Pro / Tran Q Series Transfer Switch for Generator with 10 Circuit Breaker

I could not be happier with this product. Here are the main reasons: 1. Build quality is very good. Well made and well engineered. 2. Extremely easy to install. The included instructions are very good and there is an online video that walks you thru the installation. Be careful, you are working inside the electrical panel where one wrong touch or slipped screw driver can cost you your life. All the circuit wires are labeled A, B, C, etc and each circuit has it's own replaceable breaker. Metal conduit is included as well as the L14-30 plug to mate with your generator cord. 3. Has built-in wattmeters to help you balance your two 125V loads. Take your time and plan your install. Mark each breaker in your panel so you know which breaker is which before you remove the cover. Remove the cover to your main breaker panel and find a suitable knock out to run the wires into the panel from the transfer switch. Mount the transfer switch and then select the 10 circuits you need to control during a power outage from the generator. If you have a 6000 watt generator, you want to balance 3000 watts for each 125V leg of the 250V input from the generator. I have electric hot water and used the first 2 - 30amp breakers to run the 4500 watt 250V water heater (i can turn off the other 8 circuits while heating he water). There is a good table for determining power wattage of various appliances and other devices included with the instructions. Next, run the wire pairs to the appropriate breaker in the panel that corresponds to the circuit on the transfer switch and cut to length. At this point I had numbered the panel breakers and put a piece of masking tape with the corresponding wire pairs (A's, B's C's, etc) so I knew which wires were going to which breakers. I had all this done before I had to switch off the main panel breaker and shut down the power to the whole house. Then it only took about a half hour to complete the wiring. Turned everything back on and it worked like a champ. Can't wait for the power to go out so I can give it a try.

This panel worked great. Replaced the two dual breakers on the left with single-circuit breakers so I could switch 10 circuits in my main panel. My electrician was impressed with how well it was made and labelled. He was not so impressed (nor was I) with the supplied piece of cheap plastic conduit to contain the wires between the main panel and this one. It is so short that you MUST install this panel right next to the main panel and have a knock-out in the main panel on that side. If, like me, you have to mount on one side and go across to a knock-out on the other side (or bottom), you'll be taking a trip to get a replacement piece of conduit. Fortunately, my electrician had a left-over piece in his truck. The supplied piece is so flimsy and short it couldn't cost more than $2 so why not throw in a 2 foot length just to make sure the customer isn't "short"-changed :>). When you're paying the price for this panel, it isn't very customer friendly to do something like that. Other than this rant about the conduit, the panel is well put together and worked first time. Meters seem reasonable useful and they even supplied short lengths of #10 wire to connect the socket into the panel. Pretty nice.

I don't want anyone to think that at a mere three stars the product doesn't do the job because it does. I knew what I needed and knew what I was getting, but it's not a five star product for a couple of reasons. One, it's grossly overpriced for what you get. Yes, it's a niche market. Still, there's a huge profit in it for the cost of the components and cabinet. For that price I expect everything about it to be excellent. But it's not. That brings me to my biggest gripe. It clearly states in the item description that the wires are marked by circuit. The unit I received has only the A and B wires marked, none of the others. That means taking the unit completely apart so I could get at the red wires going to the transfer switches to ohm them out and tag the wires. For $200 I'd expect to have to do that, but for $369 absolutely not. After tagging the red wires it was a simpler process to find the corresponding black wire, still using a meter. Anyone who received this switch would likely be as aggravated about the process as I was. This is the kind of item at this price you would expect to be fully tagged. The screws were bent on the 1" elbows. I had other screws, but for $369 why do I need them? The box shipped by Amazon was not sealed. When it was dropped off it was partially open; it had not been taped. Was anything missing? Maybe the wire nuts, which I felt should have been included. I have plenty of my own, but for $369 it seems tossing in 20 wire nuts is no big deal and adds value to the product. Maybe they're included and someone removed them, but there's no way to know unless someone leaves a comment. Before anyone comments that I should have pulled the switch from the wall, re-boxed it and returned it to Amazon please realize that I knew how to make the thing work in spite of its shortcomings. This review is mostly for someone who wants to install their own switch, a relatively simple process with marked wires but not so simple if you don't have the equipment or knowledge to trace them to their respective switch. I started the job and wasn't going to ship it back and wait to start over again. All the transfer switches and breakers work, although I do have to swap out the 30 amp breakers to something more suitable in size. So overall it does do what it's supposed to do but because of installation hassles that have nothing to do with me it's 3 stars out of 5.

This is a well built American product. All thick gauge metal cabinet. Thick all metal conduit. Quality wiring. You will need 10 yellow wire nuts to complete the installation. Installation took me about 2 hours to flush mount and run the conduit and another hour to wire the circuits in the main electrical panel. I run it on a 7500 watt Westinghouse Generator and it powers a 30 amp water heater, well pump, gas furnace, and 5 other circuits. Reliance will help you with installation and they have top notch customer service. FYI. They are going through a product change. The new Q310A is just called the Q310 and is about 2" shorter and the Watt meters are along the top and sideways. I installed it flush mount in the wall with the QF10 flush mount kit. Since they are changing the dimensions the front bezel didn't fit. I contacted Reliance directly. They offered to send out the new bezel free of charge and apologized for the issue. Only a few people who bought the switch from one dealer and the flush kit from another dealer during the transition were effected by this issue. All portable generators in the USA are sold with the ground and neutral wires tied together for safety. US electrical codes usually require the Ground and Neutral to be tied together at the house in the main electric panel so there is only one bonded point in your entire electrical system. You really shouldn't have it tied together at both the generator and your homes main panel. To meet code, you will need to disconnect the short piece of wire inside your generator that ties these two wires together. Unfortunately this will make your Generator unsafe to run unless first plugged into the transfer switch to provide the required ground bond. I recommend hiring an electrician for this reason.

The best thing about having this installed is the karma. Since I have had our home at the ready for a power outage there have been none. The instructions, labeling, and layout were simple to understand. However I think the people who say it can be done in an hour are working quicker than a top flight professional would. Mine was in and ready to test in just a couple of hours, AFTER a couple of hours planning the load you want to cover, identifying the related circuits and then balancing the load across both sides of the generator's output. Bottom line, give yourself most of a Saturday and you will have time to test. I decided on this make and model specifically because it uses the standard, find replacements anywhere, CHEAPLY circuit breakers. And being on standard twenty five or even fifty years from now they will still be available. It was very easy to break the ganged circuits and very easy to replace the two too few 20 amp breakers. The whole thing is wired to support 20 amp or grater circuits, only four circuits are wired for 30 amp. I'm not planning to run the electric dryer or the electric range on generator power, so I yanked two 30A out and dropped in a couple of 20A that were less than $10 each at the local big box hardware store. You can not go wrong with this setup if you take your time and think it through.

well built switch box and ul approved

This is part of my design along with a 7,000 watt generator to provide for power when the utility fails for days on end. It was easy to install and well designed. The interchangeable breakers were a great part of it. I needed to have all single breakers and no doubles. The replacements from Home Depot were cheap and easy to install. Great product well designed and manufactured.

Panel itself works fine, but it cost me another $40 in electrician time during the install for him to debug why the 240v well pump we attached to the first two breakers wouldn't work. After a bunch of testing he found that one of the wires inside the unit was not attached to the back of the switch (the spade connector had popped off and the wire was just grounded to the metal box). Once that was reattached it was fine, but still disappointing that a brand new unit would have to be opened up and quite nerve wracking thinking we had somehow fried the well pump!