Does anyone know about surge protectors?

[Food Lady]

Are they really necessary? Are they necessary outside a grounded extension cord or strip? I actually have a strip that says it is a surge supressor. I noticed newer ones have lights that indicate they are working (red light for protected and green for grounded). This strip I have is older and has no lights, so how do I even know it's still good? (The ones I looked at said if the light goes out, replace it.) I have a bunch of electronic stuff in the entertainment center and a TV in the bedroom I'd rather not lose. I also have to keep the tablet plugged in while in use, so I was thinking of getting one for that, too, or just not use it during a storm.

Here's my real question: should I bother? It's $30-$60 out of my tight budget. I know if there's a direct lightning strike to a power line or the building, there's nothing I can do anyway. It will fry what it will fry.

[KhirasHY]

In my experience, the higher the dollar amount of the device that's connected to the electricity, the more I want it connected to a surge protector. While a lightning bolt hitting your house may still short out some/all of your running electronics, more minor surges seem to be less likely to cause problems in my experience (ie, I had a crappy TV plugged into a wall outlet during a storm, and my computer via surge protector plugged into an outlet 5 feet away. Power surge hit, crappy TV died, computer was OK and I turned it off at that point just in case).

There are some that are plenty affordable and good, so don't fall for the "monster cable" type thing where they sell you an overpriced brand that does nothing different in the long run. A decent one should run around $30 or so.

As far as being able to tell if an older protector is still good, I'm no help there. Sowwy

[csquared]

I will second what KhirasHY said. One more point, you have to protect ALL your connections. If you had the TV on a surge protector, the power could have come through the antenna/cable TV connection and fried the set. Some surge protectors come with connections for your TV cable and network cables.

A good surge protector will come with an insurance policy for the item being protected. They will put their money where their mouth is. Read the Terms & Conditions carefully. We all know how insurance companies like to find way to not pay.

As for the old surge protectors, there is really nothing to fail in them from the "surge protection" standpoint. When they fail, you no longer get power out of them.

[lordlundar]

To understand the necessity of Surge protectors, you have to understand how electricity flows through the cabling. This is going to get a little long so bear with me.

Electricity doesn't flow like a stream where it's steady and constant. Instead it works similar to an oven. In an oven the temp rises and lowers as it heats and cools and the average is the recorded temperature. Electricity is much the same way but not nearly so steady. It will rise above and below in a certain range when power is steady. It's when it goes out of that range that there's a problem as the internal filters on most devices have an upper limit in which they can handle. Beyond that and it just can't stop it all from getting through. When you have devices that operate at voltage ratings from 1.5 to 12V, a surge of 120+V will effectively ruin it. Even if it's simply beyond what the internal filter can handle it still shortens the lifespan of a device drastically. Even more dangerous are spikes that most commonly occur during a blackout. When a blackout occurs and the power is brought back on, the electricity will often spike well out of the safe range and though it's usually extremely short (a nanosecond or two) it can do some severe damage, especially on older systems.

Surge protectors function the same as a circuit breaker or fuse in a house. When the electricity gets too high the breaker trips. Most modern units have the breaker as part of the power switch so as long as it's getting power it still works. Older ones with separate reset switches are harder to test. The better ones can even equalize it so it's a steady, constant flow but those tend to be really expensive and usually not necessary for most home use.

Stepping up from surge protectors are UPS units or Uninterrupted Power Supply Units. These are essentially back up batteries. When the power coming in is below a certain level the UPS uses it's internal battery to ensure a safe shutdown of devices. These also tend to have the best filtering short of a power equalizer because the battery system serves as the filter. Incoming power goes to the battery and the battery outputs the power in a much more controlled scenario. They're much more resilient and function in an ablative armor fashion where a spike is most likely to blow out the UPS before it can get to anything plugged into it. These tend to be fairly expensive though, usually starting at $100 so you need to really consider if one of those is worth it.

If you're uncertain it is a good idea to replace it for a decent modern unit when you can. Though the large spikes will dramatically fry stuff, the surges that could be protected by a surge protector tend to on average be the leading cause of component failure.

[wolfie]

As for the old surge protectors, there is really nothing to fail in them from the "surge protection" standpoint. When they fail, you no longer get power out of them.

Actually, the surge protection capability on those CAN fail while still leaving it as a working powerbar.

These old, "no-indicator" surge protectors use the cheapest form of suppression device, metal-oxide varistors (MOVs). They act as an open circuit until a specific voltage (usually in the neighbourhood of 170-180 volts) is developed across them, at which point they will start to conduct. They have a rating in joules (amount of energy) that they can absorb, and if the surge is bigger than this, they will burn out and fail "open" (i.e. behave as if they were never there in the first place). Also, a series of small (each below their rating) surges can "wear them out", with the same results.

