Bad Power!
When RVing and staying at various campgrounds and RV parks, you are plugging into a new electrical infrastructure every time you move. With all the variations in power infrastructure, it's Russian Roulette for your electrical systems every day! Protect your investment with some common sense prevention!
Older campgrounds and RV parks have notoriously bad power. Even in newer parks, you're on a grid with RVs of all makes, models, and sizes with who-knows-what running in them. Power surges, brownouts, off frequency, low voltage are all common issues when RVing. We've experienced all of the above in our first two years of full-time RV life! Each time, our Surge Guard (previously EMS) has shut off power and saved our RV from electrical harm.
Surge Guard!
Don't be confused by the name. “Surge Guard” is the brand name of the line of power protection products from the company Southwire. Surge Guard models include both surge protection and total electrical protection in both internal (hard-wired) and external units.
Total Electrical Protection
With all of the electrical complexities in an RV, we recommend protecting against more than just surges. While a basic surge protector is better than nothing at all, they will not protect you from the plethora of bad power conditions you can encounter while plugged into an RV park power grid. In fact, low voltage is the number one killer of AC compressors. A Surge Guard Total Electrical Protection unit will protect you from:
- Open Ground
- Reverse Polarity
- High and Low Voltage
- Over/Under Frequency
- Open Neutral
- Mis-wired pedestal
- Extreme Surges
Internal (Hard-Wired)
An internal unit needs to be hard-wired into the RV behind the RV's power plug. If you are uncomfortable with doing this yourself and don't want to hire an electrician, this is not the model for you.
PROS
- Nothing to do when setting up camp
- Not hanging off the pedestal and exposed to the elements
- Nothing to secure / Almost impossible to steal
CONS
- Must be wired into the RV's electrical
- Difficult to bypass if it fails (more wiring)
- Control cable wiring can be very difficult
External / Portable
PROS
- No Wiring – Just plug it into the pedestal
- Control panel is completely wireless (new surge guard model)
CONS
- One more thing to do when setting up camp
- Hangs outside on pedestal
- Susceptible to theft if not locked to the pedestal
Summary
Whether you get internal or external, protect your RV investment with Surge Guard. It's saved our RV many times over!
Product Links
Note: The display units for each model are selectable as options when adding to your cart.
- Surge Guard 30/50A Hard Wired Total Electrical Protection: changinglanesrv.com…
- Surge Guard 50A Portable Total Electrical Protection: changinglanesrv.com…
- Surge Guard 30A Portable Total Electrical Protection: changinglanesrv.com…
- Other Surge Guard Options: changinglanesrv.com…
More Resources
If you want to go really deep into the topic of RV surge protection, our friends Eric and Tami at TechnoRV have put together this fantastic in-depth article.
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Every product we recommend, we use ourselves.
