Surge protectors wear out!

[simmerskool]

Content source

https://www.reviewgeek.com/123840/why-you-should-replace-old-surge-protectors/

surge protector joule rating is cummulative and they wear out and need to be replaced! I did not know that.

Why You Should Replace Old Surge Protectors

Your old surge protectors aren't offering protection anymore.

www.reviewgeek.com

 

[Jonny Quest]

Thanks for posting the thread. I didn't know that, either. I have about 3-4 of those around the house for the "lesser" things like lights and clocks, fish tanks, etc, and the better UPS battery back-up units for the PCs, Modem, monitors, home theater etc type of devices.

 

[cartaphilus]

surge protector joule rating is cummulative and they wear out and need to be replaced! I did not know that.

Why You Should Replace Old Surge Protectors

Your old surge protectors aren't offering protection anymore.

www.reviewgeek.com

That's why all of my expensive equipment uses SurgeX which is a linear surge protector. It's an amazing piece of equipment And do not purchase it retail, get it off ebay. Many corporations dismantle data centers and sell those protectors for a fraction of the original price.

 

[cartaphilus]

Thanks for posting the thread. I didn't know that, either. I have about 3-4 of those around the house for the "lesser" things like lights and clocks, fish tanks, etc, and the better UPS battery back-up units for the PCs, Modem, monitors, home theater etc type of devices.

The worst ones are the ones that keep showing "Good" continuity even when they are fried.

 

[HarborFront]

For me I have Types 2 & 3 surge protectors installed

Surge Protectors are classed into 3 types.

Type 1 is protection against surges caused by lightning strikes and is installed at the electricity meter side outside your house.

Type 2 is a whole-house SPD (Surge Protector Device) installed in my breaker box. This is to protect against high incoming voltage fluctuations and also surges caused by lightning strikes

Type 3 is endpoint surge protection to protect your devices. Not all devices in your house need this. High-value devices would likely to use this. Example is the very expensive audio/video/PC system vs the toaster in your house.

Notes

1) Your house main breaker can also trip if there's strong lightning strikes nearby even though you have whole-house Type 2 SPD installed.

2) Surge Protector works on voltage (like RCD/RCCB) unlike breaker which works on current. A fuse also works on current. You can reset the breaker if it trips. For a fuse you need to replace if it blows.

3) Do NOT piggyback (daisy chain) endpoint surge protectors. That is

You can have an extension strip only (with no surge protection) connected to a surge protected extension strip
But you don't connect a surge protected extension strip to another surge protected extension strip

I bought the following APC Performance SurgeArrest 6 outlets (1836J) and 8 outlets (2754J) 230V UK

APC Performance SurgeArrest 8 outlets 230V UK - PM8-UK | APC Singapore

PM8-UK - APC Performance SurgeArrest 8 outlets 230V UK | APC Singapore

www.apc.com

APC Performance SurgeArrest 6 outlets 230V UK - PM6-UK | APC Singapore

PM6-UK - APC Performance SurgeArrest 6 outlets 230V UK | APC Singapore

www.apc.com

 

[Brahman]

How can we know that a surge protector is bad? Is there a way to test it using multimeter or similar devices?

 

[HarborFront]

How can we know that a surge protector is bad? Is there a way to test it using multimeter or similar devices?

From what I know you can't measure current/voltage across it

For my whole-house surge protector there's an indicator. When 'Green' it's ok. If it changes to 'Orange' it's time to replace. I need to monitor this occassionally as the indicator is not the lighted type.

For endpoint surge protectors there are indicator lights. In my case (quoted from its manual)

Quote

Protection Indicator - When the unit is plugged in and turned on, the green Protection Indicator illuminates to show the surge protector is capable of protecting equipment from harmful electrical surges. If the indicator does not illuminate when the unit is plugged in and turned on, the unit has sustained damage and is no longer capable of protecting your equipment. It should be returned according to the instructions provided by Schneider Electric IT
(SEIT) Technical Support.

Ground OK Indicator - When the surge protector is plugged in and power is turned on, the Ground OK Indicator illuminates (green) to show that the power source outlet is properly grounded. If the Ground OK Indicator does not illuminate, there is a problem with the building wiring. Employ a qualified and licensed electrician to correct the problem.

