Whole house surge protectors

By that, I expect you are referring to the extra set of breakers in the Intermatic box?

S

Sorry, it's a 4 modes of protection and 3 stage notifications.
I installed almost double the amount of Siemens compare to other brand due to the notification features, the circuit breaker size and always give me trouble free from the start but it's bigger in size and cost more.

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The 3 stage notification is a very nice feature.

I think most of the decent ones do L-L, L-N. L-G, and N-G.

The bad ones don’t do N-G.

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And what has to be contacts on the removable modules.

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During a reno a few years ago electrician installed this Eaton in my panel:

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Yeah, it's definitely nice to have. Unless your panel is visible and you look at it often otherwise most people would not pay attention to it at all so having an audible warning is a huge plus. I found a few too many blown surge protectors and the home owners didn't even know.

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I get where you're coming from. I guess we'll learn if I made a mistake or not! :wink:

S

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You got me curious to see what I installed years ago. We don't get a boatload of electrical storms here though, knock on wood. It hangs on the side of the panel. As I recall, I just put a couple of breakers in, hung it on, and wired it up.

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Good Stuff.

I once had one like that, but some time back, an electrician working on the panel during a remodel decided the breakers it was attached to were taking up valuable real estate and "disappeared" it. I never noticed it was gone until I got hit by a surge...lol

I chose the new one for the sheer fact that if it eats a surge, I can simply replace the modules and don't have to power down the main panel to replace the module. Otherwise I would have used a side mount one like the one you have or the others posted in this thread.

@JohnRob pointed out one of the offsetting risk factors with model I'm using, so we'll (hopefully never) see if I chose poorly. LOL

S.

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I just installed the Siemens one. I believe it has higher ratings than the Eaton one.

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I hadn’t thought much about this.

The breaker panel is in the basement, in a mechanical room, so it’s not exactly something I’ll be looking at very often.

My plan was to have an electrician install whatever device I settle on, so I’m hopeful he can make the installation work regardless of which one.

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LIttle question about that. They all install very similarly. And even the Siemens unit can be mounted in-wall. There's a face plate that Siemens sells for it.

My recommendation would be the Siemens unit (even though I don't have it). The audible alarm is a huge plus.

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Got my Intermatic installed. Got lucky, I was able to shift the breakers down and only had to rewire one breaker to fit the dual pole breaker in for the Intermatic.

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The only real issue, is that the LEDs are all but invisible when I'm in the utility room, as I have motion lighting in there, so as soon as someone enters the room, the lights come on. Part of the problem, is that the holes Intermatic left in the front of the panel are very small. I think Enlarging them would help, or possibly putting a light pipe/lense in the holes...in the meantime, I'll just have to shut out the lights on occasion and check the panel.

S.

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I am using Leviton 51120-3 from much time. I installed it 2 years back and till now it is working perfect.

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