A quest we get asked is “What causes a surge or spike?”
Essentially when you’re at an RV park and everybody is plugged in, you have electricity running through the wires from the park pole into your Watchdog or surge protector, into your Autoformer or whatever, going into your coach. Everybody is plugged in, they have a lot of draw or load on the line – their AC units, water heaters or microwaves working – there’s electricity flowing through the wires into that coach. If somebody doesn’t shut down or unplug from the pole properly, you can have a surge or a spike.
Picture electricity like water flowing through a pipe. If somebody goes to the pole and just yanks their shore cord out of the pole, that electricity – that water flowing through the pipe – hits a wall and has to go back through the powerline and can easily have an effect on anybody that’s still connected around that RV. So, a surge can be caused by your neighbors.
Obviously, if there’s a distant lightning strike hitting the ground or power lines, you can have a surge or spike that way. If it’s windy and you have power lines that are arcing, you can have a surge or spike. Even just simply turning on and off large equipment – washing machines, electric dryers, or devices with a high amp load – they can cause surges when they kick on and turn off. You’re essentially changing the flow of electricity. It’s this sudden change that causes that surge or spike. It can either go into your RV or somebody else that is near you if they’re still connected and you’re sharing some wires.
So essentially, you do want a surge protector. It is something that is necessary to prevent damaging surges or spikes.
WILLIAM A HEISER – :
I purchased this to replace an “inexpensive” surge protector that worried me. I was afraid it would not protect our motor home properly. I really like the blue tooth function of this unit so I can keep an eye on our power consumption. We have had this for about 2 weeks and have been on the road. It has worked perfectly even shutting down the power when our consumption was over the 30 amp limit. Unit came right back on and is working flawlessly. I like the idea of replacing the surge unit if it gets affected, and not buying an new complete unit. $30 is much better than over $200. I hope it works well for many years.
Ray Miller – :
I am a first-time RV owner. The cost of any surge protector is going to be far less than internal electrical repairs of appliances inside the RV. I got this unit for two reasons. First, it not just detects problems, it actively protects against many problems well beyond simple surge; that’s not true of some other alternative brands. Second, the surge protection module is replaceable. That’s quality design, and customer-focus
The app is awesome. I really found it useful to sit in our RV and watch the amps draw in real time. For example the compressor in our A/C cycles on and off according to the thermostat, but the fan is manual and always runs. I found the ability to monitor when the compressor cycled on and off was very useful in quickly fine-tuning the thermostat to ensure the A/C was set properly. I can also see when the hot water heater kicks on, gauge how many amps each appliance draws, and know when I have spare capacity to plug in a particular extra appliance into a 120 volt outlet.
One word of caution and one suggestion for improvement. For other customers like me, please note that there are two apps from this vendor with similar names. One has a black dog face with red highlights and one is a red dog face with white highlights. They are for different products and you have to get the right one or the app won’t work correctly. As for improvements for the vendor – the illumination when the unit turns on is hard to see in direct bright sunlight. An increase in brightness, or an additional LED to indicate all is well, would be a great improvement.
Lucas S – :
I bought this device after almost frying our whole electrical system in the camper. It saved us countless times as we are camping. I can can also see in real time how much watts each appliance is using via the app. It’s astonishing how much electricity one can use!! With the ability to set parameters on how much electricity is being used it can also save you money if the park charges by watts. I recommend this product to EVERYONE! The best priced product on the market!
D Brown – :
This is a well made and competitively priced surge protector/EPO. And having a Bluetooth connection to the unit is brilliant. I upgraded from a small surge protector only to this unit when we upgraded from a TT to a motorhome. It’s cheap insurance to make sure we’re protected in our new motorhome. It’s a huge protector/EPO with a very bright display. I use a waterproof nylon bag to cover it to dim the light. I don’t want to disturb other campers and draw attention to my bright, expensive surge protector.
I had a question about a loud popping sound when applying power and the Hughes tech was very responsive and helpful answering my questions. He said it’s the solenoid closing to apply power to the RV and the pop sound was normal. I would suggest there should be a note in the user guide, maybe under #3, explaining that the loud pop was a normal sound and does not indicate a problem with the unit.
I highly recommend this surge protector/EPO, it’s priced competitively, has a Bluetooth app, and their tech support is excellent.