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I'm having some issues with my current electrical setup. I had an electrician install a 36k Eaton whole house surge protector about a year ago, and the hvac company installed a gree mini split. Since then, I've had 2 gree minisplit main boards burn up in the same area. First board burned up after two weeks, the second after a year.

The Eaton unit is showing both green lights with no dimming or failure indicated. I do experience surges though with the power flashing, and being in sw fl I frequently have power outages. surge status

The HVAC guys are saying gree won't do ant additional warranty claims because I don't have surge protection at the unit and doing it at the house isn't sufficient. This was never explained by the installer or by the electrician. (who referred the installer) But either way, they say it's extremely rare to lose two main boards and gree is saying this can only fail from surges.

I'm very frustrated by the entire thing because I was going to buy both the mini split and the surge unit, but I was told for various reasons by the contractors to allow the contractors to handle buying equipment like i wont get able to get mini split parts if i needed them. I would have got the best if I had purchased them, likely the Siemens FS140 or emp shield and a Mitsubishi Electric mini split. I've purchased the FS140 because the emp shield seems a but scammy for lightning strike protection

Question

  1. Can I install two Siemens FS140s, one at the breaker and one at the breakoff box for the minisplit and would that be the right unit to provide mini split protection?
Anthony Ac
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    I would suggest carefully checking the integrity of the Ground Electrode Conductor, and probably adding adding additional ground electrodes. Where I've seen major issues with lightning there's almost always a problem with the grounding. And the surge suppression is depending on the ground being good. – Ecnerwal Sep 11 '23 at 11:03
  • Question 4 is legal, not home improvement, and would be best supported by getting your hands on the installation instructions, rather than being told it wasn't specified "apparently." If those don't specify a surge suppressor there, that's probably just someone (installer or manufacturer unclear, if you are "hearing that Gree won't... from the installers") trying to weasel out of the product being crap and failing. Lights flashing is more indicative of power dropouts than power surges, as a point of information. – Ecnerwal Sep 11 '23 at 12:15
  • Thank you, and I agree it sounds like nonsense. I checked both the install manual and warranty document, neither mentions a surge suppressor. The warranty does have a vague exclusion for "voltage condition" incidents being not covered. – Anthony Ac Sep 11 '23 at 13:52
  • Also I will ask my electrician to quote adding more ground electrodes, how would I check the integrity of the conductor itself? – Anthony Ac Sep 11 '23 at 13:53
  • Please revise your post to ask just one question. While these questions are loosely related, they don't agree with the Q&A format of this site when asked in a clump. See [ask] and take the [tour]. – isherwood Sep 11 '23 at 14:02
  • Done, one question remains – Anthony Ac Sep 11 '23 at 14:09
  • A surge protector will not help you with a poor quality power source which includes brownouts, intermittent power, etc. If you are having power surges high enough to trigger a surge protector, your home electronics and appliances would also be demonstrating problems and failures. I would install a power line monitor and figure out what type of power quality your home has. You can purchase one or ask an electrician to attach theirs. Once you have facts, you will then be able to review your options. – John Hanley Sep 13 '23 at 20:31

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