Power Surge Protector Recommendation?

I have an old surge protector bought years ago and it is 600 joules I believe. Not long ago, there was thunder and because of that sparks came out of my old dell xps 15 9550 laptop where the hdmi port fried and a cable matters ethernet adapter cable also fried. Besides that, this old laptop works fine. However, will not be using it as my main laptop anymore.


I bought a new dell xps 15 9520 laptop and will be planning to use it as my main machine. Because of that incident, I also bought a new ethernet adapter and ethernet cable and even a new sabrent 4 port usb a hub. The sabrent 4 port usb a port hub works fine but I didn't want to try it. The 1 port where the ethernet fried still works though. But you recommend not using it anymore with the new laptop?


Now, I should get a new surge protector because of this incident right? I know it still works but I should definitely get a new one because it might cause damage to anything I connect to? I would be connecting my laptop charger to it, 2 external monitors, modem/router and charger for iphone etc. If so, how many joules should be the minimum? Is there any specific ones to avoid? Does it need to say grounded or whatever is the name? Thank you.

The Tripp-Lite isobar series, and grounding is important.

new one for sure, Amazon (or elsewhere) 6 outlet+two USB

tripp lite 2100 joules $ 37.00

newmann said:

Now, I should get a new surge protector because of this incident right?

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Definitelly, considering the damage already caused. Surge protection cost like $30, so it is worth it. Make sure it has an ethernet protection as well, it might have saved you before. Warranty for connected devices says something about the quality. For example:

Tripp Lite ISOBar for the win.


Dis one...

@newmann

Hello, Newmann.

Wide selection out there. I'm a Belkin fan personally, but it is just one brand of many good ones.

It is important that it has a 'grounded' indicator on it. However, that is worth nothing if the receptacle you are plugging it into is not grounded. Although it's been code requirement for years, it means nothing if you happen to live in an older home. And to add insult to injury, even if the circuit it's on is grounded, I have seen some that (for whatever reason), was not grounded. Trust me, it happens.

If you should (unlikely) find that to be the case, I can tell you how to circumvent the situation, and make it a grounded plug. Not something I would post on the open forum but, would gladly walk you through it in private conversation.

Don't assume that just because it is a three prong receptacle, that it is automatically grounded.


Good luck on finding something that suits your needs.

The one recommendation I have is don't go cheap. It is much safer to spend a little extra and get the best you can find. Don't go with a discount brand.

Well where I am located, some brands you probably can't get. I am not in the US when I am over there.


I do believe I saw triple litte brand there. But what about the joules? What is the minimum i should get for that?


Also the building I am located in is very old. Lot of buildings are very similar where I am located. So there is nothing I can do about this then right?

The biggest issue is that surge protectors require a good ground connection to work properly. First step would be a voltmeter to check for voltage between hot and ground. It should be the same as hot to neutral. However, a surge protector with a ground light should work also (for checking the ground).

An alternative method for checking for ground is that there should be zero resistance between a ground wire and a copper water pipe.

The issue here is it is an old building. Most buildings there are like that so I can't do anything about it.


Also... I mentioned I have an old UPS bought years ago. The issue is last time when I unplugged it from the wall outlet and then plug my laptop into it... the UPS immediately turned off. Someone suggested that means the UPS battery went bad right? However, I believe if the UPS is connected to the wall outlet... it still charged my laptop? Can someone tell me if that is true or false? I also remember I didn't power it on and I think it worked.


Also I mentioned that when I bought the UPS years ago, I made a mistake of letting it unplugged for over a month. After that, I always had it plugged into the wall outlet... but the main thing here was I almost never powered it on. Someone mentioned this could damage the UPS... but someone else said it wouldn't. So which is true? Back then I only would use the UPS when it was power outage. I did tested it few times but that was it. So could I actually use this old UPS as a surge protector now temporarily or not? Because the battery I believe went bad. But is it still usable though if it is plugged into the wall outlet? Back then I had all my electronics connected to a surge protector. The UPS was connected to the wall outlet but I rarely if ever connected anything to the UPS... which is what I should have done in the firsr place.

I use a ups as a power strip. They warranty downstream devices. And they can be used for emergency power when the power is out. Always worked well for me.

I have this Tripp Lite. Seems to work well on power outages. No experience with lightning. I bought it over the isobar for reasons that I can't recollect at the moment.


Also, make sure you do not have a path to your PC or valuable equipment that bypasses the surge protection. For instance this path for lighting through the cable.

Cable -> Cable modem -> Ethernet cable -> router plugged into the surge protector.

I have 5 each of the:

CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD Intelligent LCD UPS System, 1500VA/900W, 12 Outlets, AVR, Mini-Tower​

I use one for each of my 3 laptops.
One for my Printer, Router, and Modem.
One as a spare/backup.

I love them and have used that brand for many years.

The one I linked in post #5....


Scroll down for the features... the main one being...

Resettable circuit breaker protects against overloads

Click to expand...

Rather than frying your hardware... it will pop the circuit breaker.
Just like an air conditioner plug or GFI plug.

Ghot said:

The one I linked in post #5....


Scroll down for the features... the main one being...


Rather than frying your hardware... it will pop the circuit breaker.
Just like an air conditioner plug or GFI plug.

Click to expand...

That does protect against your equipment drawing too much current, but not surge. They generally have MOVs to protect against surges.

geneo said:

That does protect against your equipment drawing too much current, but not surge. They generally have MOVs to protect against surges.

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It has those as well. Read the features. You need to scroll down a bit to see them at the amazon link.

Ghot said:

It has those as well. Read the features. You need to scroll down a bit to see them at the amazon link.

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I know. Just pointing to the topic. Most name-brand surge protectors have resettable circuit breakers too. The tripp-lite I posted does. It also has. It also confirms that the outlet is properly grounded. Also check to make sure they are UL certified.

geneo said:

I know. Just pointing to the topic. Most name-brand surge protectors have resettable circuit breakers too. The tripp-lite I posted does. It also has. It also confirms that the outlet is properly grounded. Also check to make sure they are UL certified.

Click to expand...

Yep, yep.

Ghot said:

Yep, yep.

Click to expand...

I think I didn't go for the isobar because the number of outlets - I needed 10 - and 4 of them spaced apart to accommodate transformer bricks.
But honestly, I don't need the telephone line protection. You'd think they would get off their arses and protect something relevant to this century.