Products not Purchased

The following products have been reviewed to a certain extent. At this time, we have decided that they are not necessary. However, each of these products was recommended by one source or another. And after further research, we may find that some of these products should be used.

Water softener: A water softener is a very good idea as so many RV parks have calcium-ladened water that will corrode your pipes and fixtures. However, there are many problems with softeners: 1) The expense of the softener and supplies 2) The time to connect the units during camp set up and 3) the room needed to store the unit. More research is needed.

Electrical Testing and Control:
1. Surge guard: These units keep overly high voltages from damaging your motorhome. They "chop off" high voltage and bring it back to the correct maximum of around 120 volts.
2. Autoformer: This unit will increase the voltage in parks with low-voltage electrical service
3. Voltage Polarity Tester: This is used to test the polarity of your electrical service and has reportedly very necessary in older parks.

So why have we not invested in these products to protect our electrical and electronic devices? It is just too confusing! Many have told us that all three are very important. Others have said that the testers are worthless. And there is an argument of the sequence of devices if you have both a Surge Guard and an Autoformer. Some say the Guard first, then Autoformer and other says Autoformer before the Guard.

And finally the cost, space requirements and set up time is a deterrent. It needs to noted that we have visited 671 locations (02-2024), including many very old parks and have not had a single failure due to poor power. We have to assume that the monitoring systems in our 2006 Monaco Diplomat have kept our devices safe.