Elmex AC Surge Protection Device - 320 V with 3+1 Pole

I am writing this review after buying, testing this product during Voltage surge. I purchased the product in 2021 and this worked perfectly till 2024, May. During May2024 we had a surge and as promised it clamped and one pole got damaged and changed to red color, the MCB tripped and it protected the devices. I replaced the damaged Pole and the Product started working again efficiently. I wud suggest to buy this product.

Extremely good quality product.A must buy to all houses for surge protection.Great going elmex..

Yesterday I had a high voltage issue where the incoming voltage on 2 phases went to 400+v, the surge protector has a clamping voltage of 320v(Uc) which means it should have clamped the Voltage and tripped the MCB or burnt out but nothing happened, verified the connections everything checks out. Would suggest not to buy this one. I'll be testing the actual clamping voltage after I replace this one and I might update this review if I remember.

Order returned back.

Great for home protection

Used, burnt product received.

This is a very competitively priced and specced SPD, we've been using this for more than an year now at my parents' home without any issues. For comparison a slightly better specced Havells type 2 SPD bought for my home from a seller in Cochin cost 2.5x. Compared to the Chinese stuff, Elmex actually has a proper datasheet on their website, highly recommend you read it. The thunderstorms in Kerala can get pretty bad and any surge usually kills the AC first as it is the only appliance running continuously and pulling a lot of current. We also have a lot of sensitive electronics and home theatre systems that are connected to terminal SPDs from Honeywell. SPDs should always be tiered!Proper installation is vital to ensure the performance of an SPD. I attach pictures of the distribution box. Instead of an HRC fuse I've opted for a 4 pole 63A MCB (bottom right corner) as current limiting device, this is where the mains power comes in, the SPD (top right corner) is installed parallelly to the mains wiring, downstream of the MCB and upstream of the RCCB (bottom left corner). The length of each phase and neutral wire going from MCB to SPD and earth bar (not visible in picture as it's inside the DB cover) must not exceed 50 cm. That is L1+ PE, L2+ PE, L3+ PE, N+ PE each must not exceed 50 cm, the longer the wires used here the higher the voltage "seen" by your appliances during a surge event.Final notes and comments based on other reviewers' experiences:- An SPD is a transient overvoltage (TOV) protection device conforming to IEC 61643-11 standard. In simple words, it's designed to protect your appliances from several thousands of volts hitting your home electrical system likely from a lightning strike lasting just microseconds to at most milliseconds. In India due to poor workmanship or natural disasters you may have the misfortune of encountering floating neutral conditions due to breakage of transformer earthing. This can result in permanent overvoltage (POV) conditions where the current comes in leaves through another phase resulting in peak voltage up to 440V. You need a POV protection device confirming to EN 50550 standard to protect from these grid faults. AFAIK, such devices are not yet readily available in India but you can use a contactor and a voltage measuring device (or voltage protection relay) to create your own.

Seller refuses to sell spare cartridge. You are forced to buy complete set. Better to avoid this brand as it works out very costly.