We get power surges and outages here once in a while more often than I would like. The latest power outage this morning seems to have damaged the surge protector for the computer. Computer is fine but I have to bypass the phone line around the surge protector or I can't get on the net. I can only assume it has something to do with the power outage this morning.

Last summer I had a surge that caused my 1/3rd hp. rotary vane compressor to run backwards. Need to see if I can get that fixed before I use it this spring.

Anybody every heard of this? I'm sure holding the power company responsible is only in my dreams right?

You can try the reset button if you have one. More than likely the phone surge protector is made for large surges like lightning and is cheaply made to burn out on such an occasion. If that is the case you will need to replace the unit for the telephone protection to work. The electrical surge is probably still working but I would use it to protect something much cheaper and get a new protector for my computer with phone protection.

Thanks! I see a button on the side. I'll ask the wife what she wants to do when she gets home.

Definitely need to protect the computer. We has our first computer fried because the surge protector didn't do its job. (Wallmart special)

Cecil,
Get an UPS (uninterupted power supply) with phone line protection. It's worth the $.

Cecil Baird1 - How soon you forget the geeks and nerds that lurk out here (thinking back……… a week or two)!

Ric is right about a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) for your computer, network and phone system.

The other electrical anomalies are more concerning. If you could detail them in a side-mail, I could possibly offer a thought or two.

Geek-Nerd, Dwight

I have had PC's for 15 years. Repaired my own for 13 years. Built my own for ten years. I have three PC's running test programs 24 hours a day as we speak and I have never owned a UPS. I have always used serge protectors. once data is written to the hard drive it can be recovered. The small amount of data loss in ram is not worth the high cost of UPS. I will add-- If my business depended on it and I was not computer savvy, I would use a UPS.

Guys,

The wife tells me we have three fried surge protectors in the recycle bin. One of them is a UPS.

You have electrical problems in your home. You need to check these out immediately as they could lead to a fire. Do you ever throw circuit breakers? If not it could be caused by the electric company. Get them involved first as the cost might be theirs.

Cecil,
I live just down the road form a good sized ski area and when they cycle the lifts on or off I was getting surges powerful enough to burn out TV's Microwaves, and of course computers. After burning up more surge supressors than I can count I had a "whole house surge supressor" installed. It is a small box mounted outside my breaker box and wired through a 220 breaker (so it protects both legs) anyway, that coupled with surge supressors at each point of use (only my computer and printers now) and I haven't had a problem since. If properly installed (meaning pay an electrician to do it) they will cover you for up to $10,000 in equipment damage above what your homeowners will pay. You have to register that you installed a unit with the manufacturer before making a claim. I have no idea if the insurance part of the system works well or not because it solved the problem and I never had another failure. The unit cost me about $100 plus installation and since the electrician was here anyway I don't know what he charged specifically to install it but he was done, start to finish in 30 minutes.

There are many types and costs of AC voltage regulators which can be used. I would look into using a UPS in which the AC voltage is always being generated internal of the UPS, ie, the line voltage is converted to DC, which has a DC to AC inveter producing the AC. If you lose line voltage, the DC from the battery produces the DC for ihe inverter. It is seemless and instantaneous. A 500VA unit will be sufficient for several electronic items.

If this is above the cost range, a buck/boost isolation trnsformer can be installed. This will filter out voltaage spikes(very rapid transients), and has a special winding to either add to or subtract from the output voltage to maintain it to 120vac.

I would first ask the elec. company to connect a voltage max./min. monitor so that the voltage fluctuations can be recorded. Sounds like their problem, but getting them to address it, may be tricky. Has anyone else on the immediate vacinity had problems?

The compressor running backwaards sounds strange. Give the model #, assume a gast? I will look up the type motor and comment.

No we don't throw any circuit breakers. Been here 11 years with no fires. My dad is an electrican but he won't be back from Florida until May. I'm going to make a call to the Power company. Pretty sure it's the outside power coming in that causes the problems.

I had a similar problem in the past that was eventually diagnosed and fixed by the power company. During that ordeal, I found that a series mode surge protector was able to handle the line anomalies I was experiencing before the fix was implemented on their end.

Well it turns out the surge protectors that have been junked are not from power surges just batteries that are past their useful life. I guess I assumed and we all know how bad that is!

Sounds like you had a UPS. You can purchase bat. on the net & repair it pretty cheap.

Cecil, be glad that it wasn't a problem with the fidelity of the incoming. From my experience, getting a utility supplier to admit to an issue *and* repair it is no fun.

As Ric said, batteries can be purchased cheap, but not thru the UPS manufacturer(most are Universal brand name or can be subbed by them). The thing to remember is that the batteries in the UPS need to be cycled for them to last. Once a month, unplug the UPS from the source and let it run for several minutes, then plug it back in. The batteries will last much longer. This also tests the functionality of the system, instead of finding out it is NFG when the power goes out, or a brownout causes problems.

If you have an interstate battery store or a batteries plus, you can take it and they can change out the batteries and normally give you a better quality and higher mAH rating at the same for a decent price (cheaper than a new unit).