I have a (budget level) TrippLite Eco Surge 6 remote controlled protector in my office system. While it doesn’t have a very high surge protection rating, it’s been extremely reliable. In my main system I use an older Belkin PureAV PF60. This unit provides stronger surge protection and offers a lot of flexibility in powering up/down the whole system. It’s been out of production a while, but can still be found on the popular auction site. If mine died tomorrow, I’d go find another one. |
Define surge.Lasting a few microseconds to a couple of milliseconds? Or the overvoltage surge lasted several seconds or more? No surge protector will protect from a Utility Power Company’s high overvoltage surge lasting more than a few microseconds. Some surge protectors do have over-under voltage protection through the use of a over-under voltage relay that disconnects the unit from the AC mains power. But even then there is no 100% guarantee it will disconnect from the AC power before causing damage. It depends on how high the overvoltage event is. Example of an over-under voltage relay. https://www.chintglobal.com/global/en/about-us/news-center/blog/voltage-protection-relay.html . |
Hey. Wirecutter rates some Tripp Lite surge protectors extremely highly. They are the only source of 3rd party testing for surge protectors I know of. They rate Furman's higher though. :) Take a close look at the specific models they mention. Trip Lite has introduced other models since Iso Bar which perform better. I wrote about this in depth here and a link to the Wirecutter article is in here too. |
I use Tripp Lite surge protectors on most of my electronics. For my audio gear, I use a Tripp Lite voltage regulator/surge protector, and noise reduction unit. It's very inexpensive and regulating voltage is as important as eliminating noise. I already have clean reliable power so it's more than adequate. |
@jhm007 said:
I defer to my post above on 06-28-2025 at 09:03am The Power Company should have a record of the event. As I said in my post above a typical SPD, Surge Protection Device, will not protect from an overvoltage event lasting more than a few seconds. They are not designed to.They are designed to protect from a transient surge. https://www.nemasurge.org/faqs/ . |
OP: Let me geek a little more on Tripp Lite. I have 3-4 of the Isobar surge protectors. The big plus is the metal housing should be more or less immune to fires started by exploding MOV's, unlike a lot of plastic housed surge strips. The bad news of this particular model, as noted by many others, is they do not disconnect when the MOV's are exhausted. This is a feature many other surge strips have. That is, when the Isobar can no longer protect your gear it is still on. Your only indication will be that one of the two green lights goes out. For some of course this is a feature. They want the strip to provide power even if the surge protection isn't working. The Tripp Lite models in the wirecutter article have this shut off feature. OK, so that's it for Tripp Lite. Furman units with SMP and Extreme voltage shutdown (EVS) _will_ turn the power off for long term over/under voltage situations. If you get 200V, that may be too low for a lot of MOV's, but the Furmans will see it and shut down power. Same for extreme brownouts, which in some cases can melt a switch mode power supply. So you are safe from actual surges as well as low-grade under/over voltages. Double check that the Furman unit you are considering has SMP and EVS though, they make many that do not. |
