will a surge protector help with this? (1 Viewer)

[ThomasL]

I've made a few posts lately with regard to surge protectors since I'm currently doing a full house evaluation of all the cheap power strips/surge suppressors we're using and looking to replace them with some better units. One of the things that got me going down this path was that I noticed that when the washing machine motor turned on, there was a little blip of electrical noise sometimes on our main tv. I am pretty sure they are not on the same circuit and I don't know if it occurs on all tvs or on all channels since it happens so fast that it's impossible to reproduce in any controlled manner. In other words, I'm not sure if its coming from the electrical power or from some interference being introduced into the cable line. Right now, I have no cable protection/filtering in place and I have the tv plugged into an APC SurgeArrest Personal $20 surge protector. My question is: will a better model, say the Panamax Max8Coax or Tripp-Lite ISOBAR6DBS help to clean up this interference (whether its either on the cable or electrical line)? Or am I being overly optimistic? My main concern is if there is interference then something is "dirtying" the lines and that can't be good over the long run. I am probably going to replace the surge strip we have anyhow with one of the above models but I just want to know if the new better one will make any difference with regard to problems such as this.

thanks,


--tom

 

[Grant B]

I bought a Triplite and it has worked well. Make sure to add up all the power ratings on the equipment and ensure it'll provide that kind of power.

 

[Chu Gai]

if you've got your own house, you really ought to first install a whole house unit. if you're handy and electricity doesn't bother you, it's pretty cheap and you'll be doing the whole house a favor at a per appliance cost much much lower...then you can add some local redundancy for things like your HT.

 

[ThomasL]

Chu, I have looked at a few models at smarthome.com but while I am handy, I'm not electricity handy. Do you know how much installation by a licensed electrician would go for? Also, are the $200-300 models really any good for whole house protection? I'm assuming just like $10 strips in the individual surge protector world, you have the cheap units and the better units. Any models you recommend?


--tom

 

[ThomasL]

Just to followup, I bought and installed a Panamax MAX2 COAX unit next to where my cable line enters the house. I plugged the cable from the street into the COAX outlets and plugged the cable booster into one of its AC outlets. Since doing this, I've noticed a significant decreased in noise on the cable line when the washing machine or the oil burner fires up. I'd say it's almost completely eliminated it.

cheers,

--tom

 

[Chu Gai]

I've no idea what an electrician would cost in your area. Hopefully less than a lawyer! The type of unit for a whole house that you'd buy depends on several factors: where you live and the propensity to things like lightning, how long you plan on living there. But figure that places like Home Depot sells whole house units I think for under $200 and they'll protect agains common and differtial mode surges. They're installed such that their ground wire is less than 10 feet from the earth ground...that's critical. There are units that go outside and inside the house. I plan on making a trip this weekend to La Depot and I'll see what I can dig up. BTW, I think if you'd gotten a surge protector that also had silicon avalance diodes (SAD) it'd be a little more expensive but likely would've snagged that washing machine transient.