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Marco Moreno's avatar

Resurrecting an old thread, but I'm very interested in your conclusions despite that there is no part 4. Are you able to reveal some of your thoughts without violating your NDA?

Seems that it may be a similar amount of draw and may not provide any benefit to the campground load. However, if so doesn't it provide a huge benefit to motors and compressors? I understand that it's a very bad to run them under low voltages and can cause them to overheat.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Robt Gurt's avatar

Interested to verify what I suspect, … I could be wrong but I’m always willing and grateful to learn the truth. Thanx for persistence!

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Mike Sokol's avatar

You’re welcome!

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Mike Sokol's avatar

Hey, I forgot I had a part 4!

I write too much…🤣🤣🤣

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Ed Fogle's avatar

Where do I find Part 4? Searching your site for autoformer only returns 1, 2 & 3. Did you discuss Hughes Autoformer’s capability as a surge suppressor. I read that information somewhere recently but can’t remember where. TechnoRV has an article about surge suppressors that said they have surge suppression capability but not other features of a good surge suppressor. It didn’t directly address the Hughes unit. I have a Surge Guard installed and would like to install a Hughes Autoformer but I don't have room for both so was hoping the Hughes unit would do all functions.

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Mike Sokol's avatar

I was asked not to publish the report that I originally presented to the NEC. So that report is still under my original NDA and can’t be released to the public. That was going to be my part 4. Sorry…

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Drew's avatar

.....And all this time I thought #3 was the last installment!! Will there be #5,6, etc? Also, somehow I got the impression that the NEC regulation was a guideline and enforcement wasn't necessarily mandatory in the case of Autoformer usage by rv'ers. As usual, thanks for all you do Mike!

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Mike Sokol's avatar

I only published up to #4 so far.

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Joseph Bulger's avatar

It would be interesting to know what the current and voltage readings are on the utilities side of the step down transformer.

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Mike Sokol's avatar

That’s Part 4. And I have it all graphed out.

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David Dobias's avatar

I'm certain you will prevail. Playing word games only reveals dishonesty.

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David Dobias's avatar

I'm sure Hughes won't be happy when you lift the curtain on their Oz type sales pitch. The saying goes "figures lie and liars figure" when it comes to sales rearrangement of facts. Another is "a statement of fact isn't necessarily a factual statement". I'm sure you'll be honest. Don't let the blast back noise bother you.

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Mike Sokol's avatar

Pushback never bothers me. Anyone who wants to argue with me needs to bring their slide rule, calculator, physics books, electrical engineering handbook, and NEC 70 regulations. There’s a lot that goes into my testing. 😁

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Charles Miller's avatar

What "Oz style sales pitch"? Their Autoformer performs as advertised and can't pull more power than is available from the pedestal. Just because it makes better use of the available wattage than those not using one during a low voltage situation doesn't mean it's "stealing" power from anyone else, either.

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Mike Sokol's avatar

Their original marketing lit said that their Autoformer was different than a regular autotransformer and it somehow boosted the wattage in addition to the voltage. Of course, watts is watts so it can’t create any more wattage than the pedestal can supply at its lower voltage. It’s just physics…

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Charles Miller's avatar

Well, obviously that's not correct, and I hoped they fixed that. At the same time, all the accusations that they "steal power" are wrong too. They just make the best use of what's available and protect your Inductive load appliances from damage at the same time.

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Mike Sokol's avatar

You are correct. And they did correct their marketing hype.

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David Dobias's avatar

In essence, the amount of power available in campground when there is a brown out is fixed. If one person pulls more using an autoformer, ALL people there suffer from it as the brown out worsens. The more people doing it, the worse everyone is effected. Those who don't have one may have appliance damage. Go to a campground with sufficient power and you won't need one.

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Charles Miller's avatar

You assume the person with an autoformer is pulling more power. That's a big assumption...

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David Dobias's avatar

If there is a brownout, he is. watts=V x A The watts doesn't change. The voltage drops and amperage goes up.

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