surge protectors

Hi,

I was going to buy a couple of surge protectors before I came down this January but waited too long, and now they can't be delivered before I depart. Please, what are my options at Lakeside?

Canada Mike

Many options from Walmart to local hardware and electrical stores.

Local is fine.

Thx

Steren store, across the road from Walmart. BTW, they cost less down here!

I'm not sure how effective those consumer grade surge protectors are anyhow. If you really want protection you need voltage regulators.

You need both CB. A surge protector stops spikes while a voltage regulator adjusts voltage. Some voltage regulators have some surge protection built into them but many don't or have too small amount of protection. You measure the ability to suppress surges by the term Joules. Anything less than five hundred is junk. I just looked at the manuals for two of my voltage regulators and they are both under 100 joules rating for surge protection thus pretty useless. Your mileage may vary if you buy better equipment. I would buy a surge protector and plug into valid grounded three prong outlet than plug voltage regulator into surge protector.  Your cable, sat, or phone cables can be plugged into many surge protectors that have this feature and protect from surges also.

Z

And of course the other problem is many houses don't even have grounded circuits. I had my dryer on a consumer grade surge protector and it was blowing motherboards. The electrician told me it was useless and to get a voltage regulator. I put it on a voltage regulator (which probably has built in surge) and no more problems.

You nailed that one CB. Folks don't assume when you see three prong sockets in a wall that the ground is even hooked up. No valid ground no protection. Many surge protectors have a light on them to indicate a valid ground. Another problem is MOV based surge protector will still work as a power strip after a hit that destroys the MOVs and you can't tell thus good surge protectors have a protection light which means most of the time that your MOVs are OK. Actually for us in Ajijic the AC is pretty good and high surges above 140V are rare. Dropped phases or low voltage phases are more common so half your house may work and the other half won't or the lights will be dim.

Z

Best to get UPS units up north, I have had people bring me down the larger 2 battery units with digital read outs, computers can keep going for over an hour with the power out. Plenty of time to keep working.

Zedinmexico wrote:You nailed that one CB. Folks don't assume when you see three prong sockets in a wall that the ground is even hooked up. No valid ground no protection. Many surge protectors have a light on them to indicate a valid ground.  Another problem is MOV based surge protector will still work as a power strip after a hit that destroys the MOVs and you can't tell thus good surge protectors have a protection light which means most of the time that your MOVs are OK. Actually for us in Ajijic the AC is pretty good and high surges above 140V are rare. Dropped phases or low voltage phases are more common so half your house may work and the other half won't or the lights will be dim.

Z

Check the ground with a tester as shown above...

I second a UPS.   I bought one at Walmart and another at Office Depot. Expensive but have an isolation transformer inside

Isn't a UPS simply a voltage regulator with a battery back-up?

What's "UPS"? A brand name?

It stands for uninterrupted power supply. IMO, only really necessary for computer and server applications for those that can't have them go down during a power failure.

Thx. I belive I can survive without my computer for a black out.

So it sounds like I'll be all right with a decent surge protector bar provided I check my grounding, eh?

I guess so as long as they protect for at least 500 joules like Zed pointed out above. Personally I don't use them for anything other than my temperamental Frigidaire dryer and like I was saying the "surge protectors" didn't protect it. I had to get a proper voltage regulator as the problems seem to be a constantly fluctuating voltage which the surge protector didn't help with.

A voltage regulator can be as simple as a big transistor looking thing

An isolation transformer is two separate coils of wire truly isolated

This is what I use. It is specifically for large appliances (washers, dryers, refrigerators, microwaves etc.). It comes with a 5 year protection guarantee.

http://www.homedepot.com.mx/comprar/es/torres/regulador-para-refrigeracion-2500-va

so those strip plugs with a red light that walmart have are not worth sweet f.a. ?

Canada_Mike wrote:Thx. I belive I can survive without my computer for a black out.

So it sounds like I'll be all right with a decent surge protector bar provided I check my grounding, eh?

You'll be better off with a good voltage regulator that includes surge protection. We have more occurrences of high and low voltage than surges, which occur primarily during the rainy season.

CB's is very similar to the ones I was intending to bring down. Does Home Depot deliver?

UPS is really a surge protector and battery backup. It doesn't regulate voltage

hickton wrote:so those strip plugs with a red light that walmart have are not worth sweet f.a. ?

They are good for allowing more things to be plugged into the same outlet.......

Here is what I have been buying to protect my equipment from surges and fluctuations

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBK3QK?ie=UTF8&ref_=de_a_smtd&showDetailTechData=1#technical-data