Whole house surge protection

Also, EP doesn't back up their surge protection with any warranty, unlike Eaton CSHP Ultra that comes with $75,000 warranty against damage.

Thanks Lifeengineer. I looked into the EP products. Looks very interesting. However, the EP2050 is only rated at 12.5 kA of max surge current. According to my electrician, the higher the max surge current and power rating, the better the protection against catastrophic surge damage. The Eaton CHSP Ultra is rated at 180 kA max surge current and 2880 joules. Not sure how many joules EP2050 is rated at. However, I am very intrigued by the waveform correction and filtering provided by EP products. Don't you think the EP2050 surge protection is somewhat limited?

"But of course the only sure way of providing complete protection from lightning strikes is to unplug your gear during bad storms."

That's what I've been doing after each listening session, and it's a PITA and wears out the AC outlet and plugs.

I've used the Pure Power AC regenerating conditioner because it was reported not to limit dynamics. It cleaned up the subtle grunge, but it limited dynamics and squashed the sound stage. I don't see why PS Audio would be any different.

Anything using surge protectors using inductors and transformers seems to limit dynamics.

I am hoping the whole house surge protectors work differently and won't limit dynamics.

Anyone who has done this, please chime in.

Gbart, do those technologies limit current to the extent you'd notice dynamic compression?

Thanks Photon. Appreciate the response.

Schipo, my ac plugs are made of 99% copper and shows signs of wear, and the flimsy AC outlets are becoming loose because the plugs fit very tightly.

Jea, IME MOV have given me problems. I've had a strip that used MOVs and it kept tripping my circuit breaker. When I disconnected it, issue solved, but I had no way of knowing if the MOV inside the strip was damaged or still working. Read below.

http://surgex.com/library/92001.html

I think the whole house surge protectors are made of silicon oxide vasistors, which is suppose to be reusable over and over, unlike MOVs.

http://www.deltala.com/modernsurgeprotectors.htm

http://www.geindustrial.com/Newsletter/lightning_arresters_guide.pdf

Jea, looks like many home surge protection units use MOVs. I asked a master electrician in my area. He recommended the Eaton CSHP Ultra which uses MOVs.

Yes I did. couple of things are holding me back. One is the amount of max surge current it can handle, 12.5 kA. Other surge arresters for residential applications I've seen are 80+ kA. And it has no warranty against damage.

Thanks Jea. It's a little too technical for me, but I can at least have an idea if my electrician is incompetent after reading the article.

Lifeengieer, I agree with you. But I am looking for a surge protector, first and foremost. Having some sort of filtering is nice to have.