Costco: question about surge protectors

[ZippyDan]

i have always heard that surge protectors eventually stop being useful and u have to replace them (but in real life, when does this occur?)

Costco is selling this new surge protector that claims to never 'wear out.' it has a big round button you push when there is a surge that supposedly resets it, and you can keep doing this until you die.

sounds like a gimmick to me, but im wondering if any knowledgeable ppl out there can comment on this 'new technology' is it true?

~Zippy!

 

[Viper96720]

Maybe they're using the same thing like house circuit breakers. Goes off so you push it back in like some circuit breakers.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Most surge supressors (in fact all that I've ever seen) have a reset switch, which does work like a circuit breaker, but only when a certain point is passed and blows the circuit. I don't think there are any that do not have this (often it doubles as the on/off switch), so really it is gimmicky to make it sound like a feature nobody else has.

What "wears out" a surge supressor is if your power constantly surges just a little bit, just enough that the surge supressor has to catch and clamp on it. Eventually the circuitry that does this wears out. The "dirtier" your power, the faster it happens. I don't think there's any way to tell when it's going to happen though, but when it does, most likely the supressor dies completely, rather than simply letting all the dirty power get through.

This page has a similar explanation. MOVs are the part that wear out, but not all surge supressors use them. However the supressor should shut itself down when all the MOVs have worn out; they use them up sequentially over the life of the supressor.

 

[ZippyDan]

what about viper's suggestion that they are like house circuit breakers? do those ever wear out? i mean, i know everything wears out eventually but you know what i mean i guess

and could a surge protector use that kind of idea? the box acted like it was completely new surge protector technology that would never wear out

~Zippy!

 

[Lord Evermore]

I found descriptions of "vacuum gap" technology, here and other pages. I suppose that may be what you've found, but I wouldn't bet on it unless it says so on the box or you can get specifications for it online.

 

[ZippyDan]

also you know how all surge protectors have those 50,000, no 100,000, no 300,000 dollar warranties on them? this one had an UNLIMITED warranty. again maybe just advertising.

im pretty sure the protector is by Power Sentry. Costco carried, or still carries, another similar model, without the 'new technology' also by Power Sentry. they carry other Power Sentry stuff too i think, like USB hubs. unfortunately, the PowerSentry website is hopelessly behind, they dont even have the other protector model Costco carries (a 3150 joule model, i own 3 so im sure it exists and im sure its PowerSentry, and ive seen the same model at Walmart). the best protector in their online catalog only goes up to 2450 joules or something. the Costco website doesnt mention it either (Costco purposely keeps different items on website than in store)

someone who knows about this stuff needs to go to Costco and find out

~Zippy!

 

[Lord Evermore]

You could find a contact phone number or email address for Power Sentry and ask the people that make the product.

 

[Zepper]

There has been several surge supressors who claim great longevity. Many use "spark gap" or capacitors. Both spark gap and caps are relatively slow technologies so both are usually supplemented with MOVs and/ or those new surge-supressing diodes (look for them in DigiKey's catalog) which do eventually wear out. Some surge supressor units have LEDs on them that show when the MOV's have worn out. (When MOVs begin to wear out, they will start having a leakage current which is used to make the LED light up).
.bh.

 

[kursplat]

i was wondering about some of this too. i've always heard "clamping voltage" (if the things going to let 600v through before it does anything , what good is it) was important too. did some lookin and found this to be a possibly scary site.
i'm suggesting AnandTech do a story on surge protectors and try to find out just what risks were subjecting our rigs to.
good luck