Why a surge protector is not what you need

Seeing RVs with surge protectors connecting them to campground power pedestals is a common sight, especially during summertime. If there's a lightning strike, these rigs will probably be protected.

But having a surge protector on the power pedestal is not good enough.

That's because power surges aren't the big risk when you're plugged into campground power. It's far more common to have a brownout, and a surge protector won't do anything about that.

Brownouts are when the voltage sags below what it should be. This happens on hot days when everyone is running their air conditioning at the same time. When the voltage gets too low, your air conditioner will likely burn out.

A burned-out air conditioner is typically a $1,000+ repair or replacement, and until you can find an RV tech and a replacement unit in stock, you'll be sweating it out.

A surge protector won't protect you from a brownout. The only way to prevent this from happening is with a smart Electrical Management System (EMS) that can detect low voltage (along with bad wiring and other problems) and take action before something bad happens. 

These electrical issues happen a lot more often than you'd think. I became a believer one weekend in Salem, Oregon. I was in a campground that had just opened, so all the wiring was shiny new, but a stretch of abnormally hot and humid days put a strain on the campground's power. By the mid afternoon, the voltage at my site was dipping down toward 108 volts—danger territory.

What to do? My choices were:

• Keep running the AC, and hope for the best while staring at the voltmeter
• Turn off the AC and swelter for the rest of the day
• Run out and buy an EMS

Guess which option I chose? Here's a hint: my wife and child in the trailer were not amused by the idea of turning off the air conditioning.

Now, I’ll admit that an EMS is not a sexy purchase. It doesn’t seem to do anything until you really need it. It’s just insurance, a mild-manner Clark Kent toiling behind the scenes most of the time. But wow—it turns into a superhero when something freaky happens to the electricity and all your neighbors get knocked out of commission.

An EMS, like the Progressive models we recommend, does more than just watch for brownouts. It checks the power when you plug in, and re-checks it repeatedly for about a minute. This way it can be sure that the power is OK. It looks for:

• mis-wiring in the power outlet
• bad or missing ground
• excessively high or low voltage
• proper frequency
• stability (the power stays in the proper range)

If the power is OK, the EMS lets it flow through to your Airstream. If anything goes wonky at any time it immediately cuts off the power and keeps it off until things are OK again. It’s designed to respond in milliseconds, which means the EMS will cut off the power before it can do any damage to your Airstream.

The really nice bit is that when the power returns to normal, the EMS automatically restores the power. 

Personally I won’t plug in our Airstream without the Progressive EMS in place, even at home. Too many times I’ve been to campgrounds with sketchy-looking, cracked, wasp-infested, and worn power outlets. Even if the campground is new and the outlets look pristine, you can still get a surge from a lightning strike, or a brownout that toasts your air conditioner, as I learned in Salem.

This summer we’ll be attending a major rally with over 1,000 rigs all parked together. In my experience, this is the most likely scenario for a power anomaly to occur.

So if we didn’t already have an EMS, you can be sure I’d be shopping for one before we set out.

I think an EMS is one of those “must have” pieces of equipment. From my previous experiences, a lot of people become believers after the electrical storm.

My advice is to save yourself the trouble and plan ahead for this summer’s travels.