ATS brands

[mshields]

Perhaps owing to the fact that I live and work within an hours drive of their factory, I have always specified around Russelectric for ATS's. I have always accepted ASCO as an equal.

I know that these are excellent products and that the service provided by these two companies, critically, is very good. What I'd be interested in hearing are your opinions on Zenith and other vendors and whether or not there are other ATS's that ought to be considered equal to Russ and ASCO.

 

[ron]

ASCO (Emerson), Russ, Zenith (GE), and Eaton are all about equal in my experience. They all have contactor based switches.

Eaton and others also have circuit breaker based switches.

 

[templdl]

Perhaps owing to the fact that I live and work within an hours drive of their factory, I have always specified around Russelectric for ATS's. I have always accepted ASCO as an equal.

I know that these are excellent products and that the service provided by these two companies, critically, is very good. What I'd be interested in hearing are your opinions on Zenith and other vendors and whether or not there are other ATS's that ought to be considered equal to Russ and ASCO.

As stated before you have a choice of well respected manufacturers.
You are going to have to decide of whether a contactor or breaker type ATS would be better for your application.
With contactor types they do transfer quickly which may be a benefit. Remember that when transfering from a normal to emergency sourse thar sourse is often a generator which must start first, come up the speed and then a transfer can occur which takes time. As such would an contactor type ATS be advantageous? Probably not.
When transfering back to the normal source a contactor type ATS can be advantageous only if the transfer is in phase. A time delay neutral otherwise is as recommendation otherwise you may be tripping an upstream OCPD as a result of an out of phase tràñsfer.
Breaker types often offer the advantages that breakers can offer such as over current and fault protection as well as other features that are available with breakers. A breaker type ATS often time is available with a service entrance label by itself.
So, take a look at your one line an what you are trying to accomplish in order to see which one would fit your application best.

 

[Jraef]

The other advantage I have found with the CB types is that some offer an SUSE label which is a great option for something like a stand alone pump station.

 

[ATSman]

Perhaps owing to the fact that I live and work within an hours drive of their factory, I have always specified around Russelectric for ATS's. I have always accepted ASCO as an equal.

I know that these are excellent products and that the service provided by these two companies, critically, is very good. What I'd be interested in hearing are your opinions on Zenith and other vendors and whether or not there are other ATS's that ought to be considered equal to Russ and ASCO.

Mike
I would have to agree with the Russ and ASCO. And to add one to include it in the top three
I consider is GE-Zenith. From there it goes down the line......Onan (Cummins), Kohler, Eaton (C-H Westinghouse), ITE-Telemand, Lakeshore Trans-O-Matic, Spectrum Detroit Diesel, Generac.....etc, etc. Many of which we see still in service after 40 or 50 yrs. Having worked on most of the manufacturers since the mid 70's, for the most part ATSs are very reliable as long as they get the proper PM. It is usually the dried grease that is the killer and IMO creates most of the problems (yeah timers and relays fail too!)
The old relay logic (dumb logic)prior to the mid 90's had its own set of problems. If a solenoid or motor could not switch the contacts in time and hang up in mid position it would sit there and burn up because the coil cutout switch didn't open (a real mess!)
With the new Micro controllers (smart logic) a series of pulses are sent and if the contacts don't transfer, mechanical failure appears on the display and saves a lot of time and money
replacing parts and rewiring harnesses (no fuses,remember?)
Hope this helps.