Need surge protectors for individual equipment

beelzerob

Senior Member
The power supply on my main PC died the other night...and there's at least some possibility a power surge may have contributed to it (wife says the monitors upstairs flickered...though the lights didn't seem to). Power has definitely been sketchy where we're living...part of that rural charm, I guess.

I have a whole house surge suppressor (it's attached to the side of the power panel)...but I'm thinking I need some more protection.

I have a rack of equipment that all feed off of an outlet strip in the rack....so maybe a single surge suppressor there, that the outlet strip plugs into, to protect everything there?

Does anyone have any recommendations of a brand, or specific product, that they know will give good protection? Or if they are pretty much all the same, are there particular capabilities or protections I should make sure it's capable of?

Thanks!
 
Not sure what your budget is but take a look at Zero Surge. They aren't cheap but but they are a different class of surge protection...No MOVs which fail over time and turn your surge protector into nothing more than a power strip. Basically look for protectors with an A-1-1 rating. Other good ones off the top of my head are: SurgeX and Lowell Mfg.

Some good information here.

This is just my take, I expect you'll get opinions all over the place with this one.

Edit:

One more thought, if you do go with one with MOV's look for ones that "Protect or Disconnect".
 
So far, the surge protectors I've been able to find don't indicate if they're MOV or what rating they have or "protect or disconnect"....which would lead me to guess that if they don't mention any of those things, they're probably at the lower end of protection.

I'm looking to protect 3 basic areas of the house (media room, upstairs PC's, and wiring room), so price is a concern.

Well, I appreciate Opie responding....good info...but I'm surprised there's not more input from the cocooner's here. I'd think surge protectors would be pretty common an item in the HA world.
 
but I'm surprised there's not more input from the cocooner's here. I'd think surge protectors would be pretty common an item in the HA world.
Surge protection is a big mystery with a lot of smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately, the only way an individual knows if their setup is working is when it fails. And then they don't know if their plan B product might have worked any better for that surge/spike/issue. I use a mix whole house devices on each panel and surge strips & UPSes. I don't know if my stuff is "working" or if I have been lucky, so I hesitate to endorse anything.
 
I have some surge outlets I will be installing from Leviton. One for each of my can's. They have an indicator light that show's it is "good" as well as an audible alert if it is failed. Once they have failed, you have to replace them...

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctD...;minisite=10028

They look like the far right handed picture in the link above. I don't know if their any better or worse than any other, but I used them in my last house with no problem.
 
Thanks Monk! I like the idea of those a lot...one thing I didn't want was yet another power strip hanging somewhere. All 3 of the locations I want to replace have a double gang outlet box, so I can just get one of the 4-outlet ones.

I'm leary of the idea of having to replace it...that could get expensive quick...but I guess the theory is that whatever would have "spent" the outlet probably would have spent what was plugged into it too, and presumably would kill most other surge protectors too....

I have no idea looking from the specs how they compare to other surge supressors....

Performance Data
MCOV: 150V rms
Joules Rating: 720
Max Surge Current L-N: 24kA
Noise Rejection: -30dB at 500kHz-30MHz
UL1449 Impulse 6kV/500A L-N: 400V
Diagnostics: Indicator Light & Audible Alarm
 
I'm leary of the idea of having to replace it...that could get expensive quick...but I guess the theory is that whatever would have "spent" the outlet probably would have spent what was plugged into it too, and presumably would kill most other surge protectors too....
Agreed.
I had them installed for approx 5 years without an issue - YMMV of course - I also like the idea of the "audible" alert when failed.
 
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