Why Surge Protection

[poligone]

Although I have read in the forum that surge protection is recommended, I still am not sure why. We never surge protect our TVs or other electronics and moreover I have never heard of one being zapped. Why are computer more vulnerable?
Is a Belkin Surge strip sufficient at $30 or do I need to shell out $100 for an APC?

 

[tristramshandy]

I don't think you need the $100 APC if you don't live in an area plagued by brown-outs and your puter isn't constantly engaged in 'mission-critical' activities (like serving pron sites, etc). As to why you would need it, a month ago I could only nod gravely at my boss when I pointed to the burned-up phone-jack on his brand-new hardware modem.

 

[Salvador]

A typical strip plug surge protector should be fine. I'm echoing tristramshany in saying that you only need the better unit if you're going to be using the computer for critical stuff or you have problems with the power in your area. It is nice to have a backups system with a battery though in case you are working on something and your power goes off and you don't have your work saved. The battery backups give you enough power to save your work and power down in case of a blackout.

Sal

 

[Diffusion]

You should get a UPS no matter what, budget it into your spending whenever you buy a machine. You can get power spikes, problems from people working on your electrical system, etc., and a surge protector will often not do jack, cheap UPSs wont even help. What a UPS does, is that it has a large battery, which your line feeds into, and then the UPS feeds out power directly from the battery, giving a much cleaner line. This may seem stupid, but here are some of the things I have heard of them preventing, one of them was a case where someone had an electrical contractor wire a 220v line into their household 115v line, supposedly, everything attached to a wall plug that was not behind a UPS was toast, with few exceptions. Another one, heard from one of the mailing lists I am on, occured when someone on the list had a ceiling fan put into their server room, the electrical guys caused a massive spike in power, which somehow managed to take out all the surge protectors, and the low end UPSs, and toast a few hundred thousand dollars worth of rendering farms. Ouch. These are a few examples to explain why you want a UPS, or at least a surge protector, though surge protectors wont do much for you.

 

[SerraYX]

A normal surge protector has been enough to save my computer from thunder and lightning storms where we lost power and other electrical difficulties for years.

 

[Salvador]

I don't know about you, but I'd tend to want to unplug my system if someone was working on the electrical. Whenever you turn the power on after it has been off, you usually sexperience a spike anyway.

Sal

 

[chuckieland]

and make sure the suge protection offer high insurance too

 

[Rainsford]

Actually, your comment about TV's not needing to be surge protected is wrong. For Sony's new WEGA tvs, they recommend in the user's manual that you use a surge protector. Any sensitive electronics should be surge protected, but a $30 Belkin one shoud be enough. In any case, it's better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it.

 

[HiroP]

My company offers a whole house surge protection system. It covers not only power, but cable and phone. You can read about it here:http://www.oppd.com/surgeguard.htm

and, if interested see if your local power company offers a similar service.
A few years ago, I came home to a black screen and a PC that wouldn't reboot properly. After a lot of trouble shooting, it turned out my modem had been fried by a lightning strike to the phone lines, so make sure if you buy a UPS to use the phone jack connections too.

 

[Schlocemus]

Where to buy a decent UPS?

 

[RossMAN]

Why not just buy a Belkin UPS for $30 after rebate?

 

[billyjak]

Turbo cool Power Supplies have built in line conditioning to take care of surges, along with a 5 year warrenty.
I would rather invest in a good Power Supply that does it automaically.
Read it here
At this sight

 

[helikon]

