murray@andromeda.rutgers.edu.rutgers.edu (Murray Karstadt) (09/29/89)
Surge suppressors come in all different price ranges from as little as 14.00 to 80.00 or more. This may be a stupid question but what does one look for in a surge suppressor.
kevind@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Kevin Draz) (09/30/89)
In article <Sep.29.11.56.55.1989.28344@galaxy.rutgers.edu> murray@andromeda (Murray Karstadt) writes: > >Surge suppressors come in all different price ranges from as little as >14.00 to 80.00 or more. This may be a stupid question but what does one >look for in a surge suppressor. When I worked at an Apple dealer, we recommended the more expensive ones. The key is response time to a surge - this time needs to be in the nanoseconds range, a cheap supressor can't catch the damaging spikes with their 100 millisecond type respose. The best supressors are AC to AC convertors, which actually turn the incoming 110V into DC, regulate it, and re-create the 60HZ 110V waveform. Your system is actually isolated from the main line. These, however, often run multi-hundred dollars. It's depressing, but the cheap supressors are next to worthless. They would protect an ohmic heating device, or an AC motor which could take a spike for a second or so before the supressor kicked out the circuit breaker, but sensitive electronics can die the moment the spike comes in. We learned this the hard way in the service shop. Devices with a linear power supply, such as most stereo equipment, have a step-down transformer on the line which is less sensitive to spikes due to it's large impedance. That doesn't protect from surges, which last for several seconds. Computers, which nowadays almost always have switching power supplies, have a transistor on the input power side. They are sensitive at voltages above the rating of this device. You also need to consider the total current draw of your monitor/computer/printer setup. The suppressor must obviously have a current rating higher than the total of the equipment to be connected. If anyone knows better, speak up.. It's been a little while since I last studied this issue and technologies may have improved, as they do. -- ---- kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com Tektronix Color Printers Technical Support