Another Call for Surge Protection

[ols1932]

We received an e-mail from a friend who full times in a motor home. Part of it is as follows:
"We had a freak problem. We were at the Thousand
Trails in Seaside, OR and had a power surge and lost our refrigerator,
microwave/convection oven, 2 TV's, 2 VCR's and our satellite receiver."

I believe they had a surge protector installed "inside" their MH and when I talked to him on the phone, he said it was installed as a 50 amp protector. He went on to tell me they couldn't find anything wrong in the rig with the wiring or other circuits. All the neutral wires were snug and they don't know what caused the damage. The surge protector was okay. The CG power post was okay.

Just thought I'd pass this on for everyone's information. We use a surge protector installed BETWEEN the CG power post and the rig.

Orv

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Sounds to me like he had some sort of a short or whatever after the surge protector. So, in this case, having a surge protector wasn't the final answer.


Glenn
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Glenn and Lorraine
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[ols1932]

quote:Originally posted by Glenn and Lorraine

Sounds to me like he had some sort of a short or whatever after the surge protector. So, in this case, having a surge protector wasn't the final answer.

Glenn, you're right. When the problem is inside the rig, an external surge protector does not protect. However, if it is wired wrong in the internal installation--wired in only one of the 50 amp legs--there is no protection on the other leg. That is what I fear happened, or possibly they had a loose neutral. However, they indicated to me that they had a technician from Newmar Industries check the internal wiring and everything was okay. That's why I suspect the surge protector was installed incorrectly.

Orv