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Good surge protector?

nguyen704

nguyen704

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Jun 19, 2008
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I have a question,

Whats a good surge protector I can get for a decent price and is efficient? I need one so that I can connect my ps3, monitor PC, and my logitec z5500 to it. Are they all similar? Need some help. Thanks.
 
I've used several Belkin surge protectors in the past with no problems. But to ensure the maximum protection possible for your computer, I recommend saving up for either a surge protector with battery backup -- so when a power outage/blown fuse occurs, you could shut everything down properly -- or an uninterruptible power supply or UPS.
 
This is one of those things where quality really matters. Belkin is good, so you should be fine. Don't be tempted by some el-Cheapo protector at Home Depot. My Uncle just got burned with this, toasting his computer when there wasn't even a cloud in the sky.
 
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my rule is no more then 600watts on a cheap surge protector (not the doller store ones!) or 1kw on the good ones like belkin
 
Belkin is crap. Cyberpower is crap.

APC, Panamax, Furman, or even Monster (if you can get it for a good price)
 
from what ive always known, surge supressors work by soaking up spikes in power, and eventually the 'valves' inside wear out. most don't last more then a few years- and at that time people think they are protected because it still powers on your gear, but if a big spike hit it would just pass it through since they are worn out. it's better to get an ups with voltage regulation imo... might not be as fail-safe as a good new surge suppressor, but it is overall more dependable (lasts decades if you take care of it, and it can be tested in software to ensure its working as it should be)
 
nguyen704 said:
Thats kinda alittle too much for something I am using. I'll see what I can find from belkin. Is APC any good?

I came across this, http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11378196&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US

Is it good for that price or I should wait until a better deal comes by?

Or this one? http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-12-Out...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1237419366&sr=8-1
Click to expand...


these two, for example, would use the weakest, cheapest, shortest lasting mov's you can get. basically, these are an illusion of protection.
 
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Paul_Johnson said:
APC markets a wide range of products from total crap to very good.
Click to expand...

Personally I prefer Furman, though I have Panamax and Monster for my HT, plus APC and Liebert UPS for my PCs. I do have a Belkin one but it's not used for anything important.

But then again, I have a Panamax service entrance protector anyway.
 
I didn't look at the Belkin asked about because I have a bias against them. I never used that particular APC suppressor, but it does have a an indicator for protection working. I don't know how well this works on the APC unit. MOVs will fail open circuit so if the surge supressor doesn't have a means to test for this built in then it's a waste of money. With that said, there is some chance that power drop outs will damage this setup so a UPS would be a better choice for someone concerned about this.
 
Some protectors have the protection light connected to the same spot as the power light so it's not a true indicator. Hopefully APC of all companies wouldn't do that though.
 
Cheers david.......not too worried about battery backup (UPS), I just wanted another form of power smoothing to feed my HX1000 and two monitors :)
Not a bad unit for about £30, considering it can cost that for an 'ordinary' surge protector power strip.
 
I use an APC surge protector, and I like it alot! :D*got it on sale at frys too :)*
 
I think the zerosurge and brickwall series mode units are the best you can get, but they're also pretty expensive, starting at some 150 dollars. I live in florida and we have frequent lightning storms and power issues here so it's worth it for me. For less money I'd go with APC (they have a good rep in regards to collecting on their guarantees) or a tripp-lite isobar, which is an excellent surge protector with some good power filtering on it.
 
Trillock said:
Cheers david.......not too worried about battery backup (UPS), I just wanted another form of power smoothing to feed my HX1000 and two monitors :)
Not a bad unit for about £30, considering it can cost that for an 'ordinary' surge protector power strip.
Click to expand...
Most people won't even come close, but it is rated to only 600W.:cool:
 
Yoda4561 said:
I think the zerosurge and brickwall series mode units are the best you can get, but they're also pretty expensive, starting at some 150 dollars. I live in florida and we have frequent lightning storms and power issues here so it's worth it for me. For less money I'd go with APC (they have a good rep in regards to collecting on their guarantees) or a tripp-lite isobar, which is an excellent surge protector with some good power filtering on it.
Click to expand...

I use brickwall and surgex personally and at work for anything not on a UPS system. The UPS systems we have are the big a fridge kind that facilities takes care of so I have no idea what the are exactly.

Any MOV device is a power strip, not a surge protector.
 
Series-mode protection is certainly better, but MOVs are plenty capable.

Or you could have saved yourself a little money and had it both ways with Furman. I'd buy Furman over Brickwall or Zero-Surge or SurgeX any day. (Furman's cheapest stuff doesn't have SMP though)
 
rbennett5 said:
Any MOV device is a power strip, not a surge protector.
Click to expand...
I thought that a MOV was something like this:

MOV_Harris2.jpg


How is it a power strip?

OTOH take a power strip and add MOVs to it, and it becomes a surge protector.

I don't know how good current Belkin surge protectors are, but Consumer Reports didn't rate Belkin well in their Jan. 2000 and Nov. 1994 reviews. Surge protectors with high ratings under "design" include choke-capacitor (L-C) filters as well as MOVs, which can help block surges that don't have enough voltage to trigger the MOVs and prevent things like laser printers and motors from locking up or rebooting the computer. My APC/Conext battery backups have L-C filters, and my laser printer doesn't affect my computer, but when I instead used a Belkin 375 VA backups without L-C filters, the computer always rebooted when the printer started. BTW the printer was never plugged into the backup but always into a separate wall outlet.

3163055980_da5873dc1f_o.jpg


3163060238_fd0bcdffe6_o.jpg
 
I've had an APC PRO7T for probably 13+years. This thing is able to strip X10 home automation signals off of the wires in half of the house (ie. from the rest of the house, not just devices plugged into the bar itself) and if an incandescent dimmer is in use anywhere in the house the APC emits a buzz. (Dimmers are generally based on SCRs which dim by cutting off the sine wave abrubtly which causes all kinds of electrical noise on the line).

Clearly these are built beyond a simple MOV design and actually filter out elements which don't match the expected frequency range of standard AC power.

I recommend them (unless you have a lot of X10 :)
 
davidhammock200 said:
Most people won't even come close, but it is rated to only 600W.:cool:
Click to expand...

Hmmmm....I bought it when I had my 'old' skt939 system, which was not as power hungry as my new system.

I haven't had any problems, so am hoping that this 600W is up to the job of protection ?

Sort of worried now......:D
 
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