PurePower 3000 AC Regenerator Review

[Geert]

In many villages în Europe, at 230Vac, the impedance is at 5 ohm. USA is not the entire world.

Great, because I live in Europe. Since we love an experiment I plugged a 1500W heater into the outlet that's furthest away from my main breaker box (about 15m). To simulate a real life scenario I even inserted a 4m 0,75mm² (17 AWG) extension cable. With the heater off I measured 231,6V, with the heater at full power that became 227,8V. Now you do the math. Hint: your 5 ohm number is about a factor 10 off.

 

[PristineSound]

Did this manufacturer made any claims on sonic differences?

If they only claim of cleaning up main power that is pretty dirty, then I have no qualms with this product.

 

[dasdoing]

Basically, an expensive online UPS?
Why not test one against these?

 

[dasdoing]

Just buy a double conversion UPS and stop being screwed by this kind of bs.

Amazon.com

much cheaper and better: https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-C...prefix=online+ups,electronics,167&sr=1-1&th=1

 

[PristineSound]

Basically, an expensive online UPS?
Why not test one against these?

much cheaper and better: https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCRM2U-Sinewave-Outlets-Rackmount/dp/B0B354X985/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DPZ1YTGDRO48&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BkMqbiRkKzQlJtkRWmew3BlR7qTAEhlWZmv1QvhIV48qtM-9ScZYc5Q0k1svG6md-1HcYR8Dca8UozT-utuKXj84hgIy5Th0_0HsEME98jfe9fT629-PGZjhEbHHMKeNsS01Oz96NO4s-Sr70JLMdU-l0VQcuS9tt76cconOXb6Nof8DkpLrtMohO0w1qsdh-TM89aqldIGiy2bDQmtU0BDthqxTB10kuqCfNFu0o9Enk44QiCdLdX5zTklwLMoyGhTb5Knzq3ugMcfAt7O9KUUWz2HFTI7xjdhlZHTPhEA.46Hxp6I98HGqSEX1xvzahhbrBVlu8yK3Jqa9L1o_MqU&dib_tag=se&keywords=online+UPS&qid=1748461459&refinements=p_72:1248879011&rnid=1248877011&s=electronics&sprefix=online+ups,electronics,167&sr=1-1&th=1

Almost all of the commercial computing double conversion UPS uses PWM, so they will introduce noise, though it is harmless for an adequately designed power supply in electronics.

I'm not saying this in any defense to power conditioners, I don't need them in my own home as my main power is very steady (albeit, I did at one point have DC offset, but no longer).

But there are legitimate power issues one may suffer, and the best solution that can resolved essentially any power issues is a double conversion power conditioner like this or a online UPS.

 

[amirm]

Basically, an expensive online UPS?
Why not test one against these?

As I said in the review, I plan to test some "solar generators." I like them better because they use lithium batteries unlike the unreliable lead acids still used in UPS systems. I just haven't had the time to test the two I have.

 

[xanalog]

Thank you for the candid review, @amirm,

Even if I consider some real bizarre catastrophic event on our powerlines and even if it destroyed my whole chain of A/V hardware: I could buy a brand new system and still have a thousand dollars remaining in my wallet.

This is their gremlin comparison chart:

"EMI/RFI" Addition or subtraction?
ooops

ADD: I do have a hand-me-down MonsterPower HTS-3600 for my AV system.

10 years on, it has a nice (V/I) meter and 8 LEDs for grounding, MOVs, etc. but I have no idea if it protects anything!

 

[lc6]

Not if the device has a linear supply, and I dont know enough about class D amps but my gut says no difference there. Unless you have a ridiculuos mains impedance like 5 ohms.

It depends on how much stored energy the device (i.e. amp) has in its PS caps and what the number of channels and power per channel are. Some with linear PS have only 2 x 10 mF caps, others, esp. high-end monoblocks, boast as much as 2 x 100 mF caps or more. Class D amps, typically fed by SMPS, typically have significantly less than that because the charge can be more frequently replenished.

 

[777]

Great, because I live in Europe. Since we love an experiment I plugged a 1500W heater into the outlet that's furthest away from my main breaker box (about 15m). To simulate a real life scenario I even inserted a 4m 0,75mm² (17 AWG) extension cable. With the heater off I measured 231,6V, with the heater at full power that became 227,8V. Now you do the math. Hint: your 5 ohm number is about a factor 10 off.

View attachment 453947

În a winter days I have sometimes 160Vac. The street electricity grid was very weak, probably because the step-down transformer was undersized for winter consumption. Without the UPS the audio system wouldn't even turn on. With the UPS inserted into the system, the audio system worked flawlessly.
About five years after I moved there, the poles, power lines, and transformers were replaced and now things are going well.

 

[lc6]

That's a solution in search of a problem.
Any wall outlet, can easily supply ten times its rated current for a good fraction of a second.

