Home Improvement

Rajaah · Saturday at 10:56 PM

Unearthed this surge protector in my box of old cords. When I turn it on, Grounded lights up but not Protected. What does that mean? Should I replace it?

Need a cord hub for my TV and systems, to put behind the entertainment center, and the main surge protector is otherwise occupied (and can't go behind furniture anyway, it needs to be accessible). Doing a big rearranging right now to make the TV room cleaner and more streamlined. It's been the exact same for six years.

Intrinsic · Saturday at 11:23 PM

Rajaah said:
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Unearthed this surge protector in my box of old cords. When I turn it on, Grounded lights up but not Protected. What does that mean? Should I replace it?

Need a cord hub for my TV and systems, to put behind the entertainment center, and the main surge protector is otherwise occupied (and can't go behind furniture anyway, it needs to be accessible). Doing a big rearranging right now to make the TV room cleaner and more streamlined. It's been the exact same for six years.

Pay the $6 and get one 5am overnight from Amazon.

Kobayashi · Sunday at 1:20 AM

Rajaah said:
View attachment 627152
View attachment 627153
Unearthed this surge protector in my box of old cords. When I turn it on, Grounded lights up but not Protected. What does that mean? Should I replace it?

Need a cord hub for my TV and systems, to put behind the entertainment center, and the main surge protector is otherwise occupied (and can't go behind furniture anyway, it needs to be accessible). Doing a big rearranging right now to make the TV room cleaner and more streamlined. It's been the exact same for six years.

The metal oxide varistors in there degrade as they soak up overvoltage events. They typically have a thermal fuse in front to protect from bursting in a high energy event or overheating as their leakage current gets too high. If the light is off, my assumption is the fuse tripped and there is no power going to the the protection circuit. It would be likely safe to plug in (you can have it plugged in in an open area and check for any hot spots to be sure), but isn't going to protect any downstream components. If you've already got something upstream of it, maybe that doesn't matter - I'd also make the determination based on what you expect to plug into it - since you're planning on hooking up TVs and systems, I'd probably just buy a new one and save this for people to plug in cell phone chargers or something elsewhere.

By the way, it depends on the power quality you have, but the rough rule of thumb is to replace surge protectors every 5 years (or immediately if there's some evidence they clamped a big event). I'd again base this on what you're actually connecting to it. If you had really high dollar stuff, I'd also look at getting something for the service entrance - it's actually mandatory in the NEC as of 2020. That'll be way more effective than these power strips anyway.

Rajaah · Sunday at 1:31 AM

Intrinsic said:
Pay the $6 and get one 5am overnight from Amazon.

Using a different one right now. Turns out one of the two outlets in the wall behind the TV is dead. I'll need to get that fixed. Going to order a giant wall-based surge protector and plug everything TV-related into that.

I reorganized the TV setup for the first time in many years, and bundled all the cords through the TV stand so for the first time ever I don't have cords hanging anywhere.

Koushirou should like this

Rajaah · Sunday at 1:37 AM

Kobayashi said:
The metal oxide varistors in there degrade as they soak up overvoltage events. They typically have a thermal fuse in front to protect from bursting in a high energy event or overheating as their leakage current gets too high. If the light is off, my assumption is the fuse tripped and there is no power going to the the protection circuit. It would be likely safe to plug in (you can have it plugged in in an open area and check for any hot spots to be sure), but isn't going to protect any downstream components. If you've already got something upstream of it, maybe that doesn't matter - I'd also make the determination based on what you expect to plug into it - since you're planning on hooking up TVs and systems, I'd probably just buy a new one and save this for people to plug in cell phone chargers or something elsewhere.

By the way, it depends on the power quality you have, but the rough rule of thumb is to replace surge protectors every 5 years (or immediately if there's some evidence they clamped a big event). I'd again base this on what you're actually connecting to it. If you had really high dollar stuff, I'd also look at getting something for the service entrance - it's actually mandatory in the NEC as of 2020. That'll be way more effective than these power strips anyway.

Service entrance?

Yeah, that's what I figured, the protection got tripped on it and it's usable but needs to be replaced. The other one I'm using still has protection on it, also mad old though. Getting something newer/better for that wall. It's only for the five TV-related cords. I can't get back there anyway. Using the actual good surge protector for everything else, need to relocate it since II'm no longer running all kinds of cords everywhere.

Next step is to fix up my entire place the way I fixed up the TV area. I moved in a couple years ago and it looks like I moved in last week, depression from a death will do that.

Kobayashi · Sunday at 7:39 AM

Rajaah said:
Service entrance?

