Tripp Lite Surge Protector Best Buy
These reviews are of surge protectors designed for a home office or a home-entertainment system. Such power mediators have a single function: keeping voltage from exceeding a certain rated level, beyond which equipment can blow a fuse, burn out its power supply, or completely fry its circuitry beyond repair. The surge protector takes a hit instead of your hardware or A/V system, and it could potentially save you hundreds to many thousands of dollars, depending on what you have connected.
tripp lite surge protector best buy
Older surge protectors were typically designed around the concern that computers had spinning hard disk drives (HDDs) inside, and that it was better to lose surge protection and keep providing power than to drop AC power when protection had failed. On surge protectors like that, the only indication of whether protection remains active is a protection light.
You can take precautions when designing a new home to prevent them, such as ensuring air conditioners and central heating do not share the same power lines as your appliance sockets. If your property is old, or if you rent, rewiring a whole house or office is often neither easy nor practical. When you're on the road or at someone else's home or office, it's the same. Wherever you are you can keep your electronics protected against power surges by using a surge protector.
Surge protectors are small appliances that look like power strips and convert an ordinary AC plug into multiple sockets, but also include a filter to prevent power surges from impacting your electronic devices. Inside them, a surge suppressor, technically called a surge arrester, prevents the peak AC voltage from exceeding a certain limit beyond what can seriously damage devices and this varies depending on country voltages, eg: 230 volts in Europe,120 volts in North America.
During a surge, the excess voltage spike is discharged to ground instead of reaching your device. Because of this, it's essential to install AC wiring that complies with code and has proper earthing. Regardless of how good the surge protector is, it will be rendered useless with a weak or severed earth wire.
It is best to buy a surge protector from a reputable brand, not a no-name company. A well-known company not only stands behind the quality of its electronics but also provides a warranty covering the devices they connect.
Choose one that has the number of extension sockets you need, and one that has the correct size and design for the intended location of usage. Some surge protectors have a round design, while others provide surge protection for both AC outlets as well as cable TV, RJ11 sockets, and RJ45 ethernet cables.
Manufacturers of surge protectors certify their devices and measure its effectiveness, giving them a rating in Joules. The joule (expressed as J) needs a longer explanation: J is an international unit of energy. It is named after James Prescott Joule, who was a physicist, mathematician, and brewer from Salford, near Manchester. Mr Joule laid the foundation for the theory of conservation of energy, which later influenced the First Law of Thermodynamics. Furthermore, he developed Joule's law, which deals with energy transfer.
To put the Joule rating of a surge protector in simple words, it indicates how much energy a device can absorb before the filter stops functioning. So the higher the joules, the more filtering it can do, and for a longer time, as each spike that hits your surge protector weakens its filtering ability.
Operation time is important because the bad news about surge protectors is that they have a limited lifespan. Surge arresters can only absorb so much energy as they are rated for. A 500J surge protector can successfully filter a single spike of 500 joules of power, or ten spikes of 50 joules. Upon reaching its joule rating, the surge arrestor ceases to function as a filter: electricity will keep flowing through them, but so will spikes.
A surge protector's lifespan is estimated at three to five years under the normal conditions of a well functioning power grid. If you live in an area where brownouts or blackouts are frequent, you should change the surge protector every two years.
Industry standards for surge suppression and power conditioning devices include IEEE 62.41 and UL1449, which limit the quantity of electricity that can pass through them. They specify how the surge suppressors will handle surges and what voltage they will clamp at. UL1449 specifies 330V as the best clamping rating for Metal Oxide Varistors (MOVs). However, not all surge protector manufacturers use the same clamp voltage ,many use 400 volts. If your equipment is more critical or sensitive, you want to choose a surge protector with a lower clamp voltage. In the latest edition 3 specification, the term \"Voltage Protection Rating\" or VPR is used instead of let-through or clamping voltage.
The best surge protectors safeguard your beloved electronics from the often-hidden menace of power surges. Day and night, power surges threaten your computers, chargers, and monitors with damage; and since surges can happen at any time, even while you are sleeping, you'd be wise to do something about it.
