Yep.

Thanks so much for your replies.  I may have gotten ahead of myself.  I found out after I initially posted that our unit has been built with the surge protector hard-wired in.  So, am I correct to assume nothing else is needed?

My Phaeton came with a built in surge protector but that's all it did. The Progressive checks for several problems. It was worth the cost for me not to have to worry or test the post each time. Now I just plug in and let the progressive check everything. So far it as saved me from a low voltage on L1 on one occasion.

We got ours from Amazon much cheaper, sadly it was after may things were fried from a wiring mistake at the camp ground:( 

For those following along, the term “Surge Protector” is used pretty generically.  What the Progressive Industries product does (the HW50C specifically) is a lot more than protect the RV from power “surges.”  Some rigs have what are sometimes referred to as “Energy Management Systems” as well as a generic surge protector.  You have to be very careful what you are buying or think you may have installed by the manufacture as to function - especially as pertains to what the salesman tells you.  Most don’t protect the coach fully from not only “surges” but also low and high voltage, mis-wiring of the campground power and other bad things which are expensive to repair.  These are not problems of long ago.  They happen all the time and as much in high-dollar resorts as older facilities.  This is the best one-time insurance policy you can purchase to protect your rig electrically.

This question, and threads like it, have been going on this forum for years. Good to repeat it one more time for newer members.

DeeJee wrote:

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Terry we are looking to upgrade to a Landmark by Heartland and the "Full timer pkg" includes EMS, Surge Protector, 1000 Watt Invertor and 80 amp,... These don't equal the product do they? We should keep ours with the new unit?

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 I don't know who you are referring to with regards to the "Terry" in your post as I don't see anyone that commented with that name.  However, let me add in a comment.

When we ordered our Mobile Suites, we got the Power Management System and a surge protector.  Over the three years we were in Oklahoma City in a mobile home park, our supply of electricity wasn't too good.  Once we had an open neutral that lost our power and another time, we had a corroded connection that hurt our electric supply.  We had a Whirlpool washing machine that first needed a new "control board" and then after it was repaired the motor went bad.  We ended up having to replace the Whirlpool and had yet another electrical problem, which was fixed under warranty.

All this to mention that the Progressive Industries 50 amp unit (they also have a 30 amp unit) looks out for more than surges.  Low voltage can be damaging to motors in one's RV.  (See above comment about losing a washer motor.)  I have to think that if we had ordered our fifth wheel with a Progressive Industries power protection (not just surge protection), we might have saved the first washing machine.

We've since had one of the Progressive Industries units added to our Mobile Suites.  So, I guess time will tell.

Oh, one other thing....Progressive Industries has a lifetime warranty.  From what one post on a forum commented one time, they will even warranty units that were purchased prior to them going to a lifetime warranty.

Terry

Question about the surge protector, is the portable plug in kind (progressive) as good

as the hard wired ones?

fun2travel wrote:

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Question about the surge protector, is the portable plug in kind (progressive) as good

as the hard wired ones?

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 With the portable plug, you wouldn't have the remote readout.  However, I think you could read at the portable plug.  Just hope the weather is good.  Also, the portables are subject to being stolen.

Terry

bjoyce wrote:

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I have not heard of anyone getting the portable stolen. People mostly steal to sell what they steal and these are not easy to sell. I will admit that because of how we are wired, the portable sits in a bay and not outside. But I know many with portables, Progressive, Surge Guard and Hughes Autoformers, that have put them out for years without worry.

The portable does have a readout, but also has a 120 second (2 minute) time delay. The built-in can be set to have less delay before letting the power through, I think down to 15 seconds.

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Yep, it’s a jumper inside the box for the PI.  If you change it to 15 seconds only do so if your air conditioners have a built in 2 minute delay after power comes back on before they will restart. If your not sure, leave it at 2 minutes.

That 2 minute delay in the Progressive Industries unit is to protect the air conditioner compressors and it will also help to protect your trailer from surges from everybody else's rigs in the campground turning back on at the same time when power is restored to the park.  Let everyone else take that big power bump. Two minutes later the power is more stable – then your rig can come back on and all is easier on everything in your rig.

Yes, BTW, they do have a lifetime warranty.  Mine is now 7 years old and a lead broke off on one of the MOV's (spike suppressor thing) inside.  Called PI.  New board coming.  No charge, no hassle.  Great unit.

An additional reason for the on board Progressive EMS is that your coach will be protected from problems that can occur in the shore power cable. We had a friend that had a plug in Surge Guard EMS but had the Neutral wire come loose inside the plug on the power cable to the coach. Since this occurred after the EMS, they were not protected. They burned up their refrigerator control board, convection oven, power converter and both TV's. When we originally installed our onboard Progressive EMS, we did so because of all the above recommendations, but are now also glad we have protection from shore power cable failures.