surge protectors - necessary?

In the real world, appliances already contain protection superior to what a plug-in protector might do. For so many reasons. But this is limited to subjective (no numbers, no hard facts) fears posted by Goatcrapp. Bad wiring in a house does not make destructive electricity. He does not even define one example. Bad wiring can create lower voltages. Lower voltages are potentially harmful to motorized appliances (ie refrigerator, dishwasher, furnace). And are completely normal for electronics – especially high end electronics. Lights can dim to 50% intensity due to bad wiring. This is hard on motorized appliances. And a perfectly good voltage for all electronics. Note, also explained with numbers because this poster has done this stuff for generations. Bad grounding – a vague term because it does not discuss the various grounds – also does not harm appliances. Grounding is first and foremost for human safety. Missing grounds do not harm any hardware. If grounding is bad, a homeowner is the reason for that defect. Only the homeowner is responsible for inspecting and fixing it. None of those anomalies are solved or addressed by any surge protector. Goatcrapp does not provide any numbers with subjective posts that are only based in fears. International design standards (long before PCs existed) required 120 volt electronics to be undamaged by transients as high as 600 volts. Some higher end electronics today are even more robust. Again, best protection at appliances is already inside appliances. Goatcrapp has confused manufacturing defects with tiny temperature changes in a home. Cold solder joint is created by problems involving over 500 degrees when a product is manufactured. He would have us believe a few tens of degree differences in a house create what was a manufacturing defect. Again, numbers he forgot to include when posting fears generated by urban myths. Cold solder joints are not created by operation – are created during manufacturing. Appliance protection involves anomalies generated externally from a home. These rare anomalies (maybe once every seven years) are made irrelevant by what each homeowner is responsible for. Of course, each home must its own earth ground. That obviously makes any ‘sparks from water or sewage pipes’ irrelevant. Even an incoming cold water pipe must be bonded to the main breaker box and therefore also connected to earth ground. As required long before any of us existed. If any of those connections are missing, only a homeowner is responsible for restoring them. These connections have existed long before transistors; long required for human safety. These connections also make those ‘feared’ anomalies irrelevant. One anomaly that can overwhelm protection in appliances is averted by a ‘whole house’ protector. Lightning is one example that is routinely averted by properly connecting to earth a ‘whole house’ protector. No plug-in protector protects from this anomaly. It does not claim to. In some cases, it can even make appliances damage easier. And must be protected by a properly earthed ‘whole house’ protector. No matter what other solution is used, still, one properly earthed ‘whole house’ protector is necessary. Connected low impedance (ie less than 10 feet) to that same earth ground that also does human protection and makes those water pipe sparks irrelevant. The naïve always want to blame ‘bad’ electricity for failures. We who had to trace and define reasons for every failure know that most failures (in high end or low end equipment) are due to manufacturing defects. Cold solder joint is a classic example of a manufacturing defect. One ‘whole house’ protector, properly earthed, means protection from an anomaly that typically overwhelms superior protection inside every appliance. Because if any appliance needs that protection, then all appliances need it. This superior solution, that has been standard for over 100 years, typically costs about $1 per protected appliance.

^ Ranty McRanterson! My high dollar A/V and computer equipment gets a line conditioner (different from a surge protector) Everything else, where I need the space, gets multi outlet power strips, which often have a degree of surge protection. But really, it’s for the power strip. Anecdotal commentary: I’ve never lost a piece of equipment to a surge… I have absolutely lost equipment to poor power fluctuations. Westom – in an ideal world with perfectly run wiring – you’d be more correct than you are.. but as it stands – most of these old homes even with relatively recent electricity suffer from horrible power bleed and grounding. Ask any utility worker who’s seen tiny sparks along a water feed or sewage pipe – where a corroded ground strap created some miniscule voltage on the outer skin of either of these. This same sudden discharge, though small, can exist within the home as well, and for the same reasons – “whole house protection” if it’s being installed at the meter, won’t do a thing to prevent this without converting all of the wiring in the house to operate on a return to said protection. A must if the wiring in the house is bad enough to be unsafe. If you’ve ever had a failed device – check the mosfets on the input side… you’ll see cracking at the solder joints. Sometimes it’s just a low quality joint… but often enough it comes from fluctating power and the resultant rapid heating/cooling on the power steppers inside the device.

Electronics are not sensitive. Some of the most robust protection in a building is already inside electronics. ‘Sensitive’ comes from hearsay, fear, and advertising. It exist when numbers are ignored. Best protection is more commonly known as ‘whole house’ protection. That one protector is so effective because it connects within feet to earth ground. Earth ground does the protection. A protector is only a connecting device to what does protection. That same solution must already exist on incoming phone, cable TV, and satellite dish wires. Installed for free. The most common source of damage is incoming on the one utility wires that have no properly earthed protection. Local utility (Con Edision?) may even install and rent one. But again the earth ground (that a homeowner is responsible for) defines protection. A plug-in protector (adjacent to appliances) does not claim to protect from a type of surge that typically does damage. Again, do not ignore numbers.

What westom is trying to say confusedly, I think, is that a type-2 whole-house surge protector is best. It’s a device which hooks up to a dedicated double-pole breaker in the circuit box and costs abt $100\. Easy to install. Best practice supposedly is to add strip suppressors for sensitive/expensive components (including that Subzero frij). But in an urban environment w/o utility poles susceptible to crashing, when have you ever heard of an issue (me: never in 40 years.) So it depends on your risk-averseness. Also, doesn’t home insurance cover damage?

If anything needs protection, then everything needs that protection. What will protect a dishwasher, furnace, GFCIs, CFL bulbs, clocks, and the most important item during a surge – smoke detectors? Do you spend $thousands on plug-in protectors (as so many electrically naive recommend)? Or do you spend about $1 per protected appliance for the solution found in every facility that cannot have damage? Do you learn of the solutions well proven by science? Or what is recommended by others only educated by advertising? Protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate. Either that surge is inside hunting for earth destructively via appliances (and ignoring plug-in protectors). Or that surge is harmlessly connected to earth by one ‘whole house’ protector. Two completely different devices that only share a common name – surge protector. One is hypes in advertising and hearsay. Another is the only solution proven by over 100 years of sciences and experience. Only the latter will protect all household appliances – as well as plug-in protectors. Yes, even those need protection from the rare and destructive type of surge.

My tech guru says to use them on computers, audio equipment & the like.