In alt.engineering.electrical VWWall wrote:

| I had a microwave oven that had a MOV across the 120V line ahead of the
| power switch. The other side of the 120/240 20A circuit supplied a
| refrigerator. The loss of the neutral applied a good part of the 240V
| across the MOV when the refrigerator attempted to start.
|
| The MOV didn't last long! It would probably have been OK on the load
| side of the switch.
|
| I know that refrigerators should be alone on a "home run" circuit, and
| neutrals shouldn't be connected with wire nuts, but that wasn't how it was!

How would you connect a neutral? Doubled up on a receptacle device screw?
The usual practice is to wire the neutral in a wire nut so it can feed the
device in that box, as well as connect up and down stream, even if the
device is removed.

OTOH, I don't like wire nuts. I've seen them come loose even when wired
together well. Maybe it was a defective nut. I definitely will try to
avoid them when my new house gets built (a lot of bad electrical things
will be avoided in it).


| My only complaint with some plug-in protectors is that the MOVs are
| often much too small. I've also seen some with only a line-line MOV.

You had a plug-in protector for a double line (240V) circuit? Or are you just
referring to the neutral as one of the lines?

I'm still on the hunt for a plug-in surge suppressor power strip for 240V
with NEMA 6-15P plug and NEMA 6-15R outlets. The MOVs between each line
and ground need to be the ones appropriate for 120V (330V clamp rated) and
the ones between the two lines appropriate for 240V (660V clamp rated).

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