Yeah, that's what I figured, the protection got tripped on it and it's usable but needs to be replaced. The other one I'm using still has protection on it, also mad old though. Getting something newer/better for that wall. It's only for the five TV-related cords. I can't get back there anyway. Using the actual good surge protector for everything else, need to relocate it since II'm no longer running all kinds of cords everywhere.

Next step is to fix up my entire place the way I fixed up the TV area. I moved in a couple years ago and it looks like I moved in last week, depression from a death will do that.

Service entrance is where the power comes into the house - it's installed at the meter or in your main electrical panel on a dedicated breaker. If it's old, I wouldn't necessarily count on it to protect things and it might be worth replacing even if a status light is still on.

Intrinsic · Sunday at 8:29 AM

I used to always joke about Silicone Avalanche Diodes only being there to die and that made them very SAD.

Control · Sunday at 9:32 PM

Kobayashi said:
If you had really high dollar stuff, I'd also look at getting something for the service entrance

Kind of a separate topic, but it sounds like you might know? To what extent can you reasonably (or maybe even unreasonably) lightning/surge-proof your house? I'm paranoid about lightning damage here. I've never had it happen, but it's bitten family members nearby a few times. The house was built in the 50's and largely has it's original electrics intact.

Kobayashi · Monday at 12:50 AM

Control said:
Kind of a separate topic, but it sounds like you might know? To what extent can you reasonably (or maybe even unreasonably) lightning/surge-proof your house? I'm paranoid about lightning damage here. I've never had it happen, but it's bitten family members nearby a few times. The house was built in the 50's and largely has it's original electrics intact.

I think those whole home arresters are a good additional step for most houses. That's probably as far as I'd reasonably go (whole home at service entrance, surge protection power strips for sensitive electronics). For convenience, your utility can even install them in the meter if they're not douchebags (mine is unfortunately the douchebag type and wants to make a subscription out of it).

Getting into unreasonable territory: you can buy isolation transformers for protecting specific devices (example: https://www.tech-america.com/item/t...w-surge-120v-4-outlet-6ft-cord-taa-gsa/is1000). I think you'd have to be talking some very high dollar amount electronics to consider going that far though.

Kajiimagi · Monday at 1:02 AM

Control said:
Kind of a separate topic, but it sounds like you might know? To what extent can you reasonably (or maybe even unreasonably) lightning/surge-proof your house? I'm paranoid about lightning damage here. I've never had it happen, but it's bitten family members nearby a few times. The house was built in the 50's and largely has it's original electrics intact.

Story time guys , take this for what it's worth.

On July5th 2002 my back went out at lunch the worst it's ever gone out before or sense (even counting the 7 back surgeries) AND my house was directly struck by lightning in one of those good ol hot humid air meets cooler land air motherfuckers of a thunderstorm in Myrtle Beach SC. Since at that time the power was bad about blinking mid day (brown out?) I had UPS units on anything electronic that I cared about. It went around / through multiple UPS & surge suppressors and fried all kinds of shit. It also fried every smoke detector. I walked around the house hunched over (back out) in the storm to make sure the house was not on fire. Also took 1 phase out of the 240v 1PH house transformer. Blew out my walls where it went to ground through the wood , blew all the vinyl siding off the house and set my plastic/vinyl dryer vent on fire. The insurance inspector that came over said he'd never seen lightning do that before. I had 2 Alienware PC's (when they were the Alienware) and one it blew cap banks off the PCB. My living room had a projection TV, a cable tv box, an OG Xbox, a DVD player, a receiver, and a PlayStation all plugged into the same UPS. It fried the DVD player and the Cable box but everything else was perfectly fine.

Point is a direct strike it doesn't much matter. That whole house arrestor may help in a near strike but a direct one? Nope. Thankfully where I live now we rarely see any lightning at all.

Control · Monday at 1:38 AM

Kobayashi said:
I think those whole home arresters are a good additional step for most houses. That's probably as far as I'd reasonably go (whole home at service entrance, surge protection power strips for sensitive electronics). For convenience, your utility can even install them in the meter if they're not douchebags (mine is unfortunately the douchebag type and wants to make a subscription out of it).

Getting into unreasonable territory: you can buy isolation transformers for protecting specific devices (example: https://www.tech-america.com/item/t...w-surge-120v-4-outlet-6ft-cord-taa-gsa/is1000). I think you'd have to be talking some very high dollar amount electronics to consider going that far though.

Oh, if those offer real protection that seems on the pretty reasonable side of things to me, although I might need something with a higher wattage rating. It doesn't really matter for most things, but every time it gets cloudy, I get a little paranoid about the computers, half because of the cost and half because of how much of a pain in the ass it would be if they got toasted. Got a couple of Furman PST-8 based on Wirecutter's review but was always skeptical about how much they'd really help.

Kajiimagi said:
Story time guys , take this for what it's worth.

