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Rajaah

Rajaah

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Need to get two decent surge protectors and don't want to spend an arm and a leg. One for living room, one for office room. That's where my two TVs are and they're the main things I want to protect. One TV has the PS5 next to it, one has my computers next to it, so I can include those. Don't really need anything else protected, just those two rooms.



These are the two I was looking at potentially getting. Unsure if that means 2 of one or 1 of each or what.

Also I have a question about specifically these surge protectors, because I've read conflicting things in the past: Once a surge happens and they're "tripped", does that mean they're done as a surge protector and basically just function as a power strip from then on? Or can they take a couple more surges? Or infinite if none of the surges are super bad? I get that a lightning strike will probably fry anything. I'd hate to spend $200 on a surge protector and have it only block one surge. Though I suppose it's better than having to buy a new TV, which is the point.
 
Hateyou

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Rajaah said:
Need to get two decent surge protectors and don't want to spend an arm and a leg. One for living room, one for office room. That's where my two TVs are and they're the main things I want to protect. One TV has the PS5 next to it, one has my computers next to it, so I can include those. Don't really need anything else protected, just those two rooms.



These are the two I was looking at potentially getting. Unsure if that means 2 of one or 1 of each or what.

Also I have a question about specifically these surge protectors, because I've read conflicting things in the past: Once a surge happens and they're "tripped", does that mean they're done as a surge protector and basically just function as a power strip from then on? Or can they take a couple more surges? Or infinite if none of the surges are super bad? I get that a lightning strike will probably fry anything. I'd hate to spend $200 on a surge protector and have it only block one surge. Though I suppose it's better than having to buy a new TV, which is the point.
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It depends what happened. Tripped just mean the safety measure built into it kicked in and broke the circuit, so electricity stopped flowing out of it and into other devices. This is what it means when a circuit breaker in your panel trips. If it gets too much amperage running through, it trips and kills the electron flow by breaking the circuit. I’m guessing most of the time that it trips it’s going to continue working once you have stopped whatever was causing the overload. If it’s using a fuse as the failsafe you would have to replace that because anything using a fuse to break a circuit...the fuse breaking is what causes the circuit to discontinue flow.

Now if something like lightning hits it, sure it might break after on trip. All kinds of weird shit happens when lightning is involved. Hopefully it takes the damage and save me your TV.
 
Erronius

Erronius

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Zapatta said:
or just become a real man and buy a multi-meter and learn to use it.
Click to expand...

I just broke down and got a new 87IV. All my old meters have gone tits up.

I looked at 787/789s but then I had to sit down and have a few beers before I could admit to myself that there's no fucking way I'd ever need one of those outside of work.

I tried to go with something other than Fluke years ago, and got an Amprobe. I wasn't too very happy or impressed with it.
 
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BrutulTM

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Yeah the cheap meters work but once you're used to using a Fluke they just seem so shitty. My Fluke meter is nearly 13 years old and works exactly like the day I bought it.
 
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Hateyou

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Yeah for home use (and work really) Fluke is the way to go. A few weeks ago we had a director at work thinking he was going to have to gut his entire house because he was getting like 87 volts at his receptacles. He checks the neighbors house, same thing. So we are thinking maybe it’s a line problem, not just his house. Ask what meter he’s using and it’s some piece of Chinese named piece of shit, cheapest on Amazon he could find. We take a fluke out there...120.
 
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Rajaah

Rajaah

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Hateyou said:
It depends what happened. Tripped just mean the safety measure built into it kicked in and broke the circuit, so electricity stopped flowing out of it and into other devices. This is what it means when a circuit breaker in your panel trips. If it gets too much amperage running through, it trips and kills the electron flow by breaking the circuit. I’m guessing most of the time that it trips it’s going to continue working once you have stopped whatever was causing the overload. If it’s using a fuse as the failsafe you would have to replace that because anything using a fuse to break a circuit...the fuse breaking is what causes the circuit to discontinue flow.

Now if something like lightning hits it, sure it might break after on trip. All kinds of weird shit happens when lightning is involved. Hopefully it takes the damage and save me your TV.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think that makes sense.

My third TV (now in storage) once stopped working after a power outage. Then a couple days after that, it miraculously started working again and didn't have a problem since, until the day that I put it away a couple months ago because I'd bought a C1. I don't know what happened there but I get the feeling I was just lucky that the TV didn't get fried. Never heard of a TV ceasing to work and then starting to work again. After that I made sure to unplug the TVs during storms.

Should I just get 2x of the $70 Monster surge protectors? Is the more expensive one with battery backup worth it under any particular circumstance?
 
Hateyou

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Rajaah said:
Thanks, I think that makes sense.

My third TV (now in storage) once stopped working after a power outage. Then a couple days after that, it miraculously started working again and didn't have a problem since, until the day that I put it away a couple months ago because I'd bought a C1. I don't know what happened there but I get the feeling I was just lucky that the TV didn't get fried. Never heard of a TV ceasing to work and then starting to work again. After that I made sure to unplug the TVs during storms.

