Does this indicate our surge protector is going out?
phyllen said
06:43 AM Jul 23, 2011
Four times in the last week, we temporarily lost power in the rig. The first two times we were at a campground and blamed in on their system. In those cases the surge protector would attempt to reset but then shut right down again. Both times we changed from 50 amp to 30 amp, and it stayed on.
However, we have since moved. Last night we lost power two times during the night. In both cases, it returned after the 2 minute, 6 seconds it takes for the surge protector to reset.
Could this be an indication our surge protector is starting to fail and we need to replace it? It is hard wired into the rig.
NorCal Dan said
08:15 AM Jul 23, 2011
My first thought was where are you located and what are the weather conditions?
With so much of the country experiencing an heat wave at the moment, wondering if the power grid is unstable. Low voltage or spikes could cause the problem your seeing. Many RV parks have electrical wiring that is questionable under severe conditions.
Mallo said
09:52 AM Jul 23, 2011
Our EMS shows prior error conditions when we have those sorts of blips it's either a short brown out (low power) or a surge (high power) in Miss year before last we were in two state parks where we had low power off and on and would see short outages.
Mallo
Bill and Linda said
08:14 PM Jul 23, 2011
phyllen wrote:
Could this be an indication our surge protector is starting to fail and we need to replace it? It is hard wired into the rig.
Probably not – it’s just doing its job.Having power problems at more than one campground is not uncommon.Going from 50 to 30 amps eliminates some possible problems in wiring, etc. that the unit was protecting you from.
The 2 minute and 6 second delay is not a “reset” as such.It is a protection timer to give you AC unit or Heat Pump if it were in that mode, time to reduce pressure in its system.Turning off and back on AC / Heat Pumps fast can cause a lot of damage.
Some units, like the Progressive Industries, have a “jumper” inside the unit to eliminate the 2 minute delay.(It’s in the manual in most cases.)Perhaps your unit has such a feature.However, if you by pass this delay AND you AC / Heat Pump unit doesn’t have its own 2 minute delay it could damage the AC unit.
Four times in the last week, we temporarily lost power in the rig. The first two times we were at a campground and blamed in on their system. In those cases the surge protector would attempt to reset but then shut right down again. Both times we changed from 50 amp to 30 amp, and it stayed on.
However, we have since moved. Last night we lost power two times during the night. In both cases, it returned after the 2 minute, 6 seconds it takes for the surge protector to reset.
Could this be an indication our surge protector is starting to fail and we need to replace it? It is hard wired into the rig.
With so much of the country experiencing an heat wave at the moment, wondering if the power grid is unstable. Low voltage or spikes could cause the problem your seeing. Many RV parks have electrical wiring that is questionable under severe conditions.
Mallo
Probably not – it’s just doing its job. Having power problems at more than one campground is not uncommon. Going from 50 to 30 amps eliminates some possible problems in wiring, etc. that the unit was protecting you from.
The 2 minute and 6 second delay is not a “reset” as such. It is a protection timer to give you AC unit or Heat Pump if it were in that mode, time to reduce pressure in its system. Turning off and back on AC / Heat Pumps fast can cause a lot of damage.
Some units, like the Progressive Industries, have a “jumper” inside the unit to eliminate the 2 minute delay. (It’s in the manual in most cases.) Perhaps your unit has such a feature. However, if you by pass this delay AND you AC / Heat Pump unit doesn’t have its own 2 minute delay it could damage the AC unit.
Safe Travels
Bill