picking a surge protector

V

vietkangta

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2005
Messages
316
I think i need more outlets to plug in more devices to the wall.

Im not sure whats it called, a power strip or surge protector?

Whats a good surge protector i should get? The one that has the most joules?
 
Power strip is typically a strip without surge protection.

A surge protector is a strip with surge supression.

Is this for your computer? Do you have a UPS already?
 
Read the sticky on surge protection. High joule value is not necessarily a measure of good surge protection.

In general, the UPS surge protectors are better than the ones that come with a generic protected power strips. If you look around, the price of a UPS is not much higher than a good power strip (e.g. last week, I saw a one-day sale on an APC 350VA UPS for only $17.50 - not much for running a computer on battery, but just adequate to do an immediate, safe shutdown in a power failure).
 
Michael Daly said:
Read the sticky on surge protection. High joule value is not necessarily a measure of good surge protection.

In general, the UPS surge protectors are better than the ones that come with a generic protected power strips.
Click to expand...

Really? I always thought that UPS's were a bad substitute for surge protectors. Although if you're talking about the ones that you always find on sale in the big bins at Staples or Office Depot, then I guess you have point.
 
no i dont have a ups, or know what one is. And yes im trying to get something for my computer.
 
Tipycol said:
Really? I always thought that UPS's were a bad substitute for surge protectors. Although if you're talking about the ones that you always find on sale in the big bins at Staples or Office Depot, then I guess you have point.
Click to expand...

lol, other way round !!
 
UPSs make great surge protectors. Not only do they protect in a surge but they tend to help condition the power; correcting brownouts or over-voltages. Though these features will vary depending on the make and model of the UPS.
 
I've seen super-cheap surge protectors that were nothing but power strips with a single MOV wired between the hot and neutral lines. At the very least, look surge protectors certified for UL 1449 at 330V, but Consumer Reports, in 11/1994, found that not all such devices gave equal protection, and they recommended units containing at least two types of protection, which I assume means three sets of MOVs (one set per pair of AC lines) plus a choke-capacitor (L-C) filter.

Consumer Reports tested at least one APC backup power supply and found that it offered very good surge protection, but don't assume that all brands of backups will because I have a 375VA Belkin that would let the computer and itself crash, every time the laser printer turned on (was plugged directly into an outlet). None of my APC/Conext backups had that problem with the same setup. The following pictures may explain why:

Belkin 375VA backup:
2067393081_7b6d306053_b.jpg


APC/Conext 300VA backup
162537931_d0f3530ec3_o.jpg
 
Wow - looks like two MOVs in the Belkin vs half a dozen in the APC.

APC has been around longer than most other UPS makers and they have a good reputation. I prefer to stay with them than risk another. I just bought a dedicated DSL surge suppressor from APC - it's the only one I could find that was guaranteed fail-safe (well, for less that several hundred dollars - the APC was on sale for $22 (reg $32) at Dell.
 
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