Bought a $500 Surge X and don’t know if I want to return or not

[Pancreas]

I lived in Florida for decades and never had any equipment fry or fail tbh

Also this surge protector has a chemical smell, it has been a one week it has reduced a little but still there.

This made me rethink if I really need this or not.

I could’ve bought a 10-12 outlet Tripplite and call it a day, what are the chances of it failing?

I don’t know if i should keep the surge X. I have till June 10 to request a return on eBay

I wanted to be cool and have supposedly the best protection but $500 i dont know what inwas thinking and the smell made me rethink it now lol

I could keep it and wait till the smell go away if not resell on ebay or here which would not get me what i paid for

Or could return and just use a MoV as everyone else. Maybe I drank the koolaid and fell for the gimmick?

Im sure they better than mov but $500 or $600

And top of that it smells

 

[Zensō]

I lived in Florida for decades and never had any equipment fry or fail tbh

It seems like you answered your own question.

 

[Pancreas]

It seems like you answered your own question.

Yes but back then i didnt have the equipment i have now and plan on buying more in the future for my desktop setup so

Back then i had a crappy laptop and cheap speakers on a simple tripplite or home depot power strip

Yet here in florida there are storm and hurricanes maybe ive been lucky

Maybe i should just keep it and wait for the smell to go away otherwise I’ll sell it here or ebay i wont get back my $500 tho

 

[LTig]

Return it - the smell means that the unit emits potential unhealthy chemicals and I would not trust a company which sells such stuff ...

 

[fpitas]

$500 sure sounds like a lot, even if it works. Tripp Lite makes a bunch for much less.

 

[Timcognito]

If you own your home consider a whole house surge protector. Installed, total cost $700-800 much better saves your fridge, AC and all your stuff.

 

[raindance]

The Surgex series surge technology really works and is superior to MOV's all day long. We use it for TV studio gear all the time. The smell should dissipate and it's the weirdest reason I've ever heard for returning an electrical product.

But you could also consider a whole house product using series mode technology.

 

[Zensō]

Yes but back then i didnt have the equipment i have now and plan on buying more in the future for my desktop setup so

Back then i had a crappy laptop and cheap speakers on a simple tripplite or home depot power strip

Yet here in florida there are storm and hurricanes maybe ive been lucky

Maybe i should just keep it and wait for the smell to go away otherwise I’ll sell it here or ebay i wont get back my $500 tho

Perhaps. I guess after 40 years of using garden variety surge protectors with no issues whatsoever, I find it hard to believe you need to spend $500. Whatever helps you sleep at night though…

 

[Cbdb2]

The Surgex series surge technology really works and is superior to MOV's all day long. We use it for TV studio gear all the time. The smell should dissipate and it's the weirdest reason I've ever heard for returning an electrical product.

But you could also consider a whole house product using series mode technology.

How do you know? Have you ever had a surge?

 

[raindance]

How do you know? Have you ever had a surge?

I haven't, but I've worked on plenty systems that have.

 

[amirm]

I lived in Florida for decades and never had any equipment fry or fail tbh

We lived there as well and got hit with a nasty lightning. My wife was on (wired) phone and got shocked! Even Romex wiring behind walls got damaged! So did my Carver receiver at the time. That said, it is doubtful any surge protector would have survived this kind of event.

 

[Pancreas]

My fear with MOV ones is that I read so many stories, reviews with photos of them burning or frying electronics during a storm, I mean they're so cheap at $20-40, chances are some of them may be faulty, i found these reviews and stories from all brands, some more than others it seems

I read many stories of people's play stations 5s for example being friend despite using a surge protector. I got stuff more valuable than my ps5

considering I live in south florida where storms and hurricanes happen often, I'm surprised I never had any issues before, but I didn't have all the equipment I have now back then

and I also plan on buying more equipment as I'm a guitar player, so I will be buying an amp modeler and other stuff which needs power

A while ago I made a thread is zero surge and surge x are worth it and people said yes, now i get comments that it may not? lol

I could've bought zero surge $325 but i wanted 10 outlets not 8

 

[restorer-john]

How do you know? Have you ever had a surge?

We get them often.

Above ground power lines on elevated ridgelines with a lot of tall trees. Lightning strikes and high winds cause branches and whole trees to fall on power lines in summer. Cables get shunted together which results in massive make/break voltage surges even if the power stays on. All my neighbours in this street lost their TVs, microwaves, routers and several PCs last storm season.

All I lost was a few LED light bulbs in ceiling fittings, not on the protected circuits.

