Progressive EMS HW50C Issue

[KSC_Travels]

EDIT - turns out the HW50C was not faulty... it was (ahem) the installer (me). See updated post below with pics.

Greetings all.

Bottom Line Up Front - I think I got a faulty EMS unit...


So... I recently installed a hard-wired Progressive EMS and yesterday was first chance to test it. Fired up good, no errors, all is good - except it wasn't.

Took me a while to realize it, but only half of my panel was live.

Check the remote display unit it says all is well: L-1 125V 0A 60Hz, L-2 125V 0A 60Hz, E-0 (there were no A/C loads at the time).

But strange - the EMS display says L2 has power. Quick check of all breakers - everything is good. OK, time for the multi-meter...

I pull off the breaker panel cover to access the A/C wiring and get out the Fluke:

Readings: L1 to Neutral: 125V, L2 to Neutral: 0V

huh. Must be a faulty connection in the EMS itself I think.

Okay, remove the lid to the EMS and crawl around and contort myself to get the following:

All connections seem good.

Readings:

Line In:
L1 to Neutral: 125V
L2 to Neutral: 125V

Line Out:
L1 to Neutral: 125V
L2 to Neutral: 0V

So for some reason, the EMS is not passing through L2.

There were no errors showing on the EMS display, but I tried the EMS bypass switch. Same results.

When I first discovered this, it was at home on a 50A to Household adaptor. I know the adaptor is good (or always has been) and I am reading 125V on both legs on the line in side. But... maybe something weird going on.

Tried it again when we arrived at our 50A site. Same result.

So I spent the first 60 minutes after our arrival "un-installing" the EMS and re-routing the OEM cable back to its original position and connections in the breaker panel. NOTE - REALLY glad I didn't cut the OEM power cable to install this.

Question for the group here - anyone else experience something like this? Anything else I should try? Or do you think I just got a faulty EMS unit?

I have not yet contacted Progressive yet - just confirmed the issue yesterday. The owner's manual (all 4 pages of it) is no help.

Cheers and thanks!

Ken

[Country Campers]

I have not heard or experienced this. If the unit is providing 1 leg thru then the solenoid is working. I would guess that the contact on L2 is not making contact. It is a simple setup. I think there should be a cover on the inner workings that you could pull off to inspect the contacts and operate them manually with you meter attached to check for continuity.

Brian

[howson]

KSC_Travels -- I agree with Brian. The claim form is at the bottom of the page at https://www.progressiveindustries.net/troubleshooting

Howard

[KSC_Travels]

Country Campers howson

Thanks gents!

I will take a look inside!

[KSC_Travels]

Country Campers howson

So... you two were spot on!

I will post some pics tomorrow after I "re-install", but after opening it up and removing the cover to the inner workings I found a loose piece of plastic interfering with the L2 contact. It was quite obvious as soon as I opened it up and looked.

The plastic piece had come of the bottom side of the cover itself... it looks like it is there to prevent protrusion of the cables through the lugs and into the contactor itself (over-insertion). I must have broken it while wrestling with the cables during install. Either that, or a manufacturing defect, but pretty sure it's the former. 😏

While I haven't reinstalled yet I am 99% certain this was the issue.

Also - as a side benefit(?), while doing this work I discovered a small, dripping water leak at the water heater... the usual culprit, stranded hose crimped to a pex fitting! Fixed that up as well, thanks to this forum, I had all the parts and tools on hand, including Cate&Rob 's "pex fitting to stranded hose barbed fitting" solution posted elsewhere on here.

Gotta love the first trip of the season!

thanks again for your help... saved me a bunch of time and hassle!!!

Ken

[KSC_Travels]

Safety Note: Ensure all AC power is disconnected when working on this device.

So just to close this off with a few pics in case anyone comes across this issue.

As noted above, thanks to the advice here, i removed the cover off the contactor mechanism, it was obvious what was causing the issue. A piece of plastic had broken off the cover and was preventing the L2 side of the mechanism from making contact.

Most likely cause is that I broke it when wrestling with the 6awg wires. Turns out two of them were broken off, but only the L2 side got wedged.

Fortunately, it was a clean break on the plastic and a few drops of crazy glue re-attached the plastic pieces to the cover.

When I reinstalled, I took care to NOT OVER-INSERT the cables. Fired it up and all is well!

Lesson learned for future installers:

Wrestling with those stiff 6 awg cables in such a small space is challenging... be careful not to over-insert the cables into the lugs.

When I first installed, I did not tighten down each lug after the wire was inserted, thinking that I should leave some wiggle room when inserting the other wires and then tighten them all down together. What I think happened is that the L2 cable got pushed too far in while I was wrestling one of the other cables into it's lug. The second time I installed, I tightened each lug down as the wire was in place... that way it would not move around. Worked much better!

Thanks again to Brian and Howard!

[Country Campers]

Ken,

Glad to hear that you got this project done and the EMS is fixed and working. Wrestling those wires is a pain to say the least.

Brian