Positive: Franks Autotransformers

[Herk7769]

Just got off the phone with Frank Izbinski, the owner and inventor of the Franks 2 stage autotransformer.

What a wonderful guy to talk to. Spent about half an hour talking about his unit and the merits of his patented design.

If you have a Franks unit already DO NOT waste your money buying a surge protector. You do not need it.

He makes 3 different power conditioners. He makes a 30 amp; a 50-70 amp and a 100 amp unit.

They ALL have these standard and some proprietary features:

Low Voltage shutdown - 93 volts (it will boost any voltage 93 volts or higher up to 16%)

High Voltage shutdown - 129 volts (it will detect and clamp any spike exceeding 130 volts; shutting off power to your camper before damage can occur. Including improperly wired 220 socket.)

Built in reset-able circuit protection on side of case. Say you plug into a 50 amp service on the pole with a 30 amp camper through the Franks unit and because of low voltage on the incoming service requires boost. This could pull more than 30 amps through the Franks unit trying to provide the full 30 amps to your camper at the boosted voltage. The internal circuit protection protects the Franks unit form overload.

The Franks 2 stage booster has the highest percentage boost available and provides it in two steps (8% and 16%) to give you the maximum current at the highest possible normal voltage.

All AUTOMATIC re-start of service after a shutdown. As soon as normal voltage is restored, the Franks unit will restart automatically to continue providing uninterrupted power service.

INTEGRAL SURGE PROTECTION - The highest available of all autotransformers out there and higher than most stand alone surge protectors.

30 amp unit - 3500 Joules
50 amp unit - 7000 Joules
100 amp unit - 9,000 Joules

This unit is proprietary to Frank's Electronics and available only through his web site. Voltage Booster

While occasionally seen on eBay, they are re-sellers of Frank's units. He would prefer that the units were ordered through his web site.

Saved my bacon on more than one occasion.

[Herk7769]

Engineering review of the Franks Autotransformer.

[Herk7769]

The air conditioner was running just fine with the Franks unit boosting in high boost.

[Bennington Camper]

Very nice Herk!
Wishi I had heard this before I bought my surge protector a couple of months ago.... Maybe I can ebay it - never been used, ha ha

[Terier]

Originally Posted by Saratoga Camper

Very nice Herk!
Wishi I had heard this before I bought my surge protector a couple of months ago.... Maybe I can ebay it - never been used, ha ha

Any chance you brought it at CW and got the extended protection plan? If so, you can still return it for a refund.

[Bennington Camper]

Originally Posted by Terier

Any chance you brought it at CW and got the extended protection plan? If so, you can still return it for a refund.

Nice thought, but it was not through CW...

[SaskCampers]

Auto Transformers are nice but anyone interested in getting one should read this article as well as there is always a trade off as you cannot get anything for free in this world and you may just pick up an unhappy neighbor in trade for your increase in voltage. And I bet Frank did not discuss this with you Herk.
Not to say I am not considering one for the future but just saying we should all be aware of all the facts.

Autotransformer Use: "Stealing Power?"

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by TheSasks

Auto Transformers are nice but anyone interested in getting one should read this article as well as there is always a trade off as you cannot get anything for free in this world and you may just pick up an unhappy neighbor in trade for your increase in voltage. And I bet Frank did not discuss this with you Herk.

Autotransformer Use: "Stealing Power?"

Interesting article to say the least.

[dezolen]

Have been thinking of getting this unit for some time. Nice to hear some positive comments. Really like to build it into my rig as I am sure this article would walk away very fast due to some envious neighbours.

[TURBS]

My question is what if 6 guys on a line of 10 all have auto transformers?

[OldCoot]

$450 is a pretty stiff price to pay just to run an ac for a couple of hrs.

Think I will just use a fan and suffer thru the heat.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by f1100turbo

My question is what if 6 guys on a line of 10 all have auto transformers?

Better to be one of the 6?

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by herk7769

Better to be one of the 6?

Lol yep I was thinking that!

Ok next scenerio........

10 guys on a line and all ten have the auto transformer.
Voltage before all ten hookup is 118v

Then all ten hookup who gets the shaft the last guy? Or first on the line gets or makes 118v. does voltage go down for the 9 ?

[myredracer]

TheSasks - thanks for that link. Very informative!

I'm sure Mr. Izbinski would love it if everyone had one of his units in their RVs. But the downside is that enough RVers had them in use at the same time with their RVs running full tilt, an entire campground could be taken out....

Or another scenario - what if a group of RVers were camping at the end of a long run in a cg and all had their A/Cs on and other loads running to the max. and their was low voltage on the feeder cable to the area where the campers are, running on the edge of tripping out. Then, along comes one guy with say 2 A/Cs (he's in a large RV with 50 amps) and an autotransformer and is thinking, "I ain't gonna have to worry about no low voltage issues"... Then his autotransformer tries to adjust his voltage up but ends up taking out the feeder circuit breaker for that area.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by myredracer

TheSasks - thanks for that link. Very informative!

I'm sure Mr. Izbinski would love it if everyone had one of his units in their RVs. But the downside is that enough RVers had them in use at the same time with their RVs running full tilt, an entire campground could be taken out....

Or another scenario - what if a group of RVers were camping at the end of a long run in a cg and all had their A/Cs on and other loads running to the max. and their was low voltage on the feeder cable to the area where the campers are, running on the edge of tripping out. Then, along comes one guy with say 2 A/Cs (he's in a large RV with 50 amps) and an autotransformer and is thinking, "I ain't gonna have to worry about no low voltage issues"... Then his autotransformer tries to adjust his voltage up but ends up taking out the feeder circuit breaker for that area.

My thoughts as well lol

[myredracer]

Too funny f1100turbo, thinking the same thing at the same time...

Maybe some of us watch too much TV with a dark side. We are just packing up for a 3 week campin' adventure and the first thing we grabbed was a box of Criminal Minds episodes.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by myredracer

Too funny f1100turbo, thinking the same thing at the same time...

Maybe some of us watch too much TV with a dark side. We are just packing up for a 3 week campin' adventure and the first thing we grabbed was a box of Criminal Minds episodes.

I just hope I'm not "that" guy without one!

[dezolen]

Highly doubt you will find too many others in the campground using one.
Most would not have a clue what it is or does.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by TheSasks

Auto Transformers are nice but anyone interested in getting one should read this article as well as there is always a trade off as you cannot get anything for free in this world and you may just pick up an unhappy neighbor in trade for your increase in voltage. And I bet Frank did not discuss this with you Herk.
Not to say I am not considering one for the future but just saying we should all be aware of all the facts.

Autotransformer Use: "Stealing Power?"

I posted that link last week.
Read the part about air conditioners.

[SaskCampers]

Originally Posted by herk7769

I posted that link last week.
Read the part about air conditioners.

I did. No need to be defensive as if you would have read my post I was not slamming the unit or you, I was merely pointing out there is a cost to these things. Autotransformers are not new technology and you have to give to get. That was my point and there are more things in an RV than just the A/C unit, the coffee maker and microwave will easily chew up 2200+ watts together and that will effect things.

The fact I said I would consider one in the future should be enough said but whatever.