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Should i get a surge protector?

It is if you get a lot of brown/black outs and t-storms that can potentially kill your electronics in seconds. You can also unplug all your electronics if you're fast about it. kek
 
Cheap surge protectors are nothing more than MOV's and if you open your electronic devices you will find they already have this protection built in. I'd recommend a better LC (hash) +MOV protector with a rating of at least 1kJ for best "additional" protection even if entry level.
 
Originally posted by: Muadib
What's your take on those that offer a equipment warranty, Rubycon? Like this one???
Click to expand...

Has anyone ever filed a claim? Some devices offer hundreds of thousands of dollars of "protection". I cannot imagine what they are plugging in that costs that much that plugs into an ordinary outlet. 😉

I'd recommend a strip with a metal (steel or aluminum) chassis and actual sockets like you have mounted in junction boxes in your walls. The molded solutions provide higher resistance especially with loads >6A continuous. Never mind the surge protection! 😉

It would look like this one:

example
 
Originally posted by: Muadib
What's your take on those that offer a equipment warranty, Rubycon? Like this one???
Click to expand...

It's actually very difficult to get the company to actually pay out on a claim as they will find any minuscule detail to weasel out of it. My advice is to get any good surge protector and renter's or home owner's insurance with replacement cost. The insurance costs between 100$-200$ depending on how much you have per year and if you have a good insurance company, they are easy to deal with when it comes time to file an unfortunate claim of damages.

Rubycon, do you have any examples of good entry level surge protectors that have the LC + MOV protector? I bought a Monster Power PC 2000 a while ago for 45$, but I wasn't sure where you could check the exact technology they use for surge suppression since all they offer is marketing fluff...

 
If it says noise reduction or specifies how much RF rejection it has in the specification then it has LC filtering.
 
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Originally posted by: Muadib
What's your take on those that offer a equipment warranty, Rubycon? Like this one???
Click to expand...

It's actually very difficult to get the company to actually pay out on a claim as they will find any minuscule detail to weasel out of it. My advice is to get any good surge protector and renter's or home owner's insurance with replacement cost. The insurance costs between 100$-200$ depending on how much you have per year and if you have a good insurance company, they are easy to deal with when it comes time to file an unfortunate claim of damages.

Rubycon, do you have any examples of good entry level surge protectors that have the LC + MOV protector? I bought a Monster Power PC 2000 a while ago for 45$, but I wasn't sure where you could check the exact technology they use for surge suppression since all they offer is marketing fluff...
Click to expand...

Do you speak from experience on filing a claim? I don't know anyone who has myself, but after seeing the hell both my mom & sister have been going through with getting their home owners insurance to payout on storm damage, I don't think that's the way to go either.

It's pretty easy to tell if a surge protector has failed. If Staples did try to weasel out of paying, I'd just put a call into one of the tv news help me lines. All of the news stations around here would be all over a story like this. I'm sure Staples would be more forthcoming, just to avoid a media nightmare.
 
Originally posted by: Muadib
Originally posted by: Tiamat
Originally posted by: Muadib
What's your take on those that offer a equipment warranty, Rubycon? Like this one???
Click to expand...

It's actually very difficult to get the company to actually pay out on a claim as they will find any minuscule detail to weasel out of it. My advice is to get any good surge protector and renter's or home owner's insurance with replacement cost. The insurance costs between 100$-200$ depending on how much you have per year and if you have a good insurance company, they are easy to deal with when it comes time to file an unfortunate claim of damages.

Rubycon, do you have any examples of good entry level surge protectors that have the LC + MOV protector? I bought a Monster Power PC 2000 a while ago for 45$, but I wasn't sure where you could check the exact technology they use for surge suppression since all they offer is marketing fluff...
Click to expand...

Do you speak from experience on filing a claim? I don't know anyone who has myself, but after seeing the hell both my mom & sister have been going through with getting their home owners insurance to payout on storm damage, I don't think that's the way to go either.

It's pretty easy to tell if a surge protector has failed. If Staples did try to weasel out of paying, I'd just put a call into one of the tv news help me lines. All of the news stations around here would be all over a story like this. I'm sure Staples would be more forthcoming, just to avoid a media nightmare.
Click to expand...

One of my friends had trouble with the Monster Power claim. Storm is always a tough one because there are exclusions within the specific insurance plan that you have to take into account. This differs from plan to plan. I spent a good few hours with my insurance company fashioning a plan that had very few exclusions, replacement cost, and reasonable deductibles.

His story was similar to this.
 
There are many variables involved. First and foremost - a surge protector is NOT designed to protect against direct lightning strikes! You MUST install a lightning arrestor at the service entrance. Second, the wiring MUST be compliant to regulations (sometimes called code or NEC) and this wiring must be in working order. Loose grounds, for example, cannot afford proper protection against hits.

Also what must be taken into consideration is secondary points of entry that would not even seem plausible. For example a direct hit to a building on a slab with rebar can actually light up the floor and allow arcing to anything touching the floor or wires placed along the floor. Your receiver could be unplugged and still suffer amp damage when the speaker wires get lit up with a few kV. The output transistors/IC power packs won't like that very much. 😉

Only a qualified inspector can make such an assessment that a (rare) incident like that has happened.
 
Originally posted by: Rubycon
There are many variables involved. First and foremost - a surge protector is NOT designed to protect against direct lightning strikes! You MUST install a lightning arrestor at the service entrance. Second, the wiring MUST be compliant to regulations (sometimes called code or NEC) and this wiring must be in working order. Loose grounds, for example, cannot afford proper protection against hits.

Also what must be taken into consideration is secondary points of entry that would not even seem plausible. For example a direct hit to a building on a slab with rebar can actually light up the floor and allow arcing to anything touching the floor or wires placed along the floor. Your receiver could be unplugged and still suffer amp damage when the speaker wires get lit up with a few kV. The output transistors/IC power packs won't like that very much. 😉

Only a qualified inspector can make such an assessment that a (rare) incident like that has happened.
Click to expand...

Of course, these situations are not explained to the layman who is buying the product and told that their equipment is insured against damage. Only probing questions to the insurance brings these facts up. Not many people do this unfortunately.
 
You should be able to get a rider on a policy that includes "acts of god" including damage from lightning strikes. They will provide compensation minus your deductible for damages. This should be much faster than waiting for repair estimates. Usually when things are fried it's a total loss unless damage is very minor like ESD type damage. But if the equipment releases the magic smoke it's probably totaled.
 
i got a belkin one with ~3700 joules of protection. It was $20. I couldnt afford the $50 clean power monster one or whatever, hope i made an ok decision.
 
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