Vote YES for power protection!

[ObiTrentKenobi]

Originally Posted by Automission

Before we all rush out to buy surge protectors, can I ask how many of you have actually had your stuff ruined by a power surge? I imagine the numbers are really quite small.

I've had a 37" Sony Trinitron blown out from a surge, 1 linksys modem, 1 netgear router, and a BFG PC power supply... so yeah, the protection is worth the money on your home theater...

from 2 different occasions by the way...

[ifuwereahotdog]

Originally Posted by solarrdadd

Howdy, I am a licensed Master Electrician and I will tell you that sags & surges are real and they are a real threat to your electronic equipment. I paid good money, like the rest of you I'm sure for my Home Theatre gear. I know that it needs to be protected. I have three forms of protection for my equipment, 1) I installed a dedicated 20amp 120volt circuit for my stuff with #12awg from the breaker panel. 2) I have an APC 1500VA UPS with AVR plugged into that. 3) I have an APC Surge Suppression plug strip plugged into the UPS and all of my equipment goes into the strip. Now the strip might be viewed as overkill but no, there are not enough receptacles in my UPS so i use the strip for power distribution. i also have my cable and Dish network boxes coax going through it as well as my ethernet that goes to a hub for my network enabled components. I can't tell you how many times people have had either a lightning strike, surge or sage that have lasted more than 3 seconds destroy their equipment. You spend so much money on these things and get CHEAP little plug strips. most of the time this is due to ignorance in the belief that this is enough, well, IT'S NOT! All of my equipment is well protected with all three forms mentioned. I had a good friend who lost a plasma and a blu-ray player both connected with a $15 plug strip called a Surge Protector. Spending a couple of Hundred dollars on REAL protection will not only protect your equipment from electrical faults from both nature and the power utility it will also extend the life of your equipment by giving it good clean power. Trust me on this, I'm a professional and this is almost 30 years talking to you!

Great thread! But even though you have the AVR feature on your APC UPS, doesn't that feature only "kick on" for sags lower than 90 volts and spikes above 140 volts? Unless I guess you have a higher end one. If you are worried about sags and spikes, a power conditioner would probably be a good fit (in conjunction with the battery backup). Without it, you could technically still be getting "dirty power" (90V to 140V) to your electronics. Correct?

[Automission]

So power surges are more common place in the US then? Doubt I'l be rushing out to buy one. Also, a brown out sounds like something you'd do yourself after your Home Theatre blew!

[BLUTRIG]

I use a MONSTER POWER HTS 3500,I live in west los angeles and we have power surges,white out,brown out and blackout,all the time,no problem and it has good clean power.I hope that a good unit Iam running my high end A/V and bluray player thur it.So is the MONGTER POWER HTS 3500 good to run my high end thur it https://forum.blu-ray.com/images/icons/icon5.gif

[S7even]

I used to live in Nigeria and the power went off 10 times at least a day. I had 5 x UPS protecting all my stuff (TV, DVD player, PS3, Computer etc), it used to buy me the time to power down the equipment properly. Friends living around me who never invested in UPS often used to lose the odd laptop, computer or TV. I sold them when I left as the last time I had a power outage in my house in England was in 1981!

I would agree that if you live in areas where you are going to get outage this is an essential piece of kit, but for the majority of us Europeans it is not an necessary purchase. I would also like to add at this point that if we were to lose equipment in such a manner, most insurance companies would pay up immediatly.

[ixlegitballinxl]

i'd rather spend the $$$ on a power conditioner then make an insurance claim such as this LOL

just my opinion though

[crazyBLUE]

I think its better to be safe & cover all my equipment then to be sorry & wish I had !! Spending A few hundred on protection is better than replacing thousands of $$$$$ of equipment !!!

[paulyg]

I have a lower end Monster surge protector. I was thinking of up gradeing to one that has a power conditioner built in. Is it true that you will get better PQ from it?

[lobo81865]

I use this Belkin suppressor, and it protects up to 4,720 Joules. It's worked fine, but I've never had any surge problems in the past. Better to be safe than sorry though I guess.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F9A1033...8335877&sr=8-2

[Carlsberg19]

Iv'e had power surges and sags for years and has never done any damage to any of my systems, i still use surge protection but i hear all this talk off the damage lightning can cause to ure equipment, maybe i have just been lucky for the whole 10 years i have had no surge protection

[4Dblu]

being that my house is old i hav old and some new wires. but on my surround systems i had install new wires straight from the circuit breaker box and system has surge protection all over $100's. NOT those cheap strips.

people kill me they spend ALL this money on equipment and go REAL cheap on power protection and speaker wires. i jus laugh at them and wonder y would u spend jus spend $2500. and then spend $2.99 on a power stripe & $8.99 or speaker wire. oh, well.

[Big Daddy]

The Richard Gray's Power Company has power guards for the whole house. Their newest RGPC HouseGuard ($2,195) can handle a 130,000 amp surge.