Man,does this question hit my hot button.A few weeks ago a close lightning strike took out my cheap belkin (fc572tel or something like that).It did it's job and saved my fax,answering machine and phone.The phone line contacts were charred a little and when I tore it apart, the 2 250v fuses were blown in the phone line section.So I did some research to the point of making myself crazy and learned alot. First off,theres alot of low priced junk out there such as the 10 dollar surge strips.There are "surge protectors" which are not much more than a fuse that blows given a big enough surge.And there are "surge suppressors" that actually suppress the high voltage spikes and surges by absorbing some of the energy and diverting the rest to ground.Which is why it's good to have a properly grounded outlet and buy a suppressor with a light that indicates whether the ground connection is ok.It's also good to get one with another light that usually goes out when the suppressor is no longer protecting due to surge damage.They do have a finite lifespan and deteriorate slowly with accumulated surges.One very helpful source of info was Consumer REports,January 2000 issue where they tested suppressors and listed their performance etc.I followed their advice and bought an APC Pro7t for 30 bucks at Best Buy. THe APC Per 7T at 25 bucks was also rated well but I went with the larger Joule rated one.The Tripplite TR6FM rated highly and so did Tripplites Isotel6 Ultra.I suggest you read their test report for the full story.One BIG thing I noticed was that all 5 Belkins tested (some 40 to 60 dollars) at the bottom of the list and that the protection light remained on AFTER they no longer were providing protection thus giving a false sense of security.Also ,don't take the damage replacement insurance too seriously.There's alot of conditions in the fine print on the warranty explanation.After reading alot of ad copy and specs(or lack of specs)it got too confusing and I just decided to get one that by god had actually been tested and was found to be effective,so offto Best Buy I went.Regarding UPS's ,lower priced UPS's DO NOT run directly off the battery and "smooth the power".They let through the normal line power and only switch to battery when the line voltage drops too low or gets too high.I have a basic UPS but if I had to do it again,I would put the money towards a high quality surge suppressor instead ,one that has a really low "let thru voltage" and thus offers protection from my gear's(computer, stereo etc)real enemy which is voltage spikes and not loss of power in a blackout.Hell yes you ought to protect your stereo etc.,some of my neighbor's lost tv's,vcr's that weren't turned on but still plugged in.Phones too.Well enough ranting. helikon

 

[RossMAN]

helikon - That's why I'm glad I picked up a FREE APC Surge Protector with phone protection from CompUSA (after $30 rebate) back in April so the deal is of course EXPIRED now. Also picked up an APC Back-UPS 650 Pro, it was well worth the $68.95 I paid, I'd much rather have it sacrifice it's life to save my rig, monitor, laser printer, phone, etc.

 

[billyjak]

I use the Tripplite on my computer and monitor, and a Cyber power with my other stuff.
That along with the Turbo Cool power suppy is double protection.
I had a UPS, paid $99.00 for it and it started beeping and never worked again, it wasen't because of a surge, it just fried out.
If I am going to buy one it will be the Commercial kind next time, as the cheaper ones don't hold up.
Spending 300.00 - 500.00 isin't hard to do on a good UPS
So the next best thing for the buck would be my solution,the tripplite will take it if any voltage goes that high, beside I have a $50,000 warrenty on it.

 

[MWink]

Surge protectors and UPSs are a MUST! Almost everything in the house is protected by an APC Surge Arrest/UPS. I have seen too many other brand surge protectors/UPSs fail (Tripplite, Belkin). Spend the money to get an APC. You will not regret it. I would never run my computer without a UPS. My APC Back-UPS Pro 650 has been on battery 2 times in the last 24 hours correcting sags. As for those whole house surge protectors, remember that surges and spikes can occur within the house. Sometimes when a light bulb blows out my UPS logs a "Large momentary spike."

 

[RanDum72]

The feature to look for in a UPS is AVR or Auto voltage regulation. Your houshold voltage may go down to 90v or go as high as 150v; a UPS with this feature assures the voltage going into your PC is within 110-120v. Plus it also offers basic surge suppression. I'm currently using a Belkin "Regulator Pro" 525VA that has AVR (got it for $49 I think from Circuit City). The UPS is, in turn, attached to an Isobar power strip which also has surge suppression. I did have a bad experience with Newpoint surge protector where a wind storm in my area knocked down a few lines and caused a massive surge. My monitor fried and so did my Mobo. Contacted Newpoint and they had me send over the power center-type surge protector. They later replaced it with a new one but refused to take responsibility for the monoitor and mobo, saying nothing was wrong with their product. but why the hell did they send me a replacement? I have since relegated the Newpoint to fax machine duty only.

 

[tristramshandy]

Thanks Helikon for all the sound information -- I stand educated.