Overload indicator - The PM8 and PMF83VT series also provides an Overload indicator. If this indicator illuminates, disconnect devices until the indicator extinguishes.

Unquote

 

[simmerskool]

Type 1 is protection caused by lightning strikes and is installed at the electricity meter side outside your house.

had a lightning strike here ~25 years ago, took out everything electronic, phone land lines too. Lightning hit a newly installed Directv dish that had replaced a 16 ft C-band dish, apparently before Dtv knew they had to ground their dishes! Then 2 years ago, lightning struck next door neighbor's house very near where we had been hit -- fire burned down half of his house.

 

[HarborFront]

had a lightning strike here ~25 years ago, took out everything electronic, phone land lines too. Lightning hit a newly installed Directv dish that had replaced a 16 ft C-band dish, apparently before Dtv knew they had to ground their dishes! Then 2 years ago, lightning struck next door neighbor's house very near where we had been hit -- fire burned down half of his house.

I'm not saying a direct hit by million volts lightning. Everything will fry if direct hit by lightning.

I'm saying protection against surges caused by lightning strikes

 

[cartaphilus]

How can we know that a surge protector is bad? Is there a way to test it using multimeter or similar devices?

They have LED indicators that turn off stating that the MOV is fried. HOWEVER, recently it was discovered that some of the cheap ones and especially the Amazon Chinese "Bluxjsbfksirdn" and "fecerjshaiai" I. E jumble of letters brands that are copies of the same item with a random name to it don't have an actual indicator. Well the indicator is there but it's wired to a live feed and not the MOV so even if the mov fries the indicator is showing that it's working.
Thus the only way to tell for sure is to open it and look for friend electronics.

Personally I would use (in order of protection quality).

1). surgeX the only one with US Gov A-1-1 certification which is applied to sensitive electronics to protect against EMP (can be daisy chained with regular surge protector I. E. 98% of them are parallel )
2) Tripp-Lite isobar
3) Liebert
4) APS
5) cyberpower

And for all of them choose metal housing so in case of a catastrophic failure the energy is contained within the housing thus reducing the risk of fire.

 

[simmerskool]

I'm not saying a direct hit by million volts lightning. Everything will fry if direct hit by lightning.

I'm saying protection caused by lightning strikes

Right, we did not have a type1 anyway. The land line phone techs said they had never seen anything like what happened, where both their land lines and electric power blown at same time, that crossover was not supposed to happen. Ever since we have 1 meter copper rod buried in (& as a) ground.

 

[Oldie1950]

Lightning struck the house next door about 40 years ago. A surge has entered my home through the power grid and has damaged numerous electrical devices. I reported the damage to home insurance. The insurance refused because according to the insurance conditions only damage caused by a direct lightning strike to my house should be insured. Only the threat of a lawsuit persuaded the insurance company to pay half of the damage. Conclusion: If you need insurance, the insurance company definitely doesn't want to pay.

 

[cartaphilus]

Right, we did not have a type1 anyway. The land line phone techs said they had never seen anything like what happened, where both their land lines and electric power blown at same time, that crossover was not supposed to happen. Ever since we have 1 meter copper rod buried in (& as a) ground.

Yeah most of the type 1s are spark gap surge protectors. But then again nothing survives a direct lightning strike. Especially if the ground is contaminated. A lightning breaks down the dialectric resistance in hundreds of meters of air so do you think a few centimeter separation in a spark gap will stop it especially if somehow there is a floating ground?

Also two strikes next to each other* temporarily raise the ground potential (energize the ground) so sometimes the direct path to the copper rod is not the path of least resistance.

*Very rare occurrence but then again USA elected a reality TV star to be a president and no one (if asked in early 2000s) would ever believe that would happen. Yet here we are.

 

[HarborFront]

Right, we did not have a type1 anyway. The land line phone techs said they had never seen anything like what happened, where both their land lines and electric power blown at same time, that crossover was not supposed to happen. Ever since we have 1 meter copper rod buried in (& as a) ground.

Generally, all houses (residential or high rise flats) will have a separate lightning protection system ie roof top lightning rod connected to outdoor copper/aluminium strips as conductors and connected to the grounding rod buried into the ground. This is for handling of direct lightning strikes

The Type 1 surge protector is installed at the incoming power supply meter to protect against surges caused by lightning strikes. For residential house you can have it installed by a qualified electrician. For those staying in high rise flat (like myself) the electricity meter is located outside my unit. And I cannot have access to it because the outside of the flat belongs to the government.

