Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater surge protector

I'm just looking at all of the extra now....

What does everyone use for surge protectors/battery backups for their AV equipment? I've used cheaper power strips in the past, but am considering this: Belkin PureAV

Battery backup that last a few minutes is a thought as well, since the fan is supposed to have a couple of minutes to run to cool things down once the TV is off.

Am I getting into overkill territory, or is some of this stuff a worthy investment?

Best combination might be a small UPS for the TV/projector and a big surge protector for "everything else".

I don't for sure if RPTVs need that cooling off period but I would be surprised if they didn't need it...

I use a Tripplite HTPowerbar10 for all of my AV equipment.

I use the Belkin PureAV UPS Home Theater 40MIN Battery backup/surge protector for my TV and cable box just to provide that extra time for a proper shut down if the power fails.

Is it overkill? Hard to say. It gives me peace of mind. How much is that worth? It's a personal decision.

I use a Monster AVS2000 and a Monster HTS5100mkII.

Way overkill, and I wouldn't pay retail for these- but I found great deals on them on E-bay. They give me piece of mind and they look really cool, so I'm very happy with them.

That Belkin one might be a winner Ajax. Thanks. Anyone have something similar to that? Multiple outlets with surge suppression and a little bit of battery backup time sounds good to me. From what I remember hearing the fan needs four minutes to cool things down, so the 1.5-40 range should be fine as long as I don't overload the UPS part of it.

Anyone use this company: Minuteman

This 525 looks like it could be a cheap solution with some battery backup. I'm still looking for how long the battery lasts.

I have used their products in the past and generally not been impressed. I don't remember what the specific issue was, though.

My new TV uses 200 watts when on. A PC will eventually be connected for HTPC. I'm estimating 80Watts for that (if someone has a better guess, let me know). I'm trying to find what the Onkyo SR600 needs. It mentioned 450W on the back of the manual, but that doesn't sound right if the TV is only using 200. I'm thinking that minuteman might not be able to protect much more then the TV maybe the TV and HTPC, with a 275Watt rating. If the receiver is really 450 though I am up over 700, which is more then even the pure AV can handle, which makes me think I am off on the number for the receiver.

All of the battery backup units ive ever seen are only good for computers IMO. The one i bought at costco that says "for HT/computer etc" only puts out about 100v when on battery, and its not much for a sine wave. Not suitable for amps, etc. IMO.


It also had AVR (automatic voltage regulation) which is pretty misleading. TRUE regulation means 115 or 120v at all times. this type of regulation means that it will kick onto battery mode if the power goes above say 130v or below 95. QUITE WORTHLESS! Of couse, the belkin unit could be different from the tripplite i have. But i doubt it This is the one I have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16842111030

You would be better off to forego the battery backup option and stick with a decent surge protector/filter, from my experience. I use a Monster hts3500mk2 for my audio/video stuff. Got it pretty cheap off buy.com a while back.

The only part I want the battery for is if equipment is on and power is lost. The TV lamp fan needs to run for 4 minutes to cool things down properly. If a storm is coming, I'll likely turn everything off first anyway if I am using it, so it might not be much of an issue. I'm leaning towards the Belkin linked earlier in this thread at this point. I'm not a fan of their KVM switches though, so I am hoping power is more their thing if I go that route.

I have only my cable box and HDTV plugged into the Belkin Battery Backup. It is only my TV that might be adversely affected by not powering it down properly. The rest of my equipment I have plugged into a Belkin Pure AV PF60, which, like the battery backup can be found for considerably less than MSRP. However, an acceptably effective surge protector by Belkin, or others, can be had for less.

[quote}I'm estimating 80Watts for that (if someone has a better guess, let me know).

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Most new PC's have 300+ Watt power supplies. 500 is common. That's peak of course. I would budget 300 minimum for the PC. For one thing when you use an "all on" function on a universal remote you'll peak your power. Personally, I think a good surge protector is fine. You're not trying to protect data, just buying a relatively cheap piece of hardware whose job it is to commit suicide to save your expensive gear.

LJ

I did some research on battery backup for my projector, receiver, etc and found that there are a couple things desired in a UPS system that don't come cheap.

1) A pure sine wave output, not square wave or "near" sine.

2) A "double-conversion" or "online" UPS as opposed to "line interactive". This means that the UPS is always feeding the equipment a voltage that is first converted from AC to DC and then back to AC. You are always running off of batteries and protected. This means the voltage is always very stable and doesn't fluctuate to the equipment. There is also no transfer time. Line-interactive UPS units will just feed line voltage as it is to the equipment, and switch to batteries only when power is lost or the change is extreme.

I recently purched a Tripplite SU2200XL because it had these features. I was also looking for something that had enough of a power rating to handle my receiver which is rated on the back at 1300 Watts. I have my doubts that it really uses near this much at moderate listening levels however.

I think the cheaper UPS units will work fine in most cases. I have used them before for my DVD, TiVo, and PC without issue. I stepped up to this price point because of the wattage rating I needed, and chose the Tripplite over the APC 2200 unit because of the online/double-conversion type.

YMMV, as Jack stated, it is what it is worth to you.

I guess if I am only concerned about the TV, I could just get the minuteman one I mentioned earlier and have everything else in a regular power strip like it is now. That would be the cheapest route with some battery backup for the TV available. I don't want to go nuts with this, I'm just looking for the most cost effective option that will let the TV stay on at least 4 minutes after a power outage. I have all of the other stuff in a regular strip now, and that has been working fine for me. My place is only 6 years old, so the power is pretty good here.

Just read something on AVS that the 4 minute fan cooldown is so you don't turn it back on again while the bulb is still hot. This makes sense to me that cooldown is fine without the fan, it will just take longer before it is cool, which means longer before it should turn on again.

I think I am going to hold off on the power strip upgrade for now. I can always change my mind after I play with the TV for a week or so. Thanks for all the advice.

I'm amazed that TrippLite hasn't been sued by APC over that name. The products are well nigh identical...

Yeah Jason, I'm not familiar with the AVS discussion that you referred to, but it may be similar to an explanation by a service manager for an electronics company(citing manufacturer techs)that I read a couple of years ago. The point does appear to be that it would be very harmful to restart the bulb in a projection TV while it's still hot, so there're temperature sensors in the sets to prevent this. The fan speeds up the cooling process greatly, but the slower cool-down without the fan if there's a power failure doesn't harm the bulb; it doesn't get hotter, it just takes longer to cool.

A related point he discussed was that the high voltage used on start-up in the TV application was the most stressful period for the bulb and that restarts should be minimized to help extend bulb life. He suggested that strictly from that standpoint, projection TVs shouldn't be turned off for less than about an hour, since the start-up would do more to shorten the bulb life than would the extra hour of normal operation.