Should I just get 2x of the $70 Monster surge protectors? Is the more expensive one with battery backup worth it under any particular circumstance?
Click to expand...
The one with the battery backups I’d just use on things you’d want to use during a power outage like a router, pc, tv, etc. I have one hooked to my 3D printer and PC but unfortunately the power interruption still stops the printer if it happens.

I also had one on my sump pump until I got a dedicated AC/DC pump installed.
 
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Zapatta

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Erronius said:
I just broke down and got a new 87IV. All my old meters have gone tits up.

I looked at 787/789s but then I had to sit down and have a few beers before I could admit to myself that there's no fucking way I'd ever need one of those outside of work.

I tried to go with something other than Fluke years ago, and got an Amprobe. I wasn't too very happy or impressed with it.
Click to expand...

Problem with Flukes now is all the entry level ones are made in China. So you have to pony up big cash for a legit one. That or scour estate sales and swap meets to find older ones.
 
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Hateyou

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Problem with Flukes now is all the entry level ones are made in China. So you have to pony up big cash for a legit one. That or scour estate sales and swap meets to find older ones.
Click to expand...
Why isn’t there a rustled reaction in this forum Amod Amod ?
 
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BrutulTM

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I put a battery backup on my DVR and my modem/router. The DVR was because we get a lot of power blinks where the power just goes off for a few seconds but it would screw up any recordings I had going at the time which is pretty annoying. Love having the wifi work while the power is out though. The only downside is the one I have beeps every few seconds while the power is out and there's no way to shut it off. I don't need my UPS too tell me the power is out. I can tell because the lights aren't on.
 
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Dandai

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BrutulTM said:
I put a battery backup on my DVR and my modem/router. The DVR was because we get a lot of power blinks where the power just goes off for a few seconds but it would screw up any recordings I had going at the time which is pretty annoying. Love having the wifi work while the power is out though. The only downside is the one I have beeps every few seconds while the power is out and there's no way to shut it off. I don't need my UPS too tell me the power is out. I can tell because the lights aren't on.
Click to expand...
You can always optimize the design and perform some speakerectomy.
 
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Erronius

Erronius

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Hateyou said:
Yeah for home use (and work really) Fluke is the way to go. A few weeks ago we had a director at work thinking he was going to have to gut his entire house because he was getting like 87 volts at his receptacles. He checks the neighbors house, same thing. So we are thinking maybe it’s a line problem, not just his house. Ask what meter he’s using and it’s some piece of Chinese named piece of shit, cheapest on Amazon he could find. We take a fluke out there...120.
Click to expand...
So, my literal first thought was "Ha, wouldn't it be funny if some dumb Chinese engineer designed a meter that accidentally calculated the RMS value from 170, not once, but twice?"

Well, I'll be fucking damned if (170/sqrt2)/sqrt2 isn't 85v
 
Erronius

Erronius

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BrutulTM said:
Yeah the cheap meters work but once you're used to using a Fluke they just seem so shitty. My Fluke meter is nearly 13 years old and works exactly like the day I bought it.
Click to expand...
Well, I think the old vintage Amprobe clamp meters were solid for the day, but most of the people that used them back then are probably dead or at the very least retired by now.

So I thought..."how bad could this red/yellow multimeter + clamp be? They used to make good shit!"




Unrelated but this made me LOL:

1632521455571.png
 
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Erronius

Erronius

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Zapatta said:
Problem with Flukes now is all the entry level ones are made in China. So you have to pony up big cash for a legit one. That or scour estate sales and swap meets to find older ones.
Click to expand...

I checked a few at work today.

There's an old 336 that says it was made in Thailand.

The 87IV at work, I took out of the rubber boot...and I couldn't find anywhere on it where it said where it was made. Just...nothing. It occurred to me later to check if it's stamped on the yellow rubber somewhere.

I checked my old 77 that I bought in the early 90s I think, and it def says it was made in the US. (unfortunately I smashed the screen eventually and according to repair sites, they're a PITA to swap out on that model)

The new 87 I bought for myself just had a 'country of origin: US' sticker on the box. I'll have to look it over closer later.
 
lurkingdirk

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Does anyone have experience with small ponds and fish over winter? My kids put in a 300 gallon pond this year, and there are koi in it. It's about 30 inches deep and has a waterfall. What do I need to do for the winter? I was thinking shut off the water fall, get a bubbler, and one of those floating heaters to make sure it never freezes over. Is that going to do it? I can throw food pellets in there. It doesn't freeze too hard here for very long, though we periodically have a week at a time of -30.

Anyone with experience?
 
Hateyou

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lurkingdirk said:
Does anyone have experience with small ponds and fish over winter? My kids put in a 300 gallon pond this year, and there are koi in it. It's about 30 inches deep and has a waterfall. What do I need to do for the winter? I was thinking shut off the water fall, get a bubbler, and one of those floating heaters to make sure it never freezes over. Is that going to do it? I can throw food pellets in there. It doesn't freeze too hard here for very long, though we periodically have a week at a time of -30.

Anyone with experience?
Click to expand...
Does freezing over kill them? If it doesn’t freeze too hard I’d think they’d just live through it like normal? There are massive koi at ponds here in Indiana which has hard freezes and they live. It’s a much larger pond though. 300 may just freeze solid, how deep is it?
 
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