Surge Protection

[Bigfish8]

Well I am typing this from the third time due to continuing to lose the internet connection at this hotel.  What are you guys doing to protect your equipment from power surges, especially this time of year during thunder storms?  I was leaving mine plugged directly into the outlets until I read Klaus of Odyssey had his Kraft amps destroyed during a recent thunder storm.  My amps were built by Klaus and he recommended they be connected directly to the outlets and left on 24/7 as the caps take up to a day to recharge.  Anyway I am interested to learn what precautions you are taking?  Is something like Equitech the right answer or is there special insurance you can purchase to protect you?  The dollar investment keeps growing and I feel a little insecure about not having some type of electrical damage protection.

Thanks,

Ken

[bpape]

You can put a rider on your insurance policy pretty cheaply. 

Bryan

[Carlman]

I bought the Equitech gear primarily as a surge protector but also because it balances power and makes everything sound a little better.  I think it's important to have 'something' between your gear and the wall for surges, sags, and spikes.  Amps are the least of my concern since they are fairly simple, built for high voltage, and are more robust. (A general statement about high power SS amps)  

My audio PC, SB3, HT receiver, TV, and so on are not so forgiving.  Sags and surges there lead to shorter lifespans... and it's a mystery as to which part will fail.. and there are lots of them!

I'm not sure what kind of surge protection tube amps need... but I know Rich has experimented with the Equitech also... I would think minor sag/surge protection is no problem but major spikes might..

I have a lot of gear and if it all got hit hard, I'd be pretty upset.  My thinking is that having a giant transformer between my gear and the wall provides one more step of protection... so maybe just 1 thing gets destroyed rather than all of it...

BTW, the rider on insurance sounds like a really good idea!

-C

[bpape]

I've had a rider on my policy for years for my audio equipment. 

I will agree with you Carl about amps going straight in but the other stuff being protected.  I'm still looking around for what I want.  Equitech looks very nice but haven't heard it.

Bryan

[richidoo]

I've plugged in the Equitech, it sounded great so I just left it in. More than I can say for any other power conditioner I have tried. I've not yet compared it to nothing for sound quality, but in the past I have foregone surge protection because it screws up the sound pretty bad on tube amps. I think the equitech improves the electrical power and things sound noticably quieter. Tube amps sound better on it. But I want to A/B it, just no time..

As to the point about protection, a whole house surge protector is the best bet, along with insurance rider on your specific gear.    More info on surge prtectors: http://www.surgex.com/surgetypes.html

Make sure that all the antennas on the roof are properly grounded too. That means an unbroken  solid copper wire going from the mast to whole house earth at the electrical service meter. There should also be a lightning surge arrestor on the antenna coax, which drains ground to the main earth. It can be the same ground wire coming from the mast, but you shouldn't cut the wire to make the connection at the arrestor, just peel off the insulation instead and use a lightning ground lug that you slip over the ground wire's length.  Here is a great lightning surge arrestor:



http://www.altelicon.com/lightning_protectors/coax/al-ffff.php

Other lightning protection devices for phone, net,etc
http://www.altelicon.com/lightning_protectors/lightning_protectors.php

The idea is to make the antenna invisible to avoid a strike. Avoidance is possible to some degree with grounding to eliminate any potential on the antenna which could attract lightning. Nearby trees will always look yummier to lightning if your metal stuff on the roof is grounded.  Radio guys can prevent strikes on 1300 foot tall steel towers, the understanding is available, but it is a bit of an art at that level. But protecting the house is not so hard.  I still disconnect my coax from the tuner and unplug everything fro them system, even take out the cat5 from the sonos.  Having everything on the equitech makes pulling only one plug very handy.
Rich

[Black Sand Cable]

Just keep in mind that when it comes to lighting, if you get a direct hit it won't matter what you are running in front of your gear.....it's going to go up in smoke. The Equi=Tech stuff will take far more of a hit then most stuff will given the size of the transformers used but nothing is going to stop or even slow down a lighting strike. Surges, spikes, interference etc are easy to look after but when it comes to lighting, it won't matter.

Lighting varies in strength but something as basic as a 1000ft lighting bolt can easily hit one billion volts for a 300m (3 million volts per meter) jolt. Nothing and I mean nothing is going to stop that!

The safest bet is to simply unplug stuff and have insurance.

I personally don't buy into the claim by some manufactures that there stuff should be run direct to the wall as anything else will degrade the sound. Huh? Why? If the internal power transformer is sized correctly and the conditioner in place doesn't limit available current, it should make no difference. I have owned McIntosh, Bryston and even a few pieces of high wattage Krell stuff over the years and everything and anything gets  basic protection in my house! Keep in mind however that I'm not talking about power strips or bars here but full blown systems that run a decent size transformer and a host of other things.

When it comes to balanced power systems, I will use Equi=Tech as an example as to this day I think they are still the only ones out there who can offer true balanced power delivery (they own the patent). Anyway if you don't run the entire system into an Equi=Tech you are screwing up what balanced power was intended to do. When it comes to balanced power, everything and anything within the system should be run by it. Skipping one or two pieces that are part of the chain screws up the basic principal of balanced power.

My 2 cents.....

