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Surge Protector


Rhino

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Hello, I am working on piecing together my home theater system. I am currently looking for a surge protection device to protect my equipment (tv, playstation, blu ray, etc) as well as provide additional outlets.

 

I see several Panamax units every time I browse pictures of others home theaters. Best Buy and Crutchfield both currently have the Panamax MR5100 on sale for $255. 

 

I'm open to other recommendations as well. I attempted to search, but it seems all the threads are rather old.

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I have used an old Monster HTS 3600 forever it seems with great results. We don't typically have much lightening in the Pacific NW. But we have plenty of wind and at times it causes brownouts. Mostly dependant on whether your power lines are run overhead or underground. Almost all of my HT/stereo system is run through the Monster. Never have had the least bit of problems or worry. My understanding from what I've read is that the Panamax brand is preferred by some. I don't know enough to say why, however. It's a great idea to use one.

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3 hours ago, KlipschFish said:

I have used an old Monster HTS 3600 forever it seems with great results. We don't typically have much lightening in the Pacific NW. But we have plenty of wind and at times it causes brownouts. Mostly dependant on whether your power lines are run overhead or underground. Almost all of my HT/stereo system is run through the Monster. Never have had the least bit of problems or worry. My understanding from what I've read is that the Panamax brand is preferred by some. I don't know enough to say why, however. It's a great idea to use one.

 

Thanks for the input. I live in TN and we frequently get strong lightning, and most recently devastating tornadoes. Power line runs about 400 feet up my driveway and then the last 100 foot is underground to the house. I have a an approximately 6 year old Monster HST1600  that has served me well for years, unfortunately I will need more plugs than it allows going forward. 

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56 minutes ago, Rhino said:

 

Thanks for the input. I live in TN and we frequently get strong lightning, and most recently devastating tornadoes. Power line runs about 400 feet up my driveway and then the last 100 foot is underground to the house. I have a an approximately 6 year old Monster HST1600  that has served me well for years, unfortunately I will need more plugs than it allows going forward. 

I'm in TX and very well familiar with lightning storms. 7 years ago almost all my equipment got killed by a lightning charge. After that I've installed 2 grounding rods and connected all audio-video equipment onto 3K+Joules rated 8 outlet RCA surge protector. 

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Surge/spike protectors have two specifications you should be interested in:

 

The amount of energy the unit can absorb, measured in Joules (the higher the number, the better).

 

Response time, measured in microseconds or milliseconds, I forget. Faster is better; lower number is better; microseconds are lower than milliseconds.

 

Example: 100 milliseconds is faster than 200 milliseconds. 900 microseconds is faster than 100 milliseconds.

 

A third spec, with lesser importance, is Clamping Voltage (what's the maximum voltage the unit will allow through to your equipment. Lower is better. The closer to line voltage (120VAC), the better.

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5 hours ago, Rhino said:

 

Thanks for the input. I live in TN and we frequently get strong lightning, and most recently devastating tornadoes. Power line runs about 400 feet up my driveway and then the last 100 foot is underground to the house. I have a an approximately 6 year old Monster HST1600  that has served me well for years, unfortunately I will need more plugs than it allows going forward. 

 

From what I can tell your unit has 8 plugins.  If you need more than that I'd just get another one or something similar.  I just hope you aren't looking for a single unit with more than 8 plugins.  That's a lot for one outlet to handle. 

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32 minutes ago, wuzzzer said:

 

From what I can tell your unit has 8 plugins.  If you need more than that I'd just get another one or something similar.  I just hope you aren't looking for a single unit with more than 8 plugins.  That's a lot for one outlet to handle. 


No, I plan to have multiple units. I had this wall in my living room put on its own breaker and three outlets installed when the house was built. They don’t make this unit anymore, in fact I don’t think monster makes power centers anymore, otherwise I would get another. Have no complaints about the unit. I just don’t like the idea of buying used electrical suppression devices either. 

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I

4 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

Good.

 

I've had a couple APC C10 units that have worked well. 

I use a couple of those as well, and I have the APC H15 which I am very happy with. I could have got a Furman elite-20 pf i the other day for $500 but I backed out of the deal. I didn't have a 20 amp line for it, which according to some reviews could have lead to issues. I know whole home surge protection is the golden ticket these days.

Edited by 314carpenter
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21 hours ago, Rhino said:

 

HST1600  that has served me well for years, unfortunately I will need more plugs than it allows going forward. 

That's why only most of my stuff goes through it. I ran out too. I don't think my Lp-12 needs it as it has an onboard power supply but I could be wrong.

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  • 2 months later...
On 4/22/2020 at 5:21 PM, Peter P. said:

Surge/spike protectors have two specifications you should be interested in:

 

The amount of energy the unit can absorb, measured in Joules (the higher the number, the better).

 

The good ones don't have a joules rating on it at all because they aren't made in such a way that revolves around an MOV that costs $1.80.  :)  Look at series-mode ones like SurgeX, Brick Wall, Zero Surge, Furman Elite.  

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the whole idea of a surge protector is to ward off damages to equipment , and when it does ,  the damages are translated into $  of lost money --------best advice is to buy the Tripplite ,  Belkin  etc -------surge protectors that have lifetime surge protection warranties -----   The 1 st line of defense being the protection of the equipment against surges , and the 2nd line of defense being the compensation in cases a surge does damage an equipment while the surge protector is plugged in -------------acting like an insurance policy against damages , it must cover damages for life -

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