220 V surge suppressor [20 amp]

[Jamie Straw]

Any know of a good 220V/20A surge suppressor I could plug the Harvey lathe into? NW weather is starting to ramp up, we're on our 3rd or 4th Island power outage, lights are flickering. A few years ago, I lost the pellet stove control board, that was expensive enough! TIA.

 

[Ron Solfest]

Any know of a good 220V/20A surge suppressor I could plug the Harvey lathe into? NW weather is starting to ramp up, we're on our 3rd or 4th Island power outage, lights are flickering. A few years ago, I lost the pellet stove control board, that was expensive enough! TIA.

You might look into 50A RV surge suppressors. Plugs would probably need to be adapted but there are several brands: Progressive, WatchDog, Southwire, etc

 

[Mike Drake]

I would need to look up the brand, but my local utility company gets me adis punt on their preferred brand of whole-building surge suppressor that gets installed at the meter. I buy at their price and they install for free.

 

[Brian Gustin]

Another one to look into might be a whole house surge suppressor that wires right into your main breaker panel https://www.homedepot.com/s/Whole-House-Surge-Protectors/?NCNI-5

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

Or just disconnect the power to the lathe.

 

[Brian Gustin]

Or just disconnect the power to the lathe.

which is what I do when it isn't in use, but turning while you have stormy weather outside is the risk then, so I'd still say you want surge suppression and if going for that why not protect the rest of the electronics in the house (lot of modern new appliances also seem to have sensitive electronics as well)

 

[Darryl Fective]

Another one to look into might be a whole house surge suppressor that wires right into your main breaker panel https://www.homedepot.com/s/Whole-House-Surge-Protectors/?NCNI-5

I should look into one of those. We had a direct hit a few years ago. My shop is around the corner from our house, so my lathe was fine, but it zapped our well pump, a TV, home theater reciever, cable modem, 2 routers, electronic thermostat, 2 of 3 garage openers, and our gate opener. About $6k damage with a $6k deductible. 😖

 

[Jamie Straw]

Or just disconnect the power to the lathe.

Doesn't help much if I'm actually turning when we have a power surge.

 

[Jamie Straw]

You might look into 50A RV surge suppressors. Plugs would probably need to be adapted but there are several brands: Progressive, WatchDog, Southwire, etc

Thanks, Ron, rewiring the plug would be worth it for sure. I'll take a look.

 

[Ron Solfest]

I should look into one of those. We had a direct hit a few years ago. My shop is around the corner from our house, so my lathe was fine, but it zapped our well pump, a TV, home theater reciever, cable modem, 2 routers, electronic thermostat, 2 of 3 garage openers, and our gate opener. About $6k damage with a $6k deductible. 😖

I’m a believer in these and have installed them on our last two homes, very easy. But if you get a direct hit all bets are off, lighting is powerful stuff!

 

[Jamie Straw]

I would need to look up the brand, but my local utility company gets me adis punt on their preferred brand of whole-building surge suppressor that gets installed at the meter. I buy at their price and they install for free.

Thanks to those who suggested "whole house" but hoping to avoid. I will, however, look into the expense. It might be worth it so as to not be as concerned about computers, well pump, etc.

 

[Richard Coers]

Doesn't help much if I'm actually turning when we have a power surge.

Well it will help for the majority of hours, Unless you turn more than 12 hours a day, every day, 7 days a week.

 

[Dean Center]

Doesn't help much if I'm actually turning when we have a power surge.

Weather forecasting has gotten so good that those of us at risk from lightening, tornados, and hurricanes can get a warning not to be out in the shop. That might not hold for you, with non-weather related power surges, but unplugging works for most of us.

 

[Jamie Straw]

Weather forecasting has gotten so good that those of us at risk from lightening, tornados, and hurricanes can get a warning not to be out in the shop. That might not hold for you, with non-weather related power surges, but unplugging works for most of us.

Absolutely crazy "bomb cyclone" weather on the island yesterday, but our neighborhood did not have a power outage. Lightning was not forecast at all, just rain a serious wind. I could have turned for another two hours if there was surge protection, and with a sale coming up in two days, it would have been nice to have the time. The improvement in forecasting is impressive -- I've been a weather nut for years, going back to horse-training days when there were certain horses better left in their stalls on a stormy, windy day.

 

[Stan Pressner]

Any know of a good 220V/20A surge suppressor I could plug the Harvey lathe into? NW weather is starting to ramp up, we're on our 3rd or 4th Island power outage, lights are flickering. A few years ago, I lost the pellet stove control board, that was expensive enough! TIA.

Jamie, My new T60 arrived this week, so I am hoping you get a good answer!

 

[Jamie Straw]

I'll let my Hunter Hubby know. 😅

 

[Randy Heinemann]

I have a 220V Powermatic 3530C. Of course it has variable speed. My understanding is that you cannot use a surge protector with this type of lathe. Since I am not an electrician or engineer, I'm not sure why but it has something to do with the variable speed control not operating when connected to a surge protector. This information came directly from Powermatic support (a JPW company). I don't know if using a whole house protector would ba OK for this type of lathe. Now, if you have an older style lathe that doesn't have a variable speed control, then there may be 220V surge protectors that would work.

 

[Jamie Straw]

I have a 220V Powermatic 3530C. Of course it has variable speed. My understanding is that you cannot use a surge protector with this type of lathe. Since I am not an electrician or engineer, I'm not sure why but it has something to do with the variable speed control not operating when connected to a surge protector. This information came directly from Powermatic support (a JPW company). I don't know if using a whole house protector would ba OK for this type of lathe. Now, if you have an older style lathe that doesn't have a variable speed control, then there may be 220V surge protectors that would work.

