Hughes Autoformers??

[Cant Wait]

Have been thinking seriously about this unit now that we have our retirement MH. Can see the value of the unit especially in the summer when everyone's running their AC and the voltage drops in some parks. Anyone here using this unit and monitored the voltage increase by these units during periods of reduced voltage at the parks pole? I know that the cost to replace items that can be damaged by low voltage is a lot more then this units costs which is factor in my thinking. Units run around $550. plus $75 for kit to hard wire it into the MH.

 

[Jeff]

We have traveled from Cabo to Fairbanks to St John's and have never damaged anything electrical in our m/h from low voltage. If you keep and eye on the voltage you'll know when to shed loads before anything happens.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I think low voltage is a vastly overrated concern. It isn't that common a problem except in old, poorly maintained parks with only 30A or 20A service . And only your air conditioners are really at risk - little else in an RV is bothered by slightly low voltage. You can plug in a cheap voltmeter and keep any eye on it on hot afternoons when you are in a unfamiliar place with the a/c running. A $13 plug-in meter is a heck of a lot cheaper than an Autoformer.

I'll grant, though, that it would be nice to keep on using your a/c when and if the voltage goes a bit low. You might consider the Autoformer priceless on a hot afternoon.

 

[Jim Godward]

We put a surge protection and voltage monitoring unit in our MH over 10 years ago.  I can't remember anytime it turn off the power due to under voltage.  There may have been one or 2 times but I am not sure.  On the other hand I do know it kicked off the power several times due to over voltage, power surges, etc.

Search for comments about the Hughes unit as there are some issues in using it and its affect on the park power system.

 

[John From Detroit]

I have two air conditioners on this RV, one always eats via the auto-former one does not.. Had to replace a blower motor on that one, Not sure if it was low voltage damage, wear and tear, or other,, Eventually had to replace the whole unit, but that was clearly :"Other" (We post-motrumed it and found the problem, not an electrical related issue).

 

[Jammer]

Well, one guy over at airforums just about lost his whole trailer to an Autoformer that caught on fire.  Luckily, he caught it in time.

Any large transformer poses a fire risk.

As Gary and some others have posted, I believe that the potential for damage from under and over voltage is vastly overrated.

I've wrote about this at greater length here:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f37/surge-protector-89730.html