Surge Suppressor

[kbjelka]

After reading about board failures due to surges I decided to look into a surge suppressor for my Quadrafire Castile and settled on the following...

http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=3980

The main reason is I did not want a bulky strip near my hearth and have had good luck with Tripp Lite in the past.

Any thoughts?

 

[pybyr]

One option would be to connect one of these

http://www.iceradioproducts.com/impulse2.html#6

into your main breaker panel-- that way, you're protecting sensitive devices throughout the home.

 

[geek]

I know this is a cheaper option but what about this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2454736

..

 

[imacman]

I know this is a cheaper option but what about this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2454736

..

Yep, that's the one I bought and mentioned on the forum back in the winter....it's got good specs too:

Protected line, neutral and ground (L-N-G)
Clamping volt: 330V
Joules: 1260j
Peak voltage: 6000V
Spike capacity: 60000A
Ground LED indication (green)
EMI/RFI Filtering up to 40dB

Pretty good for $18, and it's on sale now for $13

 

[charles u farley]

I know this is a cheaper option but what about this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2454736

..

Yep, that's the one I bought and mentioned on the forum back in the winter....it's got good specs too:

Protected line, neutral and ground (L-N-G)
Clamping volt: 330V
Joules: 1260j
Peak voltage: 6000V
Spike capacity: 60000A
Ground LED indication (green)
EMI/RFI Filtering up to 40dB

Pretty good for $18, and it's on sale now for $13

Clamping voltage is a lot higher than the 140V of the Tripp Lite. Surge supressors are one of those things where you need to spend some bucks to get something good enough to catch that last say 10% of surges the cheap ones let through. 330 V clamping is too high IMHO.

As an electrician I occasionally am called to houses with loose neutral connections in their service panels. When this happens half the circuits will go low and the other half go high, anywhere from 130 up to 240 volts and fry appliances. Ideally the clamping voltage of a good surge supressor should be low enough to protect from this and have some protection for continuous overvoltage.

 

[stallau]

Depending on how much you want to spend a computer UPS would be the best option. More boards are taken out by partial voltage than surges and power strip surge protectors won't do a thing for brown outs or partial power. A UPS will give you a good clean steady power and also give you some time of running if you loose power.
You can get a smaller UPS that should give you at least about half hour of life.

 

[kbjelka]

I know this is a cheaper option but what about this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2454736

..

Yep, that's the one I bought and mentioned on the forum back in the winter....it's got good specs too:

Protected line, neutral and ground (L-N-G)
Clamping volt: 330V
Joules: 1260j
Peak voltage: 6000V
Spike capacity: 60000A
Ground LED indication (green)
EMI/RFI Filtering up to 40dB

Pretty good for $18, and it's on sale now for $13

Clamping voltage is a lot higher than the 140V of the Tripp Lite. Surge supressors are one of those things where you need to spend some bucks to get something good enough to catch that last say 10% of surges the cheap ones let through. 330 V clamping is too high IMHO.

As an electrician I occasionally am called to houses with loose neutral connections in their service panels. When this happens half the circuits will go low and the other half go high, anywhere from 130 up to 240 volts and fry appliances. Ideally the clamping voltage of a good surge supressor should be low enough to protect from this and have some protection for continuous overvoltage.

Hey charles u farley,
I was hoping an electrician might eyeball my choice here. So is the Tripp Lite I chose just a better choice than the Radio Shack special or is it a good choice based on the specs? BTW it was only $32 US shipped from Amazon so while not a cheapo it is not exactly breaking the bank to protect a several thousand dollar stove. I know Tripp Lite makes quality stuff, just wondering if this unit is up to the task. Thanks for the input!

 

[mralias]

One option would be to connect one of these

http://www.iceradioproducts.com/impulse2.html#6

into your main breaker panel-- that way, you're protecting sensitive devices throughout the home.

I would be interested in this one to protect the entire house. I went to the web site and they do not have any info on how it is wired into the main breaker box. Has anyone here used this? If so how does it wire in? Not so sure I want to mess with the 200 amp main breaker if that is where it makes the connection to the main box. Thanks.

 

[imacman]

.............Not so sure I want to mess with the 200 amp main breaker if that is where it makes the connection to the main box. Thanks.

I was thinking the same thing. In this case, a licensed electrician is your best friend. :cheese:

 

[charles u farley]

One option would be to connect one of these

http://www.iceradioproducts.com/impulse2.html#6

into your main breaker panel-- that way, you're protecting sensitive devices throughout the home.

I would be interested in this one to protect the entire house. I went to the web site and they do not have any info on how it is wired into the main breaker box. Has anyone here used this? If so how does it wire in? Not so sure I want to mess with the 200 amp main breaker if that is where it makes the connection to the main box. Thanks.

For installation some manufacturers make ones that plug in just like a circuit breaker, only a pigtail needs to be connected to the neutral bus. Larger ones attach to the outside of the panel and connect to a two pole breaker and the neutral bus. A few are designed to tap in to the utility side of the main breaker.

I was thinking of one of these myself so went looking up the specs. The first two brands I looked up had their warranty cover only major household appliances such as kitchen and laundry appliances. Seems the whole house protectors are capable of larger surges, but slower reacting and higher clamping voltage may not protect electronics adequately.

I just stumbled across these links, maybe a dry read for those not in the trade but since it's designed for a sales rep the content is not too technical.
http://www.sea.siemens.com/step/pdfs/surge_1.pdf
http://www.sea.siemens.com/step/pdfs/surge_2.pdf
http://www.sea.siemens.com/step/pdfs/surge_3.pdf

They specifically recommend a two tiered approach with the whole house protector and power bars.

IMHO generic whole house protectors alone may be false security, or may be perfectly adequate depending on your area/luck/phase of the moon.

 

[vgrund]

I use a spare Tripp Lite UPS. It's a Costco special, about $90 IIRC. It's plenty enough to allow continuous operation of my stove, but then again it only needs to manage about 8-10 seconds before our generator starts.

The power here is a little quirky. We don't have many outages. When we do, they can last for several days. We do however get frequent low/high voltage spikes, enough for our UPS relays to engage. I'm more comfortable using a UPS as opposed to a surge suppressor, as a UPS can easily correct both low & high voltage situations.