Just Curious About Surge Protection

[BobbyDing]

Hi Folks,
A couple of questions....

I have 1 HD200 connected to a SageTV server over wired Ethernet. Works Great. Recently we had a lightning strike nearby. Blew out several on-board NIC's in my PC's, as well as the cable modem. The HD200 and my router came through unscathed (whew!!). The HD200 has always been plugged in to a UPS (Florida, ya know), but after this last hit I decided to install some surge protection on the Ethernet as well. I installed several APC PNET1GB Ethernet Surge protectors and grounded them well. My question is, does anybody else use these, or have any experience with these? Or heard any good or bad things about them?

I did try installing a USB wireless Ethernet stick on to the HD200 first (Encore brand, purchased from Sage), but the best signal I could get was 81% and the HiDef stuff would stutter and freeze (Router is a WRT54G-TM made by Link-Sys). The router and HD200 are only about 15 feet from each other, but there are two metal studded walls between them, as well as the TV itself. I will be trying an extension cable for the USB wireless in a couple weeks to try bringing it over the TV (height is might). Would the long USB extention hurt the wireless response of the HD200?

Thanks!!

Bobby

[jdamore]

Surges can come in from any cable.. power, telephone, coax.

In order to have proper surge protection EVERYTHING must go through some sort of protection. I have a Monster HTS-5100 that both cable (modem) and power go through and I have Monster PowerBar for my HD200 in the bedroom. As for close lightning, I dont think anything cheap could save you. I highly doubt that little MOV in a surge protector is going to protect you from 1.21 gigawatts!

I have a UPS in my HT so my server never dies but I need one for my HD200. Whenever my power goes out and back on, the HD200 powers ON! Annoying (im using a PC monitor that powers on when it gets a video signal)!!

BTW- Im not saying Monster is good so buy it. Actually, Monster is the biggest rip off ever!! Don't buy it haha! I actually got a 75% discount off retail so it was worth it..

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by jdamore

BTW- Im not saying Monster is good so buy it. Actually, Monster is the biggest rip off ever!! Don't buy it haha! I actually got a 75% discount off retail so it was worth it..

You saved yourself a little I was about to say the store saw you coming

Get yourself a good ups/battery backup that is the better bet.

[hemicuda]

Not a year after we moved in where I live now we had a bad storm come through and it killed the board on the dishwasher. After that I bought one of those 6 outlet surge strips and spliced it into that circuit. I put plug-in boxes on all the expensive electronics shortly after that.

We had a hit in the division a couple weeks ago. Lost 4 multi-outlet plug-in surge devices, the minisplit A/C unit downstairs, and the wife's $100 walmart TV. Luckily the TV was just a blown fuse. It also tripped the GFI outlet on the booster pump.

Both MOV's on the minisplit exploded and it vaporized a resistor on the power supply. The tripp-lite suppressor on the microwave had wrapped MOV's but it still failed spectacularly. The Belkin on the bedroom AV equipment failed badly enough that it tripped the breaker again when I tried to reset it. The boxes for the fridge and washer failed a few hours later.

Best I can tell it came in on 1 leg since every other circuit in the panel had a damaged surge device. Funny thing is, the microwave box blew first, then the bedroom a bit later. Must have been multiple hits. Other houses in the area had varying degrees of electrical issues.

I've replaced all those boxes and added a few more. Also, I bought a surge breaker (Square D makes QO and Homeline models) for the main panel and am thinking about a meter base surge device for 1st level, whole house protection.


WOOT!!! my 1000th post!!

[MitchSchaft]

When I used to live in apartments, they would cut the power multiple times a week without notice. I had some electronics blow out. On my receiver, every time a channel is changed, I get a loud boom out of the subwoofer port. So now I have to unplug the sub from my receiver until I want to watch a movie.

Now I have a UPS on all major components. I'm a fan of Cyberpower's stuff, too. You can't really tell when surge protectors are blown out and useless. Some have a light indicator, some don't.

[hemicuda]

All mine have indicators. Whether or not they work correctly remains to be "seen."

[graywolf]

So that is what Square D does. Pass a Square D building (plant?) many times a week. Just never knew what they did/made.

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

Both MOV's on the minisplit exploded and it vaporized a resistor on the power supply. The tripp-lite suppressor on the microwave had wrapped MOV's ...

The nice thing about the whole house surge systems, is the are gas discharge based, so while they are slower to kick in, once they do, they can handle a WHOLE lot more energy. One might have saved all those protectors, though depending on how close the hit is, they might all fail.

(Yes, I've seen a direct hit, and it killed everything in the house, including things that had a external switch that was off, and was just a motor! Also blew a lot of the plumbing in the walls!)

[BobbyDing]

I know that nothing will stop a direct lightning hit, no matter how much protection there is. I'm hoping that the surge protectors I installed (first post above) might absorb the smaller surges from brown-outs and nearby lightning hits (fingers crossed). I also installed gas discharge surge suppressors on all the incoming antenna lines (well grounded outside). What I can see is that there comes a point where the cost of all the protection devices exceed the cost of the entire SageTV system. Which is why I have an identical SageTV server sitting in the wings with tuner cards installed. Ready to drop in if/when the first gets hit. Unfortunately I only have the one HD200, and from what I read here it will be a while before I can get a spare of that.

Bobby