WIth all the messages about the defective surge protector that went up in smoke, I just wanted to note that I have my computer plugged into TWO of them. One is plugged into the outlet itself, then there is a power strip with another one built in. In the past 3 years, I have lost one motherboard, one video card, and 3 modems from lightning. WHILE PLUGGED INTO THESE SURGE PROTECTORS.
They are a total waste of money in my opinion. The only way to prevent lightning damage is to unplug stuff when you are not using it, and especially when there is lightning.
The sellers os surge protectors are the only ones that benefit from them. They benefit with riches and laughter as they laugh all the way to the bank!
Maybe you need to get one that guarantees to protect your equipment (that pays for anything that gets damaged).
In our part of the country, they put a grounded wire above the power and phone lines to take lightning strikes. So my only experience with power surges was an apparent increase in voltage just before a transformer or something blew (twice last summer). The lights got bright, air conditioner fan sped up, then everything went dark, except my computer. My computer and network equipment is on a UPS, so I was still online. There was no storm, just overheated transformer on a hot evening.
A coworker had a storm go through her neighborhood that took off some roofs and lightning dug a hole in a nearby street. She thought it blew out her TV and VCR because they no longer worked, but it turned out she had a surge protector, it did its job, and was the only thing that was really damaged.
But I guess if you are on high ground, there is no substitute for pulling the plug when the storms come.
Protectors really don't do much for a bad hit. Also as surges happen they "wear out " and lose ability to handles surges. Best thing in my opinion is to buy a name brand with a warranty back your stuff up and pull the plug if you are home.
UPS helps too as it can shut off commercial power in case of a spike. It could be too slow to save your system though!
No they don't. Do a search here on threads with the word "ground" or "grounding" in the title. There have been several recent threads that went into this deeply.
Plug-in surge protector did exact what they claim to do. They don't stop, block, or absorb surges. They simply shunt (short, connect) a surge to all other wires. If that surge protector had been within feet of earth ground, then shunting to surge protection would have been effective. But a plug-in surge protector is not surge protection. A plug-in surge protector is only effective when it connects short (less than
10 feet) to protection (earth ground) and is connected distant from transistors.
Your protectors were too close to transistors and too far from earth ground. They simply provided a surge with more destructive paths through appliances. More wires to find earth ground destructively through one motherboard, one video card, and 3 modems. An adjacent surge protector did exactly what the manufacturer claimed. It protected from a surge that does not typically exist and was ineffective for the other type of surge that typically damages electronics.
As 'nuther Bob posted, there are many threads in this newsgroup and many other newsgroups about earthing and surge protectors that actually claim to protect from destructive surges - 'whole house' surge protectors. Notice how often your town's phone service, connected to overhead wires every where, is down for days after a thunderstorm. No outage? Its called 'whole house' surge protectors. They are that effective that even the telco's high expose, switching computer cannot be damaged.
Two minimally sized 'whole house' protectors for residential AC electric are sold in Home Depot - Intermatic EG240RC / IG1240RC, or Siemens QSA2020.
A protector using the same circuit and components as other plug-in protectors (even the expensive ones) was more honest about what plug-in surge protectors really do. SL Waber EP63 Power Master:
Of course not. What plug-> WIth all the messages about the defective surge protector that went up
Unless all this damage occurred with a single strike you must live in central Florida. The mention of 3 modems leads me to suspect the phone line as the culprit since this would allow the direct entry of high voltage into the chassis bypassing your power strip. This year I lost a cable modem during an electrical storm. Fortunately it is an external unit plugged into a firewall before it entered the computer. Only damage was the modem. If I am correct as to the source of your misfortune you might look at putting additional protection on your phone line. I have a mechanical modular phone switch (radio shack) on one computer that uses a dialup connection and I leave it switched to the telephone unless I'm on the net. This might fry the phone but the computer would be isolated up to the arc over voltage in the switch which so far has been adequate.
Some dear friends of mine live a few states away. I see them once a year when I go to visit them for a few days. The first year I went to visit they told me lightning killed their computer. The second year I visited they told me lightning killed their TV. The third year lightning hit the hot tub receptacle. That was when I decided to take a look around the house. I love their hot tub. It turned out that they had no ground on their house. Their water came from a plastic pipe off of a well connected to copper pipe indoors. There was an old rusted ground rod in the wall of the basement with a very poor connection. I went out and bought a 10' x 3/4" ground rod for them and some #2 wire and installed it and bonded their copper pipes. They haven't had a problem with lightning since.
Some "surge protectors" are nothing more then cheap power strips with some electronic components soldered in. They usually get their UL approval before they solder in the extras. I actually witnessed one burn up.
Many manufacturers of electrical devices produce a surge suppressor receptacle. It takes the place of a standard receptacle and is UL approved for that purpose. That is what I recommend to my customers. These types of receptacles are around $40.00 - $50.00, but I believe them to be more reliable and functional than the plug-in power strips. You can buy them at an electrical supply.
Yea, it sounds like you found out the hard way.. Cheapo store bought protectors or useless for lightning. They are only usefull for power line surges, which is the small stuff.
