Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards The Wisdom (Or Lack Thereof) of Surge Protectors

Mac.... You're trying to tell everyone that they have little risk. When they know from experience that they do.
You're also telling everyone that things don't quit working right (goofy). When they do. They all know that power problems can do damage to electronics that leave the electronics not working right. They work. But not the way they should. Then you ignore problems that are caused by others on the same side of a transformer that you are. You think that when somebody has most of the things in their home on, then hit the main breaker. That doesn't cause a spike? They don't know to shut things down individually first. You think when people have bad things plugged in that they can't cause problems on your line like partial discharge? They can't insert a radio signal to ride on the neutral into your power? All kinds of things can happen. You think that when a business close by has a problem and their mains shut down while operating at full capacity that it doesn't cause a spike? That and the fact that some of us live hundreds of miles from the closest main generator introduces other problems.
All of that and the fact that companies are cutting costs. Even government entities are doing the same. Leaving less responsible maintaining of everything. Because it costs less to competently and responsibly maintain? Just let the lawyers fight it. Even buying cheaper transformers that cost less initially but cost more in losses and problems. I won't mention a name on transformers to leave Piano World without problems. I've seen that name around here a lot. They're junk!

Then we all know that a computer running ms is constantly doing goofy things. That's the norm. It costs money and time to try to get it straight. And you never quite do that. People have gotten used to goofy.

The only thing we can agree on is decent protection.
I don't think even a good surge supressor is adequate. Need more.
It's just my opinion that my Tripp Lite power conditioner is good enough. It ain't no slouch. Yes I do have to face the fact that electronics to isolate power quality are much cheaper than an actual isolation transformer. Yes, the isolation transformer will still respond to the voltage being fed it. Perhaps the electronics are better overall?
I just can't see paying five times as much for a voltage regulator that has fancy things like a digital voltage readout. What the heck do I need that for?
I don't agree with depending on insurance. When the device may be left working but not working right. The insurance company will resist a claim.
Then I got this guy accusing me of "smarmy". When you ignore too much.

Nope. I'm saying that (a) surge damage is not very likely at home (in modern homes), and (b) cheap suppressors are nearly worthless, and (c) marketing fear and obfuscation sells lots of those cheap suppressors (needlessly), and (d) insurance is a cheaper (and better) protection than those.

And (e), as Tritium pointed out ... non-home venues often have flaky power problems that don't match the home profile, which then calls for a different view.

Also, reconsider your thinking on the subject of risk. It's more than just "the likelihood of a power strike".

Risk also includes the likelihood that such a strike will cause a problem, which is quite low. We're hit with surges quite frequently, but most equipment will handle them in stride most of the time ... without our ever knowing anything happened.

And risk also includes the cost consequences of the problem.

Balancing all of that, many people will find better and cheaper protection at home from insurance than from surge equipment. Such insurance is cheap because insurers know that the risk of loss is quite low.

(f) Most vintage gear were designed to be very tolerant of bad power without leading to fail.

My old Rhodes suitcase could handle situations that would fry my SV-1. IC circuits are highly susceptible to damage from bad power and even static electricity. Transistors on the other hand are much more capable of handling the occasional power glitch. Tubes much more so.

I'm sitting here. Practicing and studying my music.
We have a thunderstorm moving in. We have dramatic thunderstorms here. Twice there has been a fault in the electrical grid. Both times my conditioner I could hear relays kicking in and covering the glitch. Didn't even phase my electronics. It's like nothing at all happened.

You all should know. The electric companies operators have something they call: "Three Strikes, You're Out." That is the computers are set up to cover a fault. If something faults. The computers automatically switch the routing and turn it back on. Within a fraction of a second. The computers will do this twice more. If it fails the third time. It's shut down. The operators have to call a guy at home. Get him out of bed. He goes out and inspects the circuit in person. Either he finds the fault. Or if he can't find anything. He turns it back on himself, manually.
Basically...when your electricity goes out. This is why it flickers back on three times before it stays out. Three Strikes, You're Out.

I'm very happy with how my Conditioner acted tonight.

This issue came up at our last gig. I usually use only one keyboard (pc361) with a weighted controller midi'ed into it. I decided to bring out another board that was sitting around, and that meant I had to use a submixer, a small Rolls that has always worked well.

Big nasty ground hum. I typically don't need to use a DI since we run sound from stage, and the pc361 direct outs are balanced. The Rolls mixer is unbalanced; so, a DI might have corrected the issue to be sure, though I may have needed two since the Rolls outs go to main mixer and my monitor speaker.

All that said, the bass player let me plug my power extension into his power conditioner and it went away. I'm no electrician, perhaps it had more to do with which outlet on stage we both were using, the lights etc. But it got me thinking about it.

Another related issue: we've tripped circuit breakers in a couple of the small patio bars we've played at. I do not like my gear just going down like that, and it got me wondering whether a battery backup would be a good idea.

battery back-ups don't work on amplifiers

I was thinking just for my keys. I used cheapie powered speakers and I'm not as concerned with them. Out of curiosity, they don't work because too much juice or some other reason?

too much juice is correct.

The reason there are different capacities of Battery Back-ups is that the back-ups capacity has to exceed the current draw of what you plug into it.