[richidoo]

Valuable 2 cents!  Reading the white papers on balanced power is very interesting. If nothing else think of it as a God almighty power strip with a single nearby point of ground for all components, eliminating any loops back to the breaker panel. But there are even better good things going on in there too. It makes the mains noise get cancelled out like common mode noise on a mic cable.

Power conditioning "should" not affect component performance, and all the power conditioner mfgs say no effect on tube amps but they all kill the life. I don't really think of equitech as a filter/conditioner, but the end result is quieter mains power wthout the restriction of traditional filter elements. Life remains intact.

I had a stack of new surge / UPSs lying around waiting to be installed. All this power talk made me install them today. Thanks guys!
Rich

[spudco]

You can put a rider on your insurance policy pretty cheaply. 

Bryan

Just keep in mind that when it comes to lighting, if you get a direct hit it won't matter what you are running in front of your gear.....it's going to go up in smoke.

The safest bet is to simply unplug stuff and have insurance.

This is the only advice you need.  Put together a complete list of your gear and it's cost.  Send it to your insurance agent and keep it up to date.  Pay the small additional premium and stop worrying about something that is far more powerful than humans.

FYI - We had a swing in a large tree 120 feet from our home take a hit a few years ago.  Even with surge protection at the entrance (installed by my electrical coop) and power conditioners for all my gear, everything was cooked.  Stuff melted, blew up and smoked.  It even killed our electic tooth brushes... 

The following morning, an adjuster visited with his camera and my list.  He took photos, looked at the strike site and some of my stuff.  The company paid complete replacement (new) costs on all our stuff.


Get good insurance.

[Bigfish8]

Guys:

Thanks for the advice and I have already placed a call to my insurance agent.  If I need a rider to cover me in the event of electrical damage or any other type of loss I want to be certain I am covered!

Ken

PS.  If Equi=Tech needs to go on my have to have list (not wants list) what do I need?  Equipment list:  50" Plasma TV, Mono SEs, Candela Preamp, Transporter and Denon 3806.

Thanks!

[Carlman]

Glad you had such a good experience, Spud.  As long as you don't have more than 1 incident of any kind on your home per year, things should be pretty good... If you have to make 2 or 3 claims in a year, though... you run the risk of getting dropped.  I'm not just talking about lightning.. but theft, vandalism, and anything else.. Generally, your premiums go up after a couple of claims.  Insurance companies know how to make money.. they love claims from what I can tell.

Plus, I don't want to have to replace all my stuff.  Some of it isn't easily replaced and I'd have to argue to get replacement value.  I'm not sure I'd want to disclose electronic modifications to an insurance company either... If there's a fire down the road I'm sure they'd use it against me.  The insurance route is a last-ditch effort after total disaster.  For all the in-between power fluctuations.. and the non-direct lightning hits, I'll still use some physical appliances.

Ken, the Q series is the one to get.  Rich is borrowing mine and I'm sure he'd be happy to let you give it a shot.  It will adequately handle your load.  It's a 1.5kVA load capacity.  (Model Q 1.5)  It's designed for a 15A circuit.  The next step up requires a 20A circuit.

-C

[stereofool]

Definitely...an insurance rider...we've all got too much invested to not CYA!!!

For several years I've been using the Brick Wall surge protectors...they are not MOV based so you don't have to worry about them losing effectiveness, after several strikes.

http://www.brickwall.com/

I also have an Equi-tech unit. I have been plugging the Equi-tech into the Brick Wall, thus providing extra protection for everything plugged in to the E-T...in my case EVERYTHING. I can't say that I've noticed any deleterious effects, with any type of equipment.

[spudco]

Carl,
My insurance company was great.  However, I made the mistake of allowing a dealer that I had bought from for several years to "replace" my system with "something much better".  It was a nightmare for over 2 years and I lost several tens of thousands of dollars before I finally got close to what I had.  I was scared for several years...

[Phil]

Living in Arizona (lightning central) convinced me to have a whole house protector.  I'm glad to say I'm not sure if it works - yet.  I hope I never find out.  A few cacti have gotten toasted, but the house hasn't been hit. 

My source is plugged into an equitech.  I bought this one when they had separate units for source and amps, so my amp is plugged into the wall.  If I had more space (in and behind my rack - damn power cords need lots of room), I'd probably try the Q series. 

I've tried many tweaks for AC but nothing replaces what the balanced power can do.  Some folks believe/hear that such active units are somehow slower-sounding than so-called passive units.  I don't have a comparison except balanced/no-balanced and even with dedicated lines, the balanced is very clearly better, especially in the highs and mids. 

[Bigfish8]

Ken, the Q series is the one to get.  Rich is borrowing mine and I'm sure he'd be happy to let you give it a shot.  It will adequately handle your load.  It's a 1.5kVA load capacity.  (Model Q 1.5)  It's designed for a 15A circuit.  The next step up requires a 20A circuit.

-C

Carl:

Thanks! 

Ken

[Bigfish8]

Guys:

I have my home owners policy with State Farm and just spoke with my agent.  Since I have the replacement value coverage on my policy he claims my equipment is fully covered, minus deductible, for any surge damage.  He further told me that State Farm does not offer any additional riders for coverage and for me not to worry as I am covered.  The agent advised me to inventory the equipment, record model/serial numbers, take digital photos and lock the information up in the safe.  I gave him the replacement value of all my gear and he said do not worry, enjoy it because it is covered!

Hope I don't have to find out if the above is true!

Ken