Typically to protect contacts from inductive kickbacks in AC, a snubber network is used. As an alternative, can a MOV provide a reliable function for the same purpose, i. e. will the MOV survive repeated strikes even if chosen properly from the energy absorption viewpoint? Rudy
MOV's degrade with repeated surge currents (since it has to act like a short circuit when it fires, localizied heat build up within the MOV will eventually cause the whole MOV to fail).
I had better luck with gas tubes when we turned on large inductors on/off and resulting L di/dt caused several hundred volt surges on
48VDC rail which would kill components left & right. Gas tube can light up millions of times (it is also a great visual indicator to let you know if it is still working or not) without failing. I built an automated tester which would cause an inductive surge every minute & the test ran 24 hours per day, and even on weekends (so om one year, we created 24 hours x 60 minutes x 200 days of operation = 288,000 times). Even after 3 years (nearly 1 milliion firings), the gas tube held up just fine - it was awesome !!!Thank you for the input! Rudy
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