 

[jaywallen]

Just thought I'd point out that protection from sudden catastrophic damage is not the only benefit that computers (and other sensitive electronics) receive from power conditioning. Low amplitude medium and high frequency noise on power lines leads to gradual degradation of electronic components. This effect is cumulative and usually results in insidious failures of the system that the user might not associate with power problems. A fair number of intermittent device-caused lockups are probably engendered by noisy power.

In the rare cases where the line conditioning system for a mission critical piece of electronic apparatus is sacrificed during a power transient, I test the living daylights out of that unit before restoring it to its service capacity. No protection is 100% effective. I think the best benefit of a surge suppressor / protector / UPS with respect to catastrophic power hits is the insurance.

Regards,
Jim

 

[nave456]

I can't stress this enough, USE SURGE PROTECTORS !!!

I have lost 2 modems, 2 motherboards, and a processor. Granted the area where I live has something to do with that, but protect your stuff. Just to be safe, you'll be glad you did.

That's just what I think.

 

[benjamit]

surge protectors will help with small spikes but as mentioned before they will not help with brownouts or blackouts

i use many surge strips as power strips and not reply on the insurance or the protection

if you want insurance get homeowners or renters and cover every electrical item in your home

though the depreciation of used h/w is so fast that 6 months of insurance may equal to the current value of your h/w

however, ups come in 2 types and the lower end type will not help condition the power to your machine, only the high end ups will condition the power to your machine

the majority of the ups that you see are the low end

the low end run the power directly to your machine and only switch to the battery in case of brown or black out

the lower end last longer than the higher end since the battery is not worn out as fast

the high end runs the power to the battery and then from the battery the power runs to your machine

from this the power to your machine is conditioned but at the expense of the ups battery these batteries don't last too long since they are constantly charged and drained

whereas the low end remain charged unless the power cuts out

prices for ups even for the low end are also affected by the amount of charge the battery can hold

plus some ups offer features of saving and turning off your machine automatically

 

[murdock2525]

APC is king for UPS'z and Surge protection but you can go one step further.. GFI.. ground fault interruption.
Go to an electrical supply and get GFI wall outlets and a gfi breaker to put in the breaker box in the slot for the rooms containing your electronics.
I did all the electrical in my house with GFI and have APC UPS's on all my electronics so when the power goes out (quite often) the TV/comp/stereo never misses a beat until the diesel generator fires up.....
Fuggin hurricane country !

 

[dullard]

I didn't see anyone mention this important fact:

Surge protectors degrade in quality after every single surge. A typical household has a few small surges per day, and a typical surge protector last for 3000 surges. Thus after 3 years your old protector is a worthless piece of junk (shorter time period if you live in an area with more power problems). So every time you buy a computer, get a new surge protector. They cost as little as 4 dollars (more if the surge protector comes with its own insurance).

 

[netdude]

Best method of preventing spikes and surges during thunderstorms is to UNPLUG your PC from the power strip, period. If you live in an area that has horrible electrical service like California then spend the bucks on a good surge protector. Fortunately where i live i rarely if ever get drops in current and i've never fried anything plugged into any of my outlets. If an electrician messes your line up you should have gotten an electrician that knows what he's doing in the first place. You'd be shocked how many electricians don't really know the ins and outs of electricity and how it flows or anything about amps or volts.

 

[jamarno]

<< . We never surge protect our TVs or other electronics and moreover I have never heard of one being zapped. Why are computer more vulnerable? >>



If you look inside a TV or another electronic device, in the area where the power cord connects to the circuit board (don't do this without first unplugging the device from the AC outlet), you'll probably find a surge supressor built into it, consisting of a couple of high voltage capacitors (approximately 0.01 - .3 uF, 250 volts AC or 600-1000 volts DC), a coil of wire, and maybe at least one MOV. This is actually necessary to prevent the TV's digital controls from locking up every time some other appliance on the same circuit causes a small surge, and an external surge protector without the coil won't help a bit here. The better computer power supplies have a similar filter, while the cheap ones leave that area of the circuit board empty.