On July5th 2002 my back went out at lunch the worst it's ever gone out before or sense (even counting the 7 back surgeries) AND my house was directly struck by lightning in one of those good ol hot humid air meets cooler land air motherfuckers of a thunderstorm in Myrtle Beach SC. Since at that time the power was bad about blinking mid day (brown out?) I had UPS units on anything electronic that I cared about. It went around / through multiple UPS & surge suppressors and fried all kinds of shit. It also fried every smoke detector. I walked around the house hunched over (back out) in the storm to make sure the house was not on fire. Also took 1 phase out of the 240v 1PH house transformer. Blew out my walls where it went to ground through the wood , blew all the vinyl siding off the house and set my plastic/vinyl dryer vent on fire. The insurance inspector that came over said he'd never seen lightning do that before. I had 2 Alienware PC's (when they were the Alienware) and one it blew cap banks off the PCB. My living room had a projection TV, a cable tv box, an OG Xbox, a DVD player, a receiver, and a PlayStation all plugged into the same UPS. It fried the DVD player and the Cable box but everything else was perfectly fine.

Point is a direct strike it doesn't much matter. That whole house arrestor may help in a near strike but a direct one? Nope. Thankfully where I live now we rarely see any lightning at all.

Yeah, there's only so much you can do of course, but I've known enough instances of people getting random shit popped in their house during storms to make me worry about it.

Intrinsic · Monday at 6:29 AM

Control said:
Oh, if those offer real protection that seems on the pretty reasonable side of things to me, although I might need something with a higher wattage rating. It doesn't really matter for most things, but every time it gets cloudy, I get a little paranoid about the computers, half because of the cost and half because of how much of a pain in the ass it would be if they got toasted. Got a couple of Furman PST-8 based on Wirecutter's review but was always skeptical about how much they'd really help.

Yeah, there's only so much you can do of course, but I've known enough instances of people getting random shit popped in their house during storms to make me worry about it.

As I was joking about above, when we do shelter design for telecom sites one portion of that includes installing a Type I at service entrance which was usually a large MOV (metal oxide varistor) and Type II (mov/sad hybrid maybe) at the panel. Additionally a Type III device at equipment. More importantly than all that was the ground system though.

These devices (the Type 1 at service especially) clamp to ground and expect a low impedance ground system. That’s way easier to design, implement, and test at a new tower site than it is at home. I was even going to ask one of my old Motorola R-56 guys to help design the grounding system at my new home build. But then realize we still lose equipment in full R-56 audited sites and the additional cost required to do something residentially… eh. In a direct strike situation like

Kajiimagi mentioned maybe it is helpful (that also happened to my best friend’s parent’s house, the pictures of the inside were crazy).

At the new home we’re going to prioritize a whole home SPD and work with the builder and electrician to find out how we can improve the grounding and ensure correct bonding. I know we can ask for a Ufer ground and upgrade a couple other small things without going bonkers on extra cost.

Sorry, rambling post since baby needed a bottle at 3:30am

Siliconemelons · Monday at 9:24 AM

Well, the Ikea Kitchen has been picked up...

I have a strong feeling the ikea people were watching us pack this up and taking bets on if we would get it all in.

Man-Van rocking and rolling!

Kitchen in a van!

There is this british sounding dude on youtube that does nothing but ikea cabinets and I have been watching, learning all the tricks and tips.. I think my only thing I need to research is where exactly should I put my drain in relation to my cabinet - as I am redoing that entire wall and will be running the pipes etc

Intrinsic · Monday at 9:50 AM

Siliconemelons said:
Well, the Ikea Kitchen has been picked up...

I have a strong feeling the ikea people were watching us pack this up and taking bets on if we would get it all in.

Man-Van rocking and rolling!

Kitchen in a van!

View attachment 627333

View attachment 627334

There is this british sounding dude on youtube that does nothing but ikea cabinets and I have been watching, learning all the tricks and tips.. I think my only thing I need to research is where exactly should I put my drain in relation to my cabinet - as I am redoing that entire wall and will be running the pipes etc

You’re doing a dishwasher? I went back and looked at the renderings and it looks like it. Conventional wisdom says it goes on the same side as the DW, however I’ve had it both ways in houses. Current house it is opposite side and it just makes it a slightly larger pain to run the water and drain lines across the adjacent cabinet.

Siliconemelons · Monday at 10:01 AM

Intrinsic said:
You’re doing a dishwasher? I went back and looked at the renderings and it looks like it. Conventional wisdom says it goes on the same side as the DW, however I’ve had it both ways in houses. Current house it is opposite side and it just makes it a slightly larger pain to run the water and drain lines across the adjacent cabinet.