So I can only have Types 2 and 3 for protection against voltage surges, if any. Luckily, my country's power supply system is very consistent so no issue of incoming line surges. And, so far, I don't have power surge issue inside my house caused by installed electrical equipment/appliances

As mentioned having a Type 2 surge protecting device (SPD) does not mean the main breaker in your house will not trip in the event of a heavy lightning strike nearby. For me my house main breaker trips on every occasion when heavy lightning strike nearby with or without the SPD installed.

 

[cartaphilus]

Generally, all houses (residential or high rise flats) will have a separate lightning protection system ie roof top lightning rod connected to outdoor copper/aluminium strips as conductors and connected to the grounding rod buried into the ground. This is for handling of direct lightning strikes

The Type 1 surge protector is installed at the incoming power supply meter to protect against surges caused by lightning strikes. For residential house you can have it installed by a qualified electrician. For those staying in high rise flat (like myself) the electricity meter is located outside my unit. And I cannot have access to it because the outside of the flat belongs to the government.

So I can only have Types 2 and 3 for protection against voltage surges, if any. Luckily, my country's power supply system is very consistent so no issue of incoming line surges. And, so far, I don't have power surge issue inside my house caused by installed electrical equipment/appliances

As mentioned having a Type 2 surge protecting device (SPD) does not mean the main breaker in your house will not trip in the event of a heavy lightning strike nearby. For me my house main breaker trips on every occasion when heavy lightning strike nearby with or without the SPD installed.

Your breaker sounds like it has arc fault interrupt installed. Those breakers have a small IC board that measures rapid rise in current thus preventing any in wall arcing which can cause house fires. Those breakers are very sensitive and trip when dirty power is detected. Additionally they are expensive as hell to replace. Also some of them are susceptible to tripping when someone is transmitting on a HAM radio frequency between 17 and 21 meter band.

I might or might not have used my ham radio to screw around with my neighbor whenever I got bored. Also cool for war driving with my ham radio through a new construction Lennar builders neighborhood (Lennar uses Eaton AFCI breakers). It's like being Dumbledore from Harry Potter and using "Lumos" spell to turn off the lights. Range off of my portable 15 watt radio with 1 meter antenna was about 20 meters.

 

[TairikuOkami]

An quality surge protection dies when it is it's time and you can not bring it back to life with a flip of a switch, it is not a breaker. Once the little LED light goes out, it is time to say goodbye.

 

[cartaphilus]

I just read the article and one thing is a total BS. Surge protectors DO NOT raise voltage during sag period of the supplied power. For that you require AVRs (automatic voltage regulators) and those come as inductive coils and are quite heavy. Most UPS worth their salt have AVRs that either lower the voltage or raise the voltage by few % before swapping over to battery. That is for the sole purpose to not run down the battery in countries with dirty power. Some better ups can actually compensate for sag as low as 80volts but you will know it's happening because you will hear them humm like crazy.

Now the really good ones; the server level UPS are, "online UPS" meaning that the power is always provided by the battery. There is no switchover time. The wall plug is only used to keep the battery fully charged.

One example of a AVR capable of compensating for 80 volt sag or 140 over voltage.... notice the max power allowed and the weight of the unit. This is only the AVR, no battery.

https://www.cdw.com/product/tripp-lite-isolation-transformer-1000w-medical-surge-120v-4-outlet-taa-gsa/414708

 

[blackice]

I replace our surge protectors on PCs and TVs/game consoles every 3-4 years because of this. It’s kind of expensive every time, but cheaper than a new tv by far. I’m actually due this summer. This is a good kick in the pants reminder to just bite the bullet and get it over with.

 

[cartaphilus]

I replace our surge protectors on PCs and TVs/game consoles every 3-4 years because of this. It’s kind of expensive every time, but cheaper than a new tv by far. I’m actually due this summer. This is a good kick in the pants reminder to just bite the bullet and get it over with.

Get a surgeX off eBay. They last a long while.

 

[superleeds27]

Did a full sweep of the house the other week. Replaced two where the surge light was no longer lit.