Progressive Industries Surge Protector Fail/Save?

[bellis]

Power was on - things were going fine - next thing I know inverter kicks on and too much is on; low voltage batteries. Waited a bit, power did not come back. Checked breaker all the way tracing the path to the Multiplus....and found that my surge protector had melted inside. All connections were confirmed secure, but it apparently got hot on one side of the surge protector and burnt or melted. When investigating I could smell it. Oddly enough, the source side was fine, and it continued to show E 0 and display relevant info. But, no power out on the other side. See pics.

Cover warped / melted.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Wow. Reminds me of some of the faults I'd find at work with 600v contactors. With the load side burned and not the source side, could the inverter have been dumping power into the fault? As in the contactor opening because of a fault but the inverter still feeding power into a contactor that is open, but the power wire (Black - AC) connection on the load side shorted to ground...Just thinking out loud. Hard to give a definitive answer when I don't know how the whole trailer is wired regarding shore-input/batteries/inverter/solar, but it looks to me that the progressive industries unit contactor opened by either fault or design and power was still fed into the fault for some duration...by another source.
Sending pics to progressive I'd imagine?

[howson]

bellis -- x2 on the suggestion to contact Progressive and send them pics. Please follow up with their response.

[bellis]

I did open a ticket / warranty claim with Progressive Industries and sent them a pic of the outside and the inside (all I was able to do on their form). With it being the weekend, I am not sure if they will reply until Monday. Even then, not sure if they will immediately send me a new one or what will happen. I am tempted to go by a cheap portable one from Camping World or Walmart.

Wow. Reminds me of some of the faults I'd find at work with 600v contactors. With the load side burned and not the source side, could the inverter have been dumping power into the fault? As in the contactor opening because of a fault but the inverter still feeding power into a contactor that is open, but the power wire (Black - AC) connection on the load side shorted to ground...Just thinking out loud. Hard to give a definitive answer when I don't know how the whole trailer is wired regarding shore-input/batteries/inverter/solar, but it looks to me that the progressive industries unit contactor opened by either fault or design and power was still fed into the fault for some duration...by another source.
Sending pics to progressive I'd imagine?

On the one hand, I like to say anything can happen. On the other, given the wiring and setup parameters, I am not sure that is true or possible in this case? If the connections were not all screwed in tightly I might feel differently. Any time something is loose you will have an issue. I have a diagram on my large Electrical mod thread in post #168: but here is the basic run down.

Source (all wire in this breakout is 8AWG)
Input side of 30A Progressive Industries (LCHW30)
Output side of 30A Progressive Industries (LCHW30)
Victron Multiplus Input
Victron Multiplus Output
Camper Breaker Panel

When this occurred....it was night with zero solar coming in. When it occurred, the inverter tried to kick in, but it failed to adequately compensate (batteries hit low voltage alarm and inverter went back off) because the hot water heater and the AC were on among some other smaller things. After turning things off, the inverter did come back and power the AC etc., while I started looking into why shore power did not come back. So, I am not sure how or where power to dump back would come from.

[bellis]

I called yesterday because I had not heard anything back. He promised to nudge quality control alone. Thought that they would ask for the unit back, send me an RMA form and a shipping label to send it to them before sending me a new one.

Still waiting.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Source (all wire in this breakout is 8AWG)
Input side of 30A Progressive Industries (LCHW30)
Output side of 30A Progressive Industries (LCHW30)
Victron Multiplus Input
Victron Multiplus Output
Camper Breaker Panel

When this occurred....it was night with zero solar coming in. When it occurred, the inverter tried to kick in, but it failed to adequately compensate (batteries hit low voltage alarm and inverter went back off) because the hot water heater and the AC were on among some other smaller things. After turning things off, the inverter did come back and power the AC etc., while I started looking into why shore power did not come back. So, I am not sure how or where power to dump back would come from.

Remember I'm saying 'could'. The Progressive may have opened because of an output short fault. The remaining damage could have been caused in the period where the inverter turned on to where the batteries hit low voltage, A short would pull the battery voltage down very fast..but depends on your fuse size and type. You didn't mention a blown fuse or a breaker to reset.
The fault is ultimately the Progressive unit imo. But the burned wires leading away from the output of the contactor make me think power was being fed into the fault from the load side. If it was coming from the shore side, those wires would have suffered and they look fine.
Loose connection is a possibilty...but in that case I'm thinking you would have noticed some erratic behavior in the camper. Like lights flickering every now and then.
Interested in what Progressive has to say

[Jlawles2]

Wondering if the amp coil rubbed through causing the short. Looks like it might have had a little pressure on it from the neutral.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

Any news from Progressive?

[bellis]

I tried emailing them - it was a noreply. I called a week ago....he tried to escalate. I called today; he said my warranty claim had not really been picked up and reached out to the warranty manager. He did jot my number down to call me back. Hanging tight....