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Hughes Autoformer Surge Protector

December 18, 2019, 11:48:43 pm

Just received my Hughes Power Watchdog. Interesting bit of kit. Monitors Line one & two low & high voltage, Line one & two over current, Line one & two reversed neutral, Missing Ground, Missing neutral. (all the normal stuff that others units monitor) but has emergency power off for any issues with any of the monitored parameters. It has 4800 Joules of surge protection. What is interesting is that if an issue comes up. The unit will send the appropriate notification to my iPhone explaining what tripped the unit. This unit also monitors wattage being used and KWH total with a KWH trip reset on the phone app. Also the MOV unit is user replaceable at $30. So I ordered a spare to limit any downtime if the MOV does it's job.

Power Watch Dog

The screen shot shows power with Aqua Hot on 120V.

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Re: Hughes Autoformer Surge Protector

Reply #1 – December 19, 2019, 06:21:41 am

Glad to see you also enjoy having this great product for protection from bad park power. 

For me the bluetooth feature of this makes it easier to monitor the voltage, than the meter of of my also installed inline Progressive Industries product.

I've had mine for six moths in an older park with intermittent bad power here in Oregon.  The bluetooth feature of the product is one of my favorite features.  I am sure this device has saved some of my installed appliances as I've continued to work with the park owner.  Partially due to my continued reporting of low power, the local power company replaced a supply transformer.  This was not the only cause as issues continued, I've since left that park, till next season.

I, like others, have commented that the notification app (has App for both iPhone and Android) does not retain in some sort of history.  The mfg says this may be updated in a future upgrade of the application.

I also installed the Progressive in line protection after my ATS (automatic transfer switch), to protect against bad power from my generator, as others have experienced here on this forum.

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Re: Hughes Autoformer Surge Protector

Reply #2 – December 19, 2019, 08:26:32 am

That looks like a well thought out product.  Particularly like the field replaceable varistors, nice to see support for the customer built in.

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Re: Hughes Autoformer Surge Protector

Reply #3 – December 19, 2019, 10:38:11 am

Jack, A memory function for alarms would be nice. In the interim taking a screen shot (power & home on the iPhone) should work as a way to show park owners the 'evidence' of power supply issues.

One could also set up a folder on the house computer and keep a log of each park.

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Re: Hughes Autoformer Surge Protector

Reply #4 – December 19, 2019, 12:02:49 pm

The Hughes unit looks very cool! I got this to replace the 'Dog Bone', works MUCH better. 

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