Reliance Controls TF151W Easy/Tran Transfer Switch for Generators, Small, Gray

First, I have to say Reliance provides just about the best telephone customer service support I have ever received. They were accessible several times, long after I had the unit pro-installed when I had questions about how to use it. I cannot think of a firm that does better to help the owner with their product. The device itself is sturdy, small, simple and appears well made, I think in the US.Now, on to the "What you need to know before you buy this unit" portion:It's designed for a floating-neutral generator, such as an inverter-generator or a device that will get it's ground from the house's transfer switch/circuit box.If you have a bonded neutral generator, that is not the right device for a transfer switch. Many places on the web say "do not open up your inverter to change things". Also, if you have a fire/disaster at home and a modified / non NEC code situation was working at the time, you could be in big trouble - no insurance claim etc.If you do not know about bonded and floating neutral differences, research that before going ahead with your gen purchase or the TF purchase.What I wanted was to use a high quality inverter (the kind you plug into a bank of batteries or your car's battery) to power my house's furnace through the Transfer switch. This is NOT possible with my inverter because it supplies part of the 120vac on the neutral wire and part on the hot wire. It did have a floating neutral -- but that was not enough. The inverter/generator shuts down when plugged into the TF-151w, which has been verified to be correctly installed (neutral and ground connected to the ground bar on the breaker box, red to the 15a fuse breaker circuit and black in the wire nut with other black wires. The situation was described to me as "the inverter is trying to backfeed current to the neutral wire, which, in the house is grounded.Unfortunately, Reliance does not make a transfer switch that switches neutral AND hot that would work. They do make a product (TF-152) but their engineer told the CSR that it is not designed to have split 120vac on both the hot and the neutral, so it will not work.Anyway, I'm disappointed that my inverter will not be able to power my house furnace circuit according to code, but at least I have a good transfer switch installed for a normal portable generator (that supplies no VAC on the neutral wire AND is floating neutral) like the Honda EU 2200i or the Harbor Freight Predator 2200, both of which Consumer Reports likes for small, quiet generator usage with a home in a power outage. And, I have a nice inverter that I can use to power things from my car - but not home circuits!And, no I didn't receive anything from the company for this review...

I ordered this product on Friday night, received it on Saturday, installed on Sunday, and Hurricane Sandy came on Monday. The hurricane left us without power for 7 days and we would not have been able to survive without this device! It was VERY easy to install based on the instructions it came with (I also watched some online videos just to make sure I was doing it correctly). The Reliance Control switch was very simple to use and completely powered my furnace for the entire week that we were left without power. After it is installed - for operation you leave the device on "line" when the house has power and when the power goes out - flip the switch to "Gen" after the generator is plugged in. That's it.By comparison, the year before we were left without power during the October snowstorm ("Snowtober"). We did not have this device and relied on our generator and a small space heater to heat our living room. The space heater guzzled the gas in the generator and BARELY created enough heat in the room to be noticeable. We were miserable.With the gas crisis that we experienced after Hurricane Sandy, the Reliance Control switch was a miracle. It hardly used any gasoline to power the thermostat and ignite the natural gas burner that heats the house (through radiators). We had friends staying with us because we had heat and felt guilty for those that were left cold (some of our friends house temperatures dipped into the 40s after a week - but we were toasty in our house, which was in the 70s).I cannot recommend this device enough. I suggested it to everyone I know after the storm. It is a must have if you experience power outages during cold seasons. The switch is easily powered by a small generator and only requires a regular extension cord that runs from the generator to the switch (you don't need a special cord - just a regular 3 prong extension cord (2 prongs + 1 ground).Based on my experience and the comfort it brought to my family and friends, I would have paid double for it.

I was looking for an easy way to power up my furnace during many winter outages. I bought this unit to do the job. Its made of heavy gauge metal with a heavy gauge conduit connector coming out of the bottom. Installation was pretty straight forward. You first need to find the circuit connecting your furnace to your main home circuit box. Mark it and remove the cover to the box. (Its recommended that you shut off the main to your house -single large breaker usually at the top of the box marked main.) You may have to open your Reliance and install the plug shown on the front picture. This is done by removing the 3 screws in the cover plate. Install the plug with three wires inside. Pull the wires from the conduit into the main box. Disconnect the wire leading into your furnace circuit breaker and connect to the marked wire from the Reliance with a wire connector. Connect the other wire from the Reliance to the wire that was originally in the house circuit breaker with a wire connector. Pull the white to the house ground and connect to the grounding bar. Close up the box. Your done.To use this connector you use a heavy gauge orange extension cord. Plug it into your generator. Plug the other female end on to the reverse plug on the Reliance. By moving the switch from line to generator you change the electrical input to your furnace. The switch simply bypasses the circuit from the house. There is a no power position as well.A red light showing generator power input. And a 15amp built in circuit breaker.I have added a more robust transfer switch over the years which covers 8 of my circuits (see other review). I moved this unit to my swimming pool for those times when summer storms knock us off line. Also, you can place this unit directly on your furnace at the junction box coming in --takes a little more thinking--or as my neighbour did-- moved it to his garage and ran wiring out to it.. again these installs require bit more electrical knowledge.

i received it few days ahead of date,everything was perfect i wired to on my other transfer switch to separate pellet stoves to run on an champion 2000watt inverter generator which works much better than than my 8000 watt continues gene .the unit is so easy to wire ,i'am used to wiring so did this live ,,it took more time to mount than to wire it so simple ,if your not used to live wiring suggest shutting main panel off,gave it a trial run running pellet stove uses 70 to 90 watts should get over 9.5 hours on 1 gallon of gas ,transfer switch works perfectly,switch has its own circuit breaker,its for a floating neutral,asked an electrician who asked an engineer who works for the power corporation about bonded and floating couldn't give him answer,,,because everything is case grounded together??? mine is not floating will only be used in a power outage

So far very pleased with the ease of hook up , not had the power go out yet to use the product however testing the product work very well and I am happy with the whole experience.

This Transfer switch was easy to install right on to my furnace I'm not an electriction it took me about 35 minites for start to finish thats drilling hole in furnace for wireing and mounting the switch and just been careful I then tried it out and it work perfect I did check out some Youtube vidios that helped befor I got started

Seems to be of good quality, wasn’t certified to be used in Canada though.

I used this product to provide the ability to use my generator to keep my furnace operational in the event of a prolonged power outage. The installation process was straightforward and the switch works well