Another good choice is RGPC PowerHouse. These are the specifications:

• All-in-one power product designed and engineered to satisfy the current demands of larger home theaters, home automation and whole house systems.
• Can handle up to 6,200 Watts of continuous power.
• First RGPC product to combine our patented Parallel technology with our audiophile-grade isolation transformers to provide a true IsoGray Delivery System in one gorgeous box.
• Combines a 7 kilowatt isolation transformer (equivalent to three RGPC SubStations and a dual-choke RGPC 1200 Custom) in one rack mountable chassis.
• 21 commercial-grade, 20-amp Hubbell outlets provide RGPC's patented Parallel technology for powering a rack full of components.
• Eliminates the need for multiple circuits in order to power a complete rack (or RACKS!) of equipment.
• Wired for 240-volt operation to provide completely isolated AC power and total rejection of power surges.
• Requires 7 rack spaces; can be easily mounted in the bottom of a custom installation rack using its internal rack mount ears.
• Front panel features 50-amp analog amp meter.
• Available in black or silver.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by Automission

So power surges are more common place in the US then? Doubt I'l be rushing out to buy one. Also, a brown out sounds like something you'd do yourself after your Home Theatre blew!

Yeah, we don't really get them in the UK...

[Carlsberg19]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

The Richard Gray's Power Company has power guards for the whole house. Their newest RGPC HouseGuard ($2,195) can handle a 130,000 amp surge.

Another good choice is RGPC PowerHouse. These are the specifications:

• All-in-one power product designed and engineered to satisfy the current demands of larger home theaters, home automation and whole house systems.
• Can handle up to 6,200 Watts of continuous power.
• First RGPC product to combine our patented Parallel technology with our audiophile-grade isolation transformers to provide a true IsoGray Delivery System in one gorgeous box.
• Combines a 7 kilowatt isolation transformer (equivalent to three RGPC SubStations and a dual-choke RGPC 1200 Custom) in one rack mountable chassis.
• 21 commercial-grade, 20-amp Hubbell outlets provide RGPC's patented Parallel technology for powering a rack full of components.
• Eliminates the need for multiple circuits in order to power a complete rack (or RACKS!) of equipment.
• Wired for 240-volt operation to provide completely isolated AC power and total rejection of power surges.
• Requires 7 rack spaces; can be easily mounted in the bottom of a custom installation rack using its internal rack mount ears.
• Front panel features 50-amp analog amp meter.
• Available in black or silver.

2 and a half grand! not a chance

[tlinnert]

I have an APC 15 and when I just got home the APC had its "line trimming" light lit up. There was no electricity on in the house but for some reason it still had to trim the line. Is that normal? Also, the display on the APC flickers or dims at times which is unsettling. Any ideas?

[Zman2k2]

Can someone answer something for me. When I bought my TV, I had to run around to two stores. So for my trouble, they threw in a surge protector that was priced at $250. This is the model of suppressor I received. Is this decent for HT use? Or should I consider a different type of unit?

[aramis109]

It's a good surge protector. It's good against surges- lightning strikes and the like. It's not going to help with dips in the power, however. I'm not going to go into that as it's already been discussed, but if you want power regulation, you'll have to go a different route. It does have some noise filtering though, which is nice for HT.

On that note, I just got my APC HT10 unit hooked up. It's quite nice. It's a very heavy and solid unit. While I didn't notice any difference in audio or video (and didn't expect to) I bought it to protect against old wiring and our harsh winters which occasionally snap power around here. I'm very happy with the purchase, although it's possible I'll never have need for such a device.

[Zman2k2]

Thanks aramis, good for a little peace of mind. I may consider moving to an APC unit someday, but for now, I have decent protection against damaging surges.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by tlinnert

I have an APC 15 and when I just got home the APC had its "line trimming" light lit up. There was no electricity on in the house but for some reason it still had to trim the line. Is that normal? Also, the display on the APC flickers or dims at times which is unsettling. Any ideas?

My HT10 has never dimmed or flickered. According to the manual, the line trim means there's too much juice coming in- "high incoming line voltage". You may want to try it on a different outlet and see if it still shows. If it does, I'd call APC. If it doesn't, I'd have that outlet looked at by an electrician.

I actually had a question on the HT10 vs. the HT15. I guess the two main differences are the LCD display (which I don't care about) and the HT15 has a resettable circuit breaker (which I do). Should I return the HT10 and get the HT15 for $50 more + return shipping, or should I just be happy with what I have? How hard is it to replace the fuse on this thing?

*edit* Panic mode over nothing. The thing has a resettable circuit breaker on it that wasn't listed on the product page. I'm good.

[derelicte]

Originally Posted by aramis109

On that note, I just got my APC HT10 unit hooked up. It's quite nice. It's a very heavy and solid unit. While I didn't notice any difference in audio or video (and didn't expect to) I bought it to protect against old wiring and our harsh winters which occasionally snap power around here. I'm very happy with the purchase, although it's possible I'll never have need for such a device.

Cheers to that. I recently bought the same unit for (what I think is) a decent price - CAN$179. A part of me was secretly hoping for slightly better sound or a little better picture - but no dice. Oh well, the peace of mind is worth the investment (though I wish they had the black model in stock to match the rest of my gear).