted July 7, 2021 If your Surge Guard is by Progressive Ind., no problem in getting a replacement. There are about 20 other brands, that I know nothing about. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermanmullins Report post Posted July 8, 2021 If is a Progressive unit I understand they have a life time warranty to the original owner. Herman Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
txiceman Report post Posted July 8, 2021 If I was getting a fault from the EMS or Surge Guard, no way would I simply bypass it and plug in directly without getting out the volt-Ohm meter and thoroughly checking the power pedestal first. Yes, they will fail, but I would trust it until proven otherwise. A few years ago, a friend had a PI EMS that would not connect power to the trailer. The park owner came down and "checked" the pedestal (50 amp) and all was fine and plugged him directly into the pedestal. They had $7,500 worth of damage to the electronics and 3 weeks to get it all working again. Turns out the electrician had miswired the pedestal and had put 240 volts on both L1 or L2 and smoked a lot of equipment. When we were volunteering, the refuge replaced the host pedestals. I had told them to leave us unconnected until I got back to the trailer. Lucky for me. I plugged in the PI EMS and it immediately showed a fault. Checked with my meter and found they had 120 volts across the N and ground some how. Trust the EMS first. Never trust an electrician. I am a retired engineer and ham radio operator. Ken Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rayin Report post Posted July 8, 2021 5 hours ago, txiceman said: If I was getting a fault from the EMS or Surge Guard, no way would I simply bypass it and plug in directly without getting out the volt-Ohm meter and thoroughly checking the power pedestal first. Yes, they will fail, but I would trust it until proven otherwise. A few years ago, a friend had a PI EMS that would not connect power to the trailer. The park owner came down and "checked" the pedestal (50 amp) and all was fine and plugged him directly into the pedestal. They had $7,500 worth of damage to the electronics and 3 weeks to get it all working again. Turns out the electrician had miswired the pedestal and had put 240 volts on both L1 or L2 and smoked a lot of equipment. When we were volunteering, the refuge replaced the host pedestals. I had told them to leave us unconnected until I got back to the trailer. Lucky for me. I plugged in the PI EMS and it immediately showed a fault. Checked with my meter and found they had 120 volts across the N and ground some how. Trust the EMS first. Never trust an electrician. I am a retired engineer and ham radio operator. Ken Apparently that RV park owner needs to join FMCA and participate in the discussions. If he was using a VOM IMO it was not an accident he misread the meter, but ignorance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
txiceman Report post Posted July 9, 2021 Rayin, You would be surprised at the number of people with VOMs and do not know how to use them. Ken Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rayin Report post Posted July 9, 2021 I wish I remembered how to use all the functions of my Beckman RMS VOM, it's been 19 years since I retired from ABB, I think I've forgotten more than I ever knew. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manholt Report post Posted July 9, 2021 ABB, good Swedish/Swiss Company....I dealt with their ROV robotic system. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
docj Report post Posted July 9, 2021 Several years ago we had a hardwired 50A Surgeguard in our motorhome and periodically it would turn the power off for a minute and then it would come back on. We were on a site we own so it wasn't a matter of going to another location. This went on for a couple of weeks and we couldn't find anything wrong; the Surgeguard seemed fine. Eventually, I bought a new Progressive hardwired unit and installed it to replace the Surgeguard. Sure enough, within a day or two the same thing happened. But the Progressive has a display for "Previous Error" which, as we learned, is very useful for tracking down intermittent problems. In our case, every time the Progressive cut and restored the power the previous error showed as "High Voltage" on one of the lines. I called the power company and a technician gave our pedestal a full going over. His equipment showed there was a 2 volt difference between the two legs of the 50A which was out of spec. So he tightened every connection all the way back to the distribution transformer. Sure enough after he had done that the difference between the two lines was on the order of half a volt and the Progressive no longer cut off the power. His explanation was that there were multiple "loose" connections which were creating essentially a floating neutral situation where one of the two legs can read high and the other low. The issue was intermittent and the Progressive and Surgeguard were noticing the high voltage and then were resetting and restoring power after the "event" was over. The delay in getting the power back on was just the built-in delay time of the device. The technician said to me "you RVers are the only people who ever have equipment like this sensitive enough to notice this sort of thing!" After that I resolved never to disregard a reading on my Progressive. If it says there's a problem there probably is one! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildebill308 Report post Posted July 9, 2021 22 minutes ago, docj said: If it says there's a problem there probably is one! I agree. I won't plug in with out mine. Just to dangerous. Bill Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wayne77590 Report post Posted July 9, 2021 My Progressive PT-50C and now my PT-50X have saved me many times. I have had two replaced under warranty and they were very quick to respond. In one instance they sent me a brand new one instead of repairing the bad one. The first on was a fault of the Mfg when the seal at the entry to the protector was not seated correctly and water got in during a rain storm and it shut down, I most certainly used the VOM before plugging directly in. It was only for one day. I now have a spare in a bay...just in case, Don't leave home without it. Great device. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