Yeah the dishwasher is going to be right next to the sink - currently it is on a different wall and the water and drain line run behind the corner cabinet - as the current style of corner cabinet is not fully as deep as a normal base, I have my dishwasher, fridge lines running one way behind the corner-- and the main drain and main water lines running to the sink all behind the corner cabinet. - this time, the drain and water mains will come out the wall directly to the back of the sink cabinet - more traditional. Right now they feed in from the back/side...

I am still on the fence on if to do copper- as that is what is there, or do a pex or PVC transition... sometimes I give copper a single go- if it does not work, I just use a sharkbite and go about my day... I have 0 luck on soldering copper once its wet again. My copper currently from the wall, behind the corner cab into the sink is all sharkbites- they are 10+ years old no issues. But- the "in wall" and corner cabinet I can get to by just ripping off some drywall that backs the cabinets... in the new setup, it will be IN the wall behind ALL the cabinets - so I am more inclined not to use sharkbites until its in an exposed area under the sink... It will be like soldering a total of 4 90*s so...not that bad really.

edit: Seems the drain should pop in a little to the left or right of the drain - mine is center - so the p-trap can easily be put in.

Haus · Monday at 10:54 AM

Kobayashi said:
I guess it's too late to talk you out of getting boxwoods. I actually did the opposite of you, I ripped out boxwoods and replaced them with azaleas (granted in my case my porch is south facing and full sun). I couldn't stand the fucking bugs that hang around the boxwoods (boxwood leaf miners). I guess they're OK if you spray the shit out of them to kill the infestation (and then constantly keep up with it), but I didn't care to put that much effort into a shrub - they should be minimal maintenance in my opinion.

Yeah, I've had years of experience in dealing with Boxwoods at my grandmother's house (where I tend to still take care of tons of stuff). For my it's usually well controlled with 2-3 spray downs a year, which I can manage for something which looks good.

And in the back yard the Azaleas are actively already starting to put on new leaves, so I'm optimistic that by next year they'll be filling back out to their potential some (at least 4 of the 5... the smallest isn't kicking in as well as the others)

If I could get them looking like that pic you showed I'd be insanely happy.

Rajaah · 2026-05-08T09:36:39-0400

I have what might be a particularly dumb question. Got a new wall-mount surge protector for my new TV, but only one of the two outlets behind the TV actually works (the lower one). I called in a maintenance request to replace the outlet, but in the meantime, is it alright for the surge protector to be plugged into the lower one?

I ask because the surge protector has that little dildo poking out that's supposed to go in the lower outlet, and because I can't put it in the upper outlet, the dildo is just hanging out useless like an extra dick at an orgy. The box isn't flush against the wall and is slanted, and for all I know it isn't grounded correctly.

Yanno, I'm just going to keep using the old surge protector I was already using until maintenance gets the outlet replaced (hopefully either today or Monday), so it's mostly a question out of curiosity: Does that lower dongle on the surge protector play a role in grounding it correctly? Or is it just for added stability? It seems pretty unnecessary unless it contributes to the device's main function.

Lanx · 2026-05-08T09:46:35-0400

Rajaah said:
I have what might be a particularly dumb question. Got a new wall-mount surge protector for my new TV, but only one of the two outlets behind the TV actually works (the lower one). I called in a maintenance request to replace the outlet, but in the meantime, is it alright for the surge protector to be plugged into the lower one?

View attachment 627773
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I ask because the surge protector has that little dildo poking out that's supposed to go in the lower outlet, and because I can't put it in the upper outlet, the dildo is just hanging out useless like an extra dick at an orgy. The box isn't flush against the wall and is slanted, and for all I know it isn't grounded correctly.

Yanno, I'm just going to keep using the old surge protector I was already using until maintenance gets the outlet replaced (hopefully either today or Monday), so it's mostly a question out of curiosity: Does that lower dongle on the surge protector play a role in grounding it correctly? Or is it just for added stability? It seems pretty unnecessary unless it contributes to the device's main function.

the top outlet is probably connected to a light switch, throw a few switches up and the outlet will turn on, this used to turn on floor lamps

BrutulTM · 2026-05-08T11:05:23-0400

Rajaah said:
Does that lower dongle on the surge protector play a role in grounding it correctly? Or is it just for added stability? It seems pretty unnecessary unless it contributes to the device's main function.

It's just for stability.

Rajaah · 2026-05-08T12:07:59-0400

Lanx said:
the top outlet is probably connected to a light switch, throw a few switches up and the outlet will turn on, this used to turn on floor lamps

Wouldn't that control both outlets though?

There is a switch nearby that doesn't go with any ceiling lights. I'll give it a try.

Yep, that works, Big Lanx got it.

Weird that only half the outlet is connected to that switch and not the other half.

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