Many surge protectors but not all include a LED indicator to indicate if the AC socket connected to the surge protector has a good earth connection. Please note that the surge arrestor within your surge protector cannot absorb direct lightning strikes. A typical lightning strike can be measured at fifteen million volts, therefore, if you live in an area with frequent lighting, you should buy insurance as well.
Manufacturers of surge protectors certify their devices and measure their effectiveness, giving them a rating in Joules which is the amount of energy they can filter, and also its clamp voltage, which is the threshold. Put simply, the more joules, the better protection and the longer your surge protector will do its job.
Finally, some surge protectors are equipped with fail-to-safe conditions, also known as automatic shutdown technology and "fail to shutdown". When the surge protector experiences a surge and the arrestors reach their end of life, the device stops sending power to your devices, telling you in no uncertain terms that it's time to replace it.
Tripp Lite is not a newcomer to electricity taming. The company was founded in 1922 to manufacture car headlights, but by the 1950s it was making rotating warning lights for the police, fire and ambulance markets, and in 1982 it created the first surge protector, having created the first UPS system for PCs two years earlier.
Therefore, it's not surprising that the Tripp Lite Protect It 12 comes out on top as the best value pick. A notable feature of this model is that it provides a fail-to-safe design, also referred to as "automatic shut down" by Tripp Lite. Surge protectors with MOVs degrade with each surge to the point they become ineffective, but this device stops sending power when its protection has worn down, signaling that it's time to replace it.
There is also a circuit breaker, and the power switch can reset it after it trips. Another nice security feature are the child-proof outlet covers. By looking at the LED on the unit, you can tell when the protection is working. If TL's Protected light ever goes out, the surge protector will be replaced for free, no questions asked.
Icing on the cake is the $150,000 USD insurance on connected devices against surge damage for the life of the device. Having not used it, we assume it involves recording the invoices for purchases, assessing the damage by sending the affected equipment, etc. But in any case, it shows that the firm takes its level of protection seriously. Additionally, this model also includes coax cable protection (CATV, satellite, etc.)
Accell Power Air surge protectors blend visually into any room in the house, and any location, thanks to their round design. Place it on a kitchen countertop, atop a desk, under a desk, or anywhere you like. The white color also blends in with its surroundings rather than looking like a rectangular black blob, as many other surge protectors do.
A 1080 Joule surge protector, as well as a 15A resettable circuit breaker, whose red push button can be found on the side, provides protection to your device. Its status indicators are two LEDs: green for power status, and blue for surge protection.
Featuring a distinctive carrying handle, the JackyLED Power Strip Tower surge protector will become the center of any busy workspace. It will no longer be necessary to bend to the bottom of the desk to plug in a rapidly discharging laptop; simply rotate the tower and plug it in, making it ideal to place atop a shared desk or work surface.
Tripp Lite's Traveler3USB surge protector is a great ally for frequent travelers. Design-wise, it's all about simplicity. You won't find any unnecessary bells and whistles in it. The super-long 18 ft (5.48m) power cord leads to a small plastic unit with three AC outlets. Two are on one side of the unit and one on the other. The unit also has two USB ports for charging mobile phones and tablets.
The Furman surge protector is a hybrid, which is why it has a low Joule rating. It uses a series mode of protection that does not follow the same rating system. Its protection does not stop with MOVs measured in Joules.
But what exactly is series mode protection? A series mode surge protector blocks high currents and absorbs excessive voltages. Current does not flow to ground in these devices, but is limited to acceptable levels in order to prevent damage to electronic equipment.
NYT labs evaluated this unit and called it "the best surge suppression we tested" adding that it "turned a 5,000-volt surge into just 40 volts". Furman also caters to audiophiles with its "8D" model, which has separate sockets for digital and analog equipment. The purpose is to isolate analog audio amps from digital equipment to prevent noise from reaching the analog kit.
USB-C ports are available on new MacBooks and USB-C is on monitors. Everyone is jumping on the USB-C bandwagon. And where are most of the surge protectors? Back there riding the old USB Type A, 5V-2.1A horse wagon. 041b061a72