Looking for a surge protector

Great! I've been looking for the holy grail in power protection for use in rental properties and just about any other situation where larger and more permanent protection can't be installed.


I don't mean to be rude, but I really don't care. Also, it doesn't make any difference since raw power respects no brands.


My idea on Joules? Love 'em! Can't have enough spare Joules. As long as I'm their keeper...

The term "surge protector" is a vague and often misleading thing. Remember THE surge? As in "the surge worked [sic]"? If your idea of a surge is facing down tens of thousands of angry US forces for several months, I can't help you. Defending against anything with a duration that's recorded by calendar is far beyond the scope of any apartment dweller. Same thing for storm surges and other events that last longer than an instant. Some things are bigger and better prepared that we can be.

Most of the time when I see "surge" written by a layperson in this context, what they really meant to say was "transient". Transients can be dealt with, using something less than multiple divisions of personnel and materiel. Transients are over before you can lift a finger in response. Transients can be dealt with at the wall outlet!

The word transient itself means something that's brief in length. The word doesn't say anything about amplitude, but in the real world the brevity of the event tends to blunt amplitude to manageable levels. Although stuff like lightning gets the news coverage, lightning is more complex than a simple voltage spike, and (as with all "acts of God") is beyond human intervention. Longer power events are typically man-made, and best man-handled.

If you're interested in a "best effort" protection that you can plug into the wall, consider Brick Wall products. They meet my engineering specifications, and I haven't seen any real competition to this brand, although I'm still looking. I've used Tripp-Lite Isobar products as a "poor man's Brick Wall" with good results. The Isobar works similar to how a Brick Wall product does, except on a smaller level and without the industrial grade stuff like crowbar circuits. You get what you pay for, as the saying goes. And with these products you don't get less than what you pay for, which is important to bear in mind.

If you have time to count Joules, you have time to unplug stuff so the Joules don't get to them. Most of the products that proudly "fly their Joule flag" might be able to meet the claimed number once. But because they use sacrificial devices called metal oxide varistors, that number is null and void after the first MOV takes its first hit. And there's no reliable way of knowing what's left in reserve for Round 2. Although it doesn't hurt to throw in a couple of MOVs (they're dirt cheap), just don't count on them.

I have found over the years, that Back-UPS make better surge protectors.

Regular surge protectors don't protect your equipment from undervoltage, and only have a limited number of "protections" before they become just a power strip with a fancy light.

Back-UPS, higher quality ones, will completely take your equipment off the grid when they sense under or over voltage, and they can do it as many times as you wish.

We have really bad power here, and the UPSes have saved my equipment a number of times. After the North-East black out in 2003, when my computer fried, and the surge protector manufacturer told me that there is a $500 deductible, and the computer was not worth $500, I told them to shove their surge protectors...

Every electronic device we have is on a Back UPS. Survived a few power outages, a week on the generator (usually you don't want to run your electronics off generator, unless it is inverter style, but good UPS can clean up the dirty generator power)


I would look for 1000VA to 1500VA Back-UPS. Or maybe 2 of them, 1 for the TV, and 1 for the AMP.

Ha-ha!
Good observation. Now........ get ready for the whirlpool of wisdom to follow.

ftfy

ISOBARS are premium surge, spike and line noise protection units which costs more than the standard surge protectors you have listed. You can visit the Tripp-Lite site for more details.

I understand budgetary constraints, but it seems silly to spend $40 on a surge protector now, only to toss it out next year to buy a $100 UPS.