Ooooo, thanks for that info. Might lean to whole-house protection. The whole VSC can create interesting issues. One of our members developed automatic dust control gates for 10 various machines plus the 6 lathes, but we had to take them off the lathes because, since they're not unplugged at night, somehow the VSC was tricking the DC gates into opening and closing in the middle of the night.

 

[Ron Solfest]

I have a 220V Powermatic 3530C. Of course it has variable speed. My understanding is that you cannot use a surge protector with this type of lathe. Since I am not an electrician or engineer, I'm not sure why but it has something to do with the variable speed control not operating when connected to a surge protector. This information came directly from Powermatic support (a JPW company). I don't know if using a whole house protector would ba OK for this type of lathe. Now, if you have an older style lathe that doesn't have a variable speed control, then there may be 220V surge protectors that would work.

I have a 240v PM3520B and have operated it in my house with a whole-house protector (wired at the panel) for the last 8yrs, and in a prior house with a similar whole-house protector for about 10yrs before that.

 

[Brian Gustin]

I have a 220V Powermatic 3530C. Of course it has variable speed. My understanding is that you cannot use a surge protector with this type of lathe. Since I am not an electrician or engineer, I'm not sure why but it has something to do with the variable speed control not operating when connected to a surge protector. This information came directly from Powermatic support (a JPW company). I don't know if using a whole house protector would ba OK for this type of lathe. Now, if you have an older style lathe that doesn't have a variable speed control, then there may be 220V surge protectors that would work.

Actually, they specifically say to not run on a GFCI circuit, which is a whole different thing from a surge suppressor.

However, I know the lathe when running will actually back-feed into the power line and disrupt other electrical devices that are run off the same power circuit (For example, a LED lamp I got for extra lighting will go completely wonky and often not even work, so I ended up plugging in a surge suppressor strip and then connect the lamp into the strip.)

However a GFCI will regularly trip when you switch on the VFD as it is "seeing" a short to ground. (Due to how the VFD can back-feed through the lines)

Surge suppressors are more of a line filter to smooth out the voltages supplied (Regular household supply can vary by several volts as different stuff is being operated, and sudden surges in voltages are filtered by the surge suppressors to feed a more even voltage supply.) So I'd think it should not be a problem to plug in your VFD to a surge suppressor strip, however, I wouldn't use the typical low end strips sold for computers and the like - They are not designed to handle the higher currents, and are often notorious for overheating, melting down and causing fires. But something like a whole house suppressor installed at the electrical service drop should have no effect, and still protect against line surges (but won't do much for surges caused by nearby lightning strikes that actually can travel through the ground and back into the house, bypassing any surge suppression)

Of course, if there's an electrical engineer that knows better than I do, that cares to respond, I'll defer to what they have to say...

 

[Ron Solfest]

@Brian Gustin - I am a EE (retired), and I agree with everything you said

 

[John K Jordan]

I’m a believer in these and have installed them on our last two homes, very easy. But if you get a direct hit all bets are off, lighting is powerful stuff!

We had an extremely powerful lightning strike on our hill a few years ago. Hit a tree near the top of the hill and splattered chunks of that 48" diameter tree over 100 ft in every direction. I had unplugged everything but the Comcast cable. Took out the cable modem, one small TV, the motherboard for my desktop computer in the shop, some small devices, two uninterruptible power supplies feeding computers, and oddly, a solar electric fence charger. I suspect the primary surge traveled through the ground. Fortunately I had a protection plan that covered the computer motherboard. Turned out the surge only took out the switch on the fence charger, not the electronics.

BTW, this is the surge protector my tech son recommends for TVs and such:

Amazon.com

I unplug the lathes with VFDs when a storm threatens. I also unplug the computers, the NAS, and now, the cable modem and both ends of all ethernet lines from it.

For 20 years before then, no lightning or power surge had affected a thing. One thing that might have helped in other lightning strikes is all utilities on our property are underground.

As for GFCI, I had to remove the one to my 110v Jet1642 lathes since just turning them on would trip the the circuit.

The whole-house surge protectors are inexpensive and easy to install (if you do it yourself). Need a good connection to ground (best to run two or three ground rods maybe 8' apart. Some cities and communities will install the whole-house protectors for free - the city where we lived before we moved to the country did that.

 

[BobCoates]

Another one to look into might be a whole house surge suppressor that wires right into your main breaker panel https://www.homedepot.com/s/Whole-House-Surge-Protectors/?NCNI-5

I think I have the Intermatic one installed on my breaker box. I guess it is working, since having no problems for at least 10 yrs if not longer. A electrician friend suggest I install one as a safety.
Read the rest of the comments and using the PM3520B had no problems and have led lights above and have not noticed any issues with them.

 

[musky]

This has been an interesting thread as I had been looking at the possibility of getting such a thing for My Robust lathe and possibly other tools. Mine has tripped about 4 times now after storms and not sure how many more times the box can take. Could I unplug it, sure but not really practical as I have many tools in the shop, the shop is about 200' from the house, and most important I'm not home a lot of times when storms happen.
I was just going to buy a plug in unit similar to your 110 ones, but after reading this posting, decided to see what a whole house unit cost. Quite honestly that is the only way to go it seems, as it would be great to have everything protected, and most importantly it looks to be fairly reasonable. Actually, really reasonable, much more reasonable than I imagined.
Not only is it reasonable, but I can easily do it myself. Not only that I already have an unused 50 amp 2 pole breaker already in my box from something I got rid of.
For those electrically challenged, or just want an electrician, It still should be a simple fairly quick and reasonable job. I honestly thought something like this would be much more expensive than it was and am really glad this post came up.