The cheapest ones will have one MOV from hot to ground, slightly better ones will have 3 (hot to ground, hot to neutral, and neutral to ground) so they can protect against "common mode" surges as well (surges that hit both the hot and neutral lines).

Good surge suppressors will have multiple types of protection. MOVs react fast, but have limited capacity. Other types of device can handle a bigger surge, but don't react as fast (wouldn't protect the equipment on their own due to not responding fast enough, but will "take over" from a MOV before the MOV has handled enough energy to burn it out). The best will also include some form of SCR "crowbar" circuit, which will short hot to neutral if the surge looks like it's going to be big enough to overwhelm the dissipation-type protective elements, tripping the breaker and cutting off power until it's manually reset.

[TheSHAD0W]

I strongly recommend surge suppressors all around the house; among other things, it helps split up the load of dissipation, which keeps them from burning out. I also recommend having a backup power supply for your most expensive equipment, which includes both computers and other electronics. On top of that, I always have my backup power supplies plugged into surge suppressors! Yes, UPSes have their own built-in surge protection, but when they fail they tend to burn out, leaving the UPS unable to connect back to AC. Goodbye expensive UPS...

[Food Lady]

Thanks, y'all. I can't afford $30 for each room right now, but I can keep the cheaper ones I bought. I think it's a good idea to have them rather than nothing. I'm guessing the old one works, but since I'm not sure, I'd rather risk the smaller TV on it. Another idea is to hook bedroom TV up to the outlet connected to the lightswitch. When I'm not home the power will be cut off , and I won't have to think about unplugging it before I leave.

[Chromatix]

A very important caveat for anyone reading this thread:

Not everything that might be called a "surge protector" actually is one.

I've noticed recently that people have got into the habit of using that term for any device that has a plug on one end and a bunch of sockets on the other. Often, what they're talking about is actually the entirely dumb device more properly known as a "power bar" or "distribution board" (depending on where you live). It is absolutely crucial that you understand what you actually have.

For that reason, I recommend that you assume that any such device that does not have a health light on it is just a "power bar" conferring zero surge-suppression capability whatsoever.

[Ironclad Alibi]

For that reason, I recommend that you assume that any such device that does not have a health light on it is just a "power bar" conferring zero surge-suppression capability whatsoever.

Be sure to read the label on it. That light might only be a power on indicator.

[lordlundar]

For that reason, I recommend that you assume that any such device that does not have a health light on it is just a "power bar" conferring zero surge-suppression capability whatsoever.

Best way to be sure is to look for a reset switch. It will be either standalone marked "press to reset" or similar or part of the power switch with it labelled as "off" and "reset". If it has either of those, you have a surge protection power bar. If not (and it has no fuse container) then it's a basic power bar.

[Food Lady]

My old bar has that off/reset switch, but I have no idea if it's still useful.

[ComputerNecromancer]

As for the old surge protectors, there is really nothing to fail in them from the "surge protection" standpoint. When they fail, you no longer get power out of them.

Not necessarily. The MOVs (the part part that actually does the surge suppressing) *normally* fail as a dead short between the current carrying wires and the ground. Which will blow the fuse or pop the circuit breaker (on the strip if it's properly designed).

But they can also fail "open" (usually from age). In which case you no longer have any protection.

Best bet? If the strip is more than 5-10 years old and *doesn't* have the indicator lights, replace it with one that does.

[lordlundar]

My old bar has that off/reset switch, but I have no idea if it's still useful.

Unless you're prone to blackouts/heavy storm activity it should serve fine until you can scrape enough money to get a new one.

[Der Cute]

This one:
http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-TLP...ef=cm_cmu_pg_t

The angle plug will be flat against the wall, you have 6 outlets, and they're on 2 different sides. This way if you have to plug a brick in, you don't lose too many outlets. Taht's why I hate single power strip things. The [ x x x x ] I hate.

A good surge protector will have the surge come in, too high voltage and snap! All power out at that point before it gets to your electronics. This does the job.
Oh fyi if you ever do have a power surge/huge zap hit this, REPLACE IMMEDIATELY.
You also need to figure out "How far away from my electronics can this be?" Measure backwards, from the back end of the electronics/where they plug into the surge protector. Then from the protector, find the closest outlet. You may need a 6' or 10' cord for your unit.
Reason I say measure from the equipment is that those damn things have finite cord sizes and they're all a bitch to replace. Keep the unit close enough to not put strain on the electronic's cords (aka wiggle themselves out).
You might lose a wall outlet for this, but I think it's worth it.

Please do not daisy chain. Means one power strip plugged into a wall. Then another power strip plugged into the first one. 3rd strip plugged into 2nd strip. You risk fire and surges and strangulation by techs if you do that.

[Food Lady]

We have several big storms every summer: deadly lightning, tornadoes, and all that jazz.