Hughes Autoformer experience

[Second Chance]

This question is related to - but not the same as - a question I posed recently.

How many of you have and use a Hughes Autoformer? We have at least one campground we visit routinely (only option near two of our grandkids) where the voltage, during the hot season, constantly drops below 104 volts and the EMS takes us off-line. I really wished we had one this last time! Have you found the Autoformer to be reliable and perform well?

Thanks!

Rob

[MoonShadow_1911]

This question is related to - but not the same as - a question I posed recently.

How many of you have and use a Hughes Autoformer? We have at least one campground we visit routinely (only option near two of our grandkids) where the voltage, during the hot season, constantly drops below 104 volts and the EMS takes us off-line. I really wished we had one this last time! Have you found the Autoformer to be reliable and perform well?

Thanks!

Rob

I've not used one in this coach, however in a different application it worked very well. I have a friend who lives in a stix-n-brix house out in the sticks and constantly had power brownouts. After looking into several expensive options, we adapted a Hughes to run his freezer, refrigerator, swamp cooler, and in the winter his pellet stove for heat. The only problem he had was if the compressors kicked on at the same time and the swamper was running on high or the pellet stove was feeding pellets. It was very rare that both compressors kicked in at the same time.

[geotex1]

Rob, we have a couple of those campgrounds as well and a favorite where if you want the fantastic lake front sites you are furthest from the power coming in and the voltage drop is practically all season. Anyway, autoformer has been a flawless solution for us and those sites. Truth be told, however, is that it mostly lives in basement storage with much cleaner power more common than we experienced in our past. I do recommend keeping the unit out of sight though as we are friends with folks that had their's stolen while chained to the pedestal. I leave ours in the underbelly by running my 50A extension to it, and then our camper cord out if it after wrestling the cable through the mouse hole. The need has been so few and far between that I haven't done a "built-in" solution like I had on our Heritage Glen.

[el Rojo]

Yes. I carry that heavy thing all over to use 1 or 2 times a year. If I were you, I think I would hard wire it inside your couch and use it every time I was plugged in.

YMMV

Red

[JKellerJr]

We’ve had ours since our 2018 377. I the last rig we only pulled it out when needed. But keeping it out of the weather and secure was a little bit of a pain.

On our new unit we “hard” wired in the front basement. It’s been flawless so far. It’s not technically hard wired, I added the plugs/outlets to use our original portable autoformer(and portable watchdog ems). That way if something fails it can be bypassed

[Second Chance]

Thanks, everyone. Your responses and a few over on the Escapees forum have helped us make a decision. I found a "Used - Like New" (meaning damaged packaging) 50 amp unit on Amazon for $498 and ordered it. I know where I will store it when moving but, before we roll again, I'll figure out where to put it when in use and work out a way to connect it in that location.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Rob

[thegreenblade]

Check this out. I don’t know if it’s new or anything but a lot of people like to add that to the air conditioning.

https://camperreport.com/product-rev...ftstartup/?amp

[Second Chance]

Check this out. I don’t know if it’s new or anything but a lot of people like to add that to the air conditioning.

https://camperreport.com/product-rev...ftstartup/?amp

We have MICRO-AIR EasyStarts on the list for both ACs. I would not be a fan of anything "whole house" for that purpose, nor would I want it at the pedestal. We already have a Progressive Dynamics EMS hard-wired to provide everything on the protection end. Thanks, though.

Rob

[traveldawg]

Rob,
I think you are going to really like your Autoformer.

I've had one semi-permanently installed in my rig since around 2014. By semi-permanently I mean that the first thing my shore power input cord goes to is a 50 amp receptacle in my basement bay; then the Autoformer is plugged into that, then the EMS is plugged into the Autoformer; and then power gets into my rig. Being that my shore power comes into the RV and to a 50 amp receptacle it means I can always unplug the Autoformer if I want to and I can replug the EMS into the basement 50 amp receptacle -hence the "semi-installation".

Most times power just passes through the Autoformer; you can tell by the lights on the unit. It comes in handy in about 1 out of 20 campgrounds. But when ya need - ya need it.

[Pawsitive Camping Life]

Yes. I carry that heavy thing all over to use 1 or 2 times a year. If I were you, I think I would hard wire it inside your couch and use it every time I was plugged in.

YMMV

Red

This is what we did, mounted inside passthrough. Seems to be doing its job and haven't had any issues. Ran into a few parks that were in that 103-104 voltage in Canada and autoformer did its job.