Magnet for bad surge protectors

EngrChris

Gawd
Joined
Dec 28, 2008
Messages
855
Few months ago while I bought the Cyberpower UPS 900w (two thumbs up!) and also I got the 895 surge protector unit. It had a weak solder joint near the switch, we fixed it. The strategy didn't work after we rotated to Belkin.

I got two, one for monitor, network (modem, switch), printer, and speakers. The other for small things, when I needed it. The good unit was (now for lack of trust) on the computer (how lucky), while a day ago I used the yet to used and unknown bad unit on some lighting. The blue smoke came out. The shipping cost (to Belkin) isn't worth it, and I'm not trusting the other unit. I'm more interested to know why... :D

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107196

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/3509/17384160.jpg
The victim.

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5706/47290131.jpg
Tamper proof (One-Way Slotted) screws huh?

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/8623/43428385.jpg
Metal fillings and plastic bits clean-up.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5933/72049538.jpg
Opened

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4191/55095384.jpg
Got very hot, melted plastic, more drilling.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1802/69058639.jpg
Bad soldering.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/5015/90688658.jpg
More poor soldering.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/590/62226816.jpg
Something else blew up, "aww, they gift warped it." :p

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/2809/18787457.jpg
Component side.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8472/12740175.jpg
Hey coil, resistor, (what is that?), you don't look too good.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5392/39106884.jpg
I now have a cord for a power tool.

To avoid bad soldering (3rd in a row? :p), Any recommendations is appreciated.
 
took some time to figure out what you were trying to say with this thread... but my answer is anything but belkin, first off. i think you know that by now though.

also, pay attention to the VA you pull through your surge protectors. definitely dont go above 80% capacity and ideally stay around 50%. if those solders you show on that switch were belkin's work, yikes.
 
APC has good surge protectors.

That Belkin unit is a classical crappy MOV-based 'surge protector', which may only be slightly better than plugging something directly into the outlet. Each tiny surge will damage the MOVs, until the point where they are degraded enough that they won't perform as expected any more, which is to direct excess power to ground.

I use a cheap MOV surge protector as well, but only in front of an UPS with built-in surge protector, as a sacrificial unit. Nobody mourns about a 5 Euro surge protector, whereas a 130 Euro UPS is a more tragic loss :p
 
APC has good surge protectors.

That Belkin unit is a classical crappy MOV-based 'surge protector', which may only be slightly better than plugging something directly into the outlet. Each tiny surge will damage the MOVs, until the point where they are degraded enough that they won't perform as expected any more, which is to direct excess power to ground.

I use a cheap MOV surge protector as well, but only in front of an UPS with built-in surge protector, as a sacrificial unit. Nobody mourns about a 5 Euro surge protector, whereas a 130 Euro UPS is a more tragic loss :p

well explained. really, too, those 'tiny surges' can be normal fluctuations in the power grid... there is no MOV based power strip that will last more then a few years (i mean the protecting part), its in their design to wear out. i didnt think of it myself, but i agree that they are supplementary protection and shouldn't be considered a sole safety device.
 
It only took a ~20w light blub. :p But, yes, I'm just stick with power strip and short grounded extension cords. Now those are a little hard to find.
 
have you tested for amperage on your nuetral line for that circuit in your house, with all devices off? check voltage on both hot and nuetral too, you might have some dirty power hitting your power strips...
 
Well, hope you learned you lesson - to never buy Belkin junk again.

From the experiences I have had with Belkin crap, it is ALL extremely overpriced and very poorly made.
 
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8472/12740175.jpg
Hey coil, resistor, (what is that?), you don't look too good.
Looks to be a 115C thermal cutoff. From a quick search, a cheap Chinese no-name brand one. Designed to cut the circuit if it gets to 115C, though overcurrent will cause these to trip as well. That resistor attached to it with insulation looks like it might be designed (or just expected) to fail in that fashion and trip the TCO. Either this is a known design flaw and safety measure to prevent burning people's homes down, or maybe some kind of makeshift one-off circuit breaker or something else weird. Why not just use a fuse... Very dubious design... Perhaps if you wanted to trace a schematic its function would become more clear and we might guess at why it failed. I haven't done any power system design, but this seems pretty suspicious to me, though maybe it's common and standard practice, whatever its purpose.

I'm not sure this was caused by bad soldering, but certainly poor manufacturing and design standards. My advice: don't buy any more of these :p

I'd trust APC but not much else, at least until you get to proper UPS territory where there are some good competitors.
 
Looks to be a 115C thermal cutoff. From a quick search, a cheap Chinese no-name brand one. Designed to cut the circuit if it gets to 115C, though overcurrent will cause these to trip as well. That resistor attached to it with insulation looks like it might be designed (or just expected) to fail in that fashion and trip the TCO. Either this is a known design flaw and safety measure to prevent burning people's homes down, or maybe some kind of makeshift one-off circuit breaker or something else weird. Why not just use a fuse... Very dubious design... Perhaps if you wanted to trace a schematic its function would become more clear and we might guess at why it failed. I haven't done any power system design, but this seems pretty suspicious to me, though maybe it's common and standard practice, whatever its purpose.

I'm not sure this was caused by bad soldering, but certainly poor manufacturing and design standards. My advice: don't buy any more of these :p

I'd trust APC but not much else, at least until you get to proper UPS territory where there are some good competitors.

Looks to me from the pcb bottom view that it's a dropper resistor for running the LED indication circuitry. This unit is probably just the victim of cost-cutting, a too low wattage resistor caused the thermal fuse connected with the load to blow, as you indicated. Or they did not account for poor convection cooling of the resistor, as we all know by now is the same mistake made in certain klipsch subwoofer amplifiers. The soldering looks quite standard here imo, maybe people just aren't too use to a less than flawless lead-free process' results.
 
Looks to me from the pcb bottom view that it's a dropper resistor for running the LED indication circuitry. This unit is probably just the victim of cost-cutting, a too low wattage resistor caused the thermal fuse connected with the load to blow, as you indicated. Or they did not account for poor convection cooling of the resistor, as we all know by now is the same mistake made in certain klipsch subwoofer amplifiers. The soldering looks quite standard here imo, maybe people just aren't too use to a less than flawless lead-free process' results.

The circuit itself looks like something a first-year electronics student would hack together the night before the project is due, with or without the help of alcohol :p
 
Looks to me from the pcb bottom view that it's a dropper resistor for running the LED indication circuitry. This unit is probably just the victim of cost-cutting, a too low wattage resistor caused the thermal fuse connected with the load to blow, as you indicated. Or they did not account for poor convection cooling of the resistor, as we all know by now is the same mistake made in certain klipsch subwoofer amplifiers. The soldering looks quite standard here imo, maybe people just aren't too use to a less than flawless lead-free process' results.

Make sense, but why the insulation bundle around the TCO and tombstoned resistor? It's like they expected this to happen...
 
The circuit itself looks like something a first-year electronics student would hack together the night before the project is due, with or without the help of alcohol :p

Yes I agree with you here after seeing a better view, guess I wasn't looking too closely at the smaller component soldering job. The larger wire solder joints pictured are what I've come to expect in run of the mill equipment nowadays, maybe I'm wrong on this.

Make sense, but why the insulation bundle around the TCO and tombstoned resistor? It's like they expected this to happen...

Maybe it was designed to fail if 220 was (somehow) applied (?), no idea otherwise w/o a schematic. Who knows why people do what they do :)
 
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