Sure, according to a typical breaker trip curve. But what about the voltage drop in such conditions? Consider a typical AWG 14 copper wire supplying a 15 A wall socket. Assuming a typical 25 ft branch circuit length, the loop resistance is 2 x 25 / 1000 x 2.525 = 0.12625 Ohm. So if you put 10 x 15 A through this circuit for a fraction of a second, the total voltage drop will be almost 19 V at the receptacle, which is almost 16% below the nominal 120 V. That may be outside the operating range for an amp, depending on the type of its PS.

That is why it is important to test such "AC regenerators/conditioners" at high dynamic loads. If they cannot provide high transient power, there is indeed no point to them, other than potentially their mains noise filtering capability.

 

[EERecordist]

Thanks for this. Thank you for the company supplying the device for test.

This opens an opportunity for improvement in supply. The company may be able to offer a product at a higher price if they like.

The field of electrical engineering, this falls into power engineering and further into power quality.

Does your audio device have hum? That is a faulty mains supply, transformer, power supply design and gain stage bypass filter capacitors, or leaky capacitors. This device does not solve that,

IEEE 519 specifies a desired grid limit of harmonics, currently 5%. As did Amir you can measure your supply with an FFT. Ting has a wide area network to measure it, though their motives in press releases are not objective. The maker could add more filtering.

Inverters are switching devices which by their nature produce harmonics. You can filter the harmonics with inductors and capacitors. You want a filter cutoff between 60 and 120 Hz and nothing above. That can be done by passive or active filters in the same chassis as the AC-DC-AC inverter.

 

[dasdoing]

Almost all of the commercial computing double conversion UPS uses PWM

it produces a sine wave: https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/pfc-sinewave/cp1500pfcrm2u/

PWM can't produce a sine wave.

 

[dasdoing]

What these generators are mostly about is mains voltages dropping waaayyy below the nominal value or increasing above certain levels (so poorly regulated mains for whatever reason). In that case the output voltage remains stable and does not sag.

here is my UPS log for the last 2 months (in portuguese but should be understandable):

 

[PristineSound]

it produces a sine wave: https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/pfc-sinewave/cp1500pfcrm2u/

PWM can't produce a sine wave.

Then I suppose class D amps can't generate a sine wave?

 

[Cbdb2]

So if you put 10 x 15 A through this circuit for a fraction of a second, the total voltage drop will be almost 19 V at the receptacle, which is almost 16% below the nominal 120 V.

150 amp pulses??? A linear supply would need a 160lb transformer, and your max level out of he amp only goes down .2db. And I dont think that power conditioner puts out anywhere near 150 amps.

 

[DualTriode]

So when you plug-in a 360W load in such an outlet voltage will drop back to about 105V (assuming an 120V standard supply voltage). Altough that's not a crazy load, that voltage drop is already more than double of what's recommended by the National Electrical Code (NEC). If that's a problem you experience at home you better spend your 5k$ on improving the wiring I guess. The PurePower website has a page of 10 potential issues their products intend to solve, and impedance problems are not even being mentioned so it must be an edge case at best.

I like to see that NEC code section, The recommended NEC max voltage drops are Fine Print Notes that are not enforceable. (only recommendations.)

 

[Hipster Doofus]

when i think of these devices and their cost i am reminded that my Phillips ultra sound or cat scan has no need of such a device.

 

[xanalog]

when i think of these devices and their cost i am reminded that my Phillips ultra sound or cat scan has no need of such a device.

Medical equipment (including their power sources) have regulations and standards much more strict and inclusive than those for consumer gear.

 

[michaelahess]

much cheaper and better: https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCRM2U-Sinewave-Outlets-Rackmount/dp/B0B354X985/ref=sr_1_1?crid=DPZ1YTGDRO48&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.BkMqbiRkKzQlJtkRWmew3BlR7qTAEhlWZmv1QvhIV48qtM-9ScZYc5Q0k1svG6md-1HcYR8Dca8UozT-utuKXj84hgIy5Th0_0HsEME98jfe9fT629-PGZjhEbHHMKeNsS01Oz96NO4s-Sr70JLMdU-l0VQcuS9tt76cconOXb6Nof8DkpLrtMohO0w1qsdh-TM89aqldIGiy2bDQmtU0BDthqxTB10kuqCfNFu0o9Enk44QiCdLdX5zTklwLMoyGhTb5Knzq3ugMcfAt7O9KUUWz2HFTI7xjdhlZHTPhEA.46Hxp6I98HGqSEX1xvzahhbrBVlu8yK3Jqa9L1o_MqU&dib_tag=se&keywords=online+UPS&qid=1748461459&refinements=p_72:1248879011&rnid=1248877011&s=electronics&sprefix=online+ups,electronics,167&sr=1-1&th=1

Definitely not better, research the types of ups, that one is cheap crap.

 

[Short38]

To me, this is aluminum hat country. But thank you amirm for the review.