Surge Guard working properly?

[anniemae]

Finally found a fair price for a surge protector.  Bought a Surge Guard Mo. 34750, 50 amp with LED.  First night at Topsail Hill SP FL. used for first time. At approx. 0115 hrs I heard a very loud series of "bangs".  My pillow is directly above electrical storage bin .  I thought this must be the magnetic contactor in the SG.  My 120 volt digital plug in meter inside the MH indicated the voltage was fluctuating from 121 to 126, well within the safety range, although the 126 seemed a little high.  I called the park maint. electrician to check the pedestal and he said everything was fine, proberly a branch rubbing a wire.  He also said that these surge protectors are very sensitive and he thought they were a waste of $.  OK.  I called factory tech and he said the SG was doing what it is suppossed to do and the noise I heard was indeed the Contactor and if I did not have a SP I proberly might never have heard a thing.  Last night at approx. 0215 hrs, same thing,  Went on and off for until 0515.  This time my 120 volt digital monitor alarm went off but I could get to it fast enough to get a reading and the voltage was steady at 126 volts.  The "banging is very loud,even scares the yorky. Is all of this normal? I am getting a little nervous.  Your thoughts please.

 

[Ned]

The surge guard is doing its job.  Your plug in meter is only seeing one leg of the 50A service, it would be useful to see the voltage on the other leg at the same time.  The fluctuating voltage could indicate a problem with the neutral line, possibly a loose connection in the pedestal.  The park electrician is giving very bad and dangerous advice about the power protection devices, ignore him.  I would try to plug into a different outlet.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

What Ned says...

The park electrical guy doesn't like power monitors cause they find problems he would rather ignore (at least until something really serious happens).

The 126v is not a good sign either - something is wrong with the power source. rarely will you see 126 on a good power source - 123 is about the top of the normal range.

Odd that this only happens at night, but it could well be you simply don't notice it during the day when it is noisier around the coach and you aren't sleeping just above the Surge Guard.

 

[John From Detroit]

I agree with Gary, the park guy does not like them because they find problems he has to fix!!!!.

Loud bangs.. Now clicks, or clunks those are contactors.  It may be that you are calling those BANGS.

What I call Bangs is the sound of MOV's blowing up.  (Kind of like a firecracker).

MOV's are spike supressors, they are included in the surge supressor, but 130 volts won't phase them  And open neutral might.

 

[ArdraF]

Another reason you might hear it only at night is that during the day more people are using the campground power so what is coming into your RV might be lower and within the acceptable range during the day.  But at night when power usage drops, the power available to your RV increases, in this case showing it at 126.  I've never seen ours that high in any of our coaches.  Nightime normal is more like 121.

ArdraF

 

[Mavarick]

I have the hardwired version of this (34560) and the loud bang you hear is when the surge guard ?drops in? (don?t know what else to call it) and allows 120v power into the MH. Every time it trips out to protect the MH it goes into a time delay when all is right again, then you hear the bang when it drops in again so it is doing it?s job.
The 34750 is the portable unit, why can?t you move it farther away from Rv, like at the other end of your cord on the pedestal so it's not right under you? Or just move to another pedestal as others have suggested. I would at least try another CG before I questioned the SG, they are pretty reliable and I would not do without one either.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I have the 40250 hardwired version and it really "clunks" when it engages (or disengages). Sounds loud when it is quite in the park.

 

[Jim Godward]

I have the 40250 hardwired version and it really "clunks" when it engages (or disengages). Sounds loud when it is quite in the park.

I have one like Gary's and it is loud when it pulls in and make the connection.  Ours is also under the bedrooom but have not had any problems and my wife is a light sleeper.  Me, you can run a train by 10 feet away and I will never hear it.  I actually mean it as that was the distance from the train to my bunk when I worked for the RR!!

 

[anniemae]

Thank you all.  Using the "bang" as a description may not be the best choice but obviously got the point across.  Intreresting that yesterday and last night the typical Friday folks came in and filled the park completly and last night no noise.  We will be here for another week and a half before heading for Daytona and the Rally. 

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

That park obviously has some serious power problems, and doesn't want to admit it either.  Folks without a power line monitor are undoubtedly suffering intermittent periods of overvoltage without realizing it. May be causing  some appliance failures, or maybe not. Very difficult to tell, but if you overhear another camper say something like "my fragilator died last night", that is probably the reason.

 

[bukzin]

Maybe when I order mine I should get the plug in version.

That way I can by-pass it to more easily test its operation.  Might need to
sometimes avoid its operating noise too.


I know the folks that have SG's love them but how many coaches do not use one?

Are the coach mfg's just leaving them out to save money?

 

[Scott-0168]

Maybe when I order mine I should get the plug in version.

That way I can by-pass it to more easily test its operation.  Might need to
sometimes avoid its operating noise too.


I know the folks that have SG's love them but how many coaches do not use one?

Are the coach mfg's just leaving them out to save money?

I often wondered too why the RV manufacture's don't use them? Is this true for all RV Mfg's?

Scott