A brand like APC makes decent UPS units. One of the things APC advertises is lightning protection. They'll supposedly replace equipment if lightning damages it. There's other good protectors out there too, just can't think of their names right now. But you're best bet is probably a whole house protector.
One reason cheapo brands dont work as well is their clamping time = reaction time, the good ones such as Tripplite clamp 5to 10 times faster in nanoseconds. Also quality and durability and size of components , open a cheap one and a good one, you will see the difference, TripLite monitors surge protector condition, and showes through LEDs if it isnt operating any more due to a hit, or if your wiring is improper. Also check warrantys, fine print, some are impossible to comply to for a claim. Trip Lite does warranty against lightning, My ins co went back to them on a claim.. They also make units that protect phone, cable and power in one unit. But your 1st line of defence is proper house, phone, cable,and antenna ground, second a whole house protector, and third a surge protector, and fourth common sence, using switched outlets,
A while back ( Maybe a year or two) Electrical Construction and Maintenance magazine (E C & M) ran an article on this very subject. They had done the research for the article and found that some companies had submitted their power strips to UL for approval and got it. Then they took those same power strips put some surge suppression components in them and remarketed them as surge suppression power strips. However they never resubmitted the changed design to UL, but kept their UL label on the strips. They had also reported that there were a number of fires as a result of this design change. A reputable company should be able to furnish you with a copy of their UL listing. That will tell you exactly what the device has been tested and approved for.
Don't tell me that you are surprised to hear about corporate deception. I just read an article yesterday about Citibank and JP morgan paying millions of dollars in fines because of their role in deceiving stockholders in the Enron scandal. Of course Enron's accounting firm was in on the deception as well. In my mind the people who did this have no honor and lack integrity. Fortunately not everyone is like this, but the buyer must beware. There are some people who believe that money and profit is everything and nothing else matters.
I sign my own name at this newsgroup because I am not trying to deceive anyone. I speak from my own experiences as a licensed electrical contractor in two states who began his career in grammar school helping his electrical contractor father on weekends over 30 years ago. I do not claim to know everything and I do pick up some handy tips from peeking into this newsgroup from time to time. The advice I give here is not a substitute to having a professional do the work for you.
Nonsense. They all use same components - MOVs - with clamping times in nanoseconds. MOVs replaced gas discharge tubes (GDTs) that were effective (if properly located) AND had even *slower* reactions times.
Even Tripplite does not claim a faster response time. If it did, then a URL for that specification will be provided.
Nonsense about LEDs that report when protector is OK. Look at other expensive surge protectors, that use same circuit and same components as that Tripplite:
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even removed essential components (MOVs) and the indicator still said the surge protector was OK. What kind of indicator is that!! That LED only reports failure when protector was so grossly undersized that it failed open circuit - a completely unacceptable failure mode for any properly sized surge protector. Reality - LED only reports when the surge protector was grossly undersized for the job - after the fact. MOVs could be removed and surge protector still says OK? Protector manufacturer forgot to mention that part.
LED cannot report when a surge protector is good. It can only report when the surge protector has failed due an extreme condition that is not even acceptable - grossly undersized surge protector.
Correctly noted is those warranties are bull. Better have an expensive attorney such as your insurance compeny to get something honored since most warranties are never honored. No plug-in surge protector is effective against lightning - nor claims to be. Read their specs; not the warranty. Where is the technical claim of lightning protection? Yet lightning is the typically destructive surge. The Tripplite is installed for surges that don't typically exist! Again, what a racket!
Surge protectors must be installed for the destructive surge
- direct lightning strike. That means a surge protector can only be effective when connected less than 10 feet to central earth ground. Effective surge protector is 'whole house' type - which also costs tens of times less money per protected appliance. Provides protection from common mode surges AND costs less.
Anyone who can responsibly recommend a surge protector knows this fact cold - a surge protector is only as effective as its earth ground. So instead, those plug-in manufacturers completely avoid earthing discussions. After all, they are not selling effective protection. So they let silly, technically incorrect rumors about faster response sell their ineffective protect for them.
Even switched outlets is a silly recommendation. Lightning has traveled miles through non-conductive air to get to your transistors. Is a silly one-eight inch gap going to stop what miles of air did not? Of course not. Is the human going to be there every minute of day to switch every thing off - including dimmer switches, furnance controls, portable phone base station, etc? Of course not. But then we have so many urban myths promoted about protecting transistors. Myths because those techniques are not used where failure is not an option; such as telephone exchange, 911 emergency response centers, cell phone towers, and airport control towers.
That recommended Tripplite is nonsense - overpriced, ineffective, undersized. Where do they mention the most critical component in any surge protection system - earth ground? Where is that essential, less than 10 foot connection to earth ground? Did they mention that telco already installed effective 'whole house' protector on your phone line
- for free? Why forget to mention so many facts? Increased profits? Why do they forget to mention that a surge protector is only as effective as its earth ground? So that others will promote urban myths to recommend the Tripplite - such as the mythical LED indicator and faster response time.
Want to enhance surge protecti> One reason cheapo brands dont work as well is their clamping time =
Years ago when appliances had electro-mechanical controls that was true.......these days appliances with electronic controls (ranges, washers, dryers, etc.) most certainly _will_ be damaged by a major surge if not protected.
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