Surge protector

[Ron Wiltshire]

I was wondering if anyone had trouble with a surge protector? I seem to have. Every once and awhile my Shore power will blow the breaker for no reason. I have a surge guard 34560, not sure when I bought it. Any ideas thanks.

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum.
What breaker do you blow? If it’s the one on the shore power pedestal it could be just weak. Is it a 30 amp or a 50 amp that keeps breaking?

 

[Ron Wiltshire]

The one on the shore post

 

[Rene T]

The one on the shore post

Is it a 30 or a 50 amp.

 

[Ron Wiltshire]

It is a 30 been replaced. Can a surge protector wear out or go bad. I think mine is about 12 years old

 

[John From Detroit]

The Surge protector does indeed wear out but that is not one of the common failure modes. More likely you are drawing too much power 30 amps is more like 27 amps. draw 30 for long enough and click goes the breaker.

The Surge Guard will tell you the current passing through it. that can be a clue if you are over 25 amps then a device starting (Especially an A/C) can kick it.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The chance that the surge protector is causing the breaker to trip is very low. And easy to check - just leave the surge unit off for a while and see if the trip still occurs.

"Trip for no reason"... that should be "no obvious reason". A 30A breaker is rated for 30A only for a limited time (30 minutes). It's sustained use rating is 80% of that, i.e. 24A. It's not a hair trigger either - the breaker trips from accumulated heat over time. Chances are you are running along that border and occasionally the sustained load is enough to cause a trip. Another possibility is a random collection of loads that combine to exceed the breaker rating. The big power consumers in your RV are most all controlled by a thermostat, so they cycle on & off without your immediate knowledge. Until enough of them are on at the same time and cause a breaker trip.

 

[betsy bray]

Check to see if our surge protectors it working??

 

[betsy bray]

Yes we are trying to figure out if our surge protector even works. When we plug it in the red light comes on and flickers on and off, then the green light comes on and the red light never goes off and continues to flicker.

 

[John From Detroit]

That sounds like one of the low end units. Spike supressing and some mis-wire notification. no real surge/dip protection. i recommend a upgrade
The good ones, portables will display voltage and current. hard wired you need the remote but it displays Voltage and current as well.... They will protect you against both over and under voltage.. the "lights only" units generally do not do that. One common issue is plugging into a 30 amp outlet that is 240 volt.. Not a good thing to do. The better surge guards protect you.