Only six months ago, a speeding car less than 1km away, hit another head-on resulting in one car taking down a power pole with the 33kV main feed to our little area. The resulting swinging/shorting cables surged multiple times before the trip shut down the power. I had one computer on an unprotected GPO taken out as it was turned on at the time. Everything else in the house behind surge protection was fine. Not so lucky my neighbour with his brand new TV he was watching at the time.

All the overhead power (11kV/33kV) cables in this area have fibreglass tie rods to help prevent the potential swing together short circuit and HV surges. Imagine standing on your garden hose and blocking the water flow for a second, then stepping off. The resulting surge of water is of greater speed and pressure, then quickly settles back to normal. That's exactly what happens in the situation described above.

 

[Zensō]

Well, after reading some of the anecdotes here, please ignore my comments. It seems I would be wise to invest in a better surge protector.

 

[Timcognito]

Lightning Myths - Surge protectors and UPS devices provide total lightning protection

 

[Pancreas]

So should I keep it or return? lol

I unscrewed the top and of course the smells comes from the components, I left it open in the living room to air out.

I had a similar experience with Genelec speakers, they had a strong smell coming from inside, I opened and left them in the living room like that so the component inside air out for like 3 months before the smell was almost gone, tho there was still a very tiny faint, but I put them in my room with no problem

The problem here is the product may be "made in the USA" but the component inside are surely from China, one of them says made in china so lol

it may be assembled in the usa and maybe the steel enclosure is made in the usa but the parts is made in China

same for genelec, many of their inside components are made in china

so made in USA or europe doesnt mean squat nowadays, all it means it was assembled and may some parts are usa

 

[Zensō]

Lightning Myths - Surge protectors and UPS devices provide total lightning protection

Great article, thanks for that. This is the takeaway, I think:

”Some could argue that the risk of a direct strike to any given house is too low to justify unplugging everything for every storm that passes overhead. There is some truth to that. It's wise then to make sure your homeowner's or renter's insurance covers lightning damage, and all of your devices are inventoried and covered by the policy. Insured expensive electronics can be replaced, after all. However, consider irreplaceables such as the data saved on your computer (photos, videos, work files, etc). You can mitigate that risk by performing frequent offsite backups and/or storing data on an external hard drive that you can unplug when needed.”

 

[Pancreas]

Return it - the smell means that the unit emits potential unhealthy chemicals and I would not trust a company which sells such stuff ...

all companies use chinese components i have found this with many brands like Genelec that supposedly is "green environment" and made in europe

 

[restorer-john]

Some could argue that the risk of a direct strike to any given house is too low to justify unplugging everything for every storm that passes overhead. There is some truth to that.

Consider that a direct lightning strike is not what I am talking about. I've had a close <100M direct lightning strike to the power line and the damage is indiscriminate. A cable modem connected to both power and cable coax was actually blown into tiny pieces. Plastic casework and all. Bits all over my garage. And yet the garage door opener was fine on the same power socket. The motorised remote gate controller PCB was blown apart and two airconditioners had their control PCBs vaporised.

Even unplugging electronic items is no defence against a direct strike- the mains cables act as an antenna for induced damage.

My neighbour opposite had a large gum tree struck directly, we were all standing looking at the storm as it happened. Scary loud and bright. Took out pretty much everything in his house, including the brand new solar grid connected inverter he'd just had installed.

The power line surges I described in the previous post above are common and surge protectors will go a long way to prevent damage to sensitive connected gear. My entire lab test bench sits behind two serious surge protection systems and is usually unplugged when storms are around.

 

[Timcognito]

Consider that a direct lightning strike is not what I am talking about. I've had a close <100M direct lightning strike to the power line and the damage is indiscriminate. A cable modem connected to both power and cable coax was actually blown into tiny pieces. Plastic casework and all. Bits all over my garage. And yet the garage door opener was fine on the same power socket. The motorised remote gate controller PCB was blown apart and two airconditioners had their control PCBs vaporised.

Even unplugging electronic items is no defence against a direct strike- the mains cables act as an antenna for induced damage.

My neighbour opposite had a large gum tree struck directly, we were all standing looking at the storm as it happened. Scary loud and bright. Took out pretty much everything in his house, including the brand new solar grid connected inverter he'd just had installed.

The power line surges I described in the previous post above are common and surge protectors will go a long way to prevent damage to sensitive connected gear. My entire lab test bench sits behind two serious surge protection systems and is usually unplugged when storms are around.

Wow that's a lot of damage. With that environment wouldn't a whole house mains surge protector at the breaker box make the most sense?