Recommendations for a surge protector/power conditioner needed.

[Rust]

In Florida, serious surge protection is a must have. One storm a year and a half ago had 20,000 lightning strikes per hour for hours on end and dumped 26" of rain in a 24 hour period. Anyhow.... My not too expensive surge protector/power conditioner gave up the ghost performing its function a couple of days ago during a very bad storm. So I am in the market for an inexpensive unit (by audiophile standards) that provides surge protection (primary requirement) while not being overly injurious to the sound. Suggestions appreciated. As a guidline, $1,000 is getting pretty expensive to me.

[Alrainbow]

You can go a few routes. A cheap way is a simple surge suppressor it's just simple device the blows up lol when a surge appears Home Depot sells them. What it is a diac inside so it turns off or a aurally burns up when a surge happens it's very fast acting. This burns up a fuse inside
At least one works this way.
My home in NC is Ina rural areas power goes on and off often I went through two microwaves this way.
A cheap 15 buck part solved this. Now up from this is a power surge ups strip. Now the app ones cheap under 100 are not on battery all time so they do not mess up the sound of your stuff. But they quickly switch on of power Browns out so fast there is no interruption. They also come with surge suppression. Or has a value the larger the number of jewls the more it can handle.
APC a name brand makes from cheap to commercial stuff. Best Buy has them as well. Remember it's not just the surge it's also the fast off and on as well.

[Rust]

I was thinking in the under $1,000 range. Over the years in both the military and industrial setting there were a number of safety notifications about cheap power strips/surge suppressors. Some of them had MOVs that provided no protection, while other would catch fire in normal useage. And they were UlL listed too. Apparently they worked for a bit new but over time the MOVs deteriorated.

IMO for decent protection of expensive audio equipment an inexpensive protection device should have a low voltage relay the drops out at no less than 100 volts and must be manually resest (to avoid injurious rapid cycling), a circuit breaker with both low slow overload thermal protection and instantaneous high current trip features, and surge protection of a minimum of 50,000 joules. Noise filtration would be nice bonus but the primary concern is protection,

My newer preamp has a low voltage drop out feature and must be manually reset. Most the rest of my equipment does not which is why I always shut it down when not in use.

[Alrainbow]

A surge surpressor cannit be done with a relay not for surge anyway. Low voltage yes. As far as how much you spend a real ups audio grade can be had but it will add noise and it is true isolation. I had a large one in North Carolina for years. Do not try an isolation transformer as it does not isolate from surges unless it has a very fast way of clamping the spike. You do not need to spend as much as you think to achieve ample surge suppression
Now going into ups there is more money to spend.
I use os audio regens they isolate but why also do not have a ups built in so when power goes on and off fast they mute the power and reboot. This is ok as lon transients do not occur with your equipment coming back on out of sequence as you Normaly do. Go APC website read and Google facts abkit tit. You are correct in needling one that's for sure. Post back what you do please what never it is.

[Rust]

I'm not a believer in UPS. I had an APC for my desktop and peripherals a few years back and it failed after about a year. Just went dead. And I am not sure of the power conditioning efficiacy of an USP. Probably little to none when AC is present.

I'm starting to give this a little thought. Maybe time to break out some old manuals and catalogs.

[Guest]

What about a whole house surge protector? Caelin Gabriel recommended the Leviton 51120-1. $200 from Amazon.

[Bill Hart]

I have no idea how this will affect the sound of your system, but the Zero Surge products, made in Frenchtown, NJ, are well-made and reasonably priced. They do not use MOVs. I believe they own the patents for the technology that is used by other companies as well. They aren't terribly expensive- I think a two outlet 15 amp box is under $300; the 20 amp boxes require one of those NEMA 20 amp plugs. No affiliation. I use one in my office.

[Alrainbow]

The SPX do just flip
Out sometimes. They have a fuse inside also batteries do go bad early. Some have reset button as well.
The whole house is something I also have. About 200 for a good one. So far it has not pooed as yet. Electrical supply houses have them down there but not up here in NYC. You can order them online as well. But again it will not help in short power outages that come back in very fast. It's for surge meanin high voltage spikes

[Rust]

Thanks for all the replies, and don't hesitate to add more. The Zero Surge stuff looks interesting. No MOVs. I don't like MOVs as they have a finite life span of no more than 100 events and all too often for cheap ones far less, It's simply a characteristic of MOVs. The problem is the failure mode, destruction, of the MOV, heat, and a serious potential for arcing. That is why there have been so many recalls of MOV equipped surge suppressors over the years. Especially those made overseas.

It looks as if no single device performs the functions of surge suppression/power conditioning/under voltage protection. I may have to break out some old manuals a cobble something together. I see that Zero Surge has a surge suppression module for box stuffing and I could make an under voltage setup myself. And then find something that works only as a noise filter/conditioner. Only real problem would be finding a box to stuff that wasn't the typical ugle industrial gray wall mount.

[JackD201]

For affordability plus dependability I would say Furman is a safe recommendation except that they refuse to use ordinary inlets which could be a problem if you like your PCs. Upscale, Audience makes good stuff. Transparent used to provide some sort of guarantee even under extreme conditions, I think they still do.

Having studied in Central Florida in the past and knowing the lightning situation first hand however, the idea of whole house surge suppression makes a lot more sense to me dollar for dollar.

[Rust]

I've got sort of a weird Alice thing going on with my house, some of which I consider completely bass ackwards. Been thinking of some alteration and work anyhow so a whole system surge suppresser would make sense. I've got a 400 amp service believe it or not so it would have to be a serious top quality unit.

[Bill Hart]

400 amps of service- I'm jealous!

[JustinoChiu]

A surge suppressor cannot be used with a relay not for surge anyway. Low voltage yes. As far as how much you spend a real ups audio grade can be had but it will add noise and it is true isolation.
Do not try an isolation transformer as it does not isolate from surges unless it has a very fast way of clamping the spike.
You do not need to spend as much as you think to achieve ample surge suppression
Now going into ups there is more money to spend.

electronic assembly

[Rust]

Justino - Any UPS capable of supplying my system would be quite large and thus expensive and still not have the features I want. The low voltage protection is getting to be a must have, early last week there were severe thunderstorms, high winds and a tornado or two. Power fluctuated wildly and went out. Earlier this week there were severe thunderstorms, high winds and a tornado or two. Power fluctuated crazily before finally going out. A low voltage protection circuit is getting to be critical.

Before the craziness this week I pulled an old Monster surge suppressor/conditioner out that has a pair of switched plugs that drop out on loss of voltage but am not sure at what voltage, low voltage or complete loss. I want something that drops at 100 volts. Still while not an audiophile grade unit, that old Monster may have saved my amplifier.

[LeeScoggins]

The Shunyata PS8 is excellent in the under $1,000 range. Made a nice improvement on my system.

[Hugh]

What about a whole house surge protector? Caelin Gabriel recommended the Leviton 51120-1. $200 from Amazon.

This is a MUST.