[gui-talk] serge protectors

Tue May 13 21:17:27 CDT 2008

Dave,

Yes, you're right. In fact, I've never known that minor, perhaps 
unnoticeable, electrical events can wear away the protective capability of a 
surge protector. I wouldn't  mind knowing what sorts of events those might 
be, and how you could be alert to recognize them when they occur. . I think 
like most people, I only understand "surge" to be something like what you're 
referring to as catastrophic, or at least dramatically noticeable. Like 
there is a power outage in the whole neighborhood, and your computer dies 
along with whatever other appliances and lights are turned on. Then the 
power problem is fixed by the power company, and the first jolt of renewed 
electricity is much stronger than the normal constant output, and fries your 
computer and stereo amplifier unless you've either unplugged them or they're 
plugged into a surge protector. In which case the surge protector circuitry 
gets fried and you have to buy a new surge protector.

That is all I thought this was about. I know nothing about there being 
periodic surges of electricity no one would notice that nonetheless eat away 
incrementally at a surge protector's functionality.

So shoot me, Dave. What can I say. I never heard about the slow death sort 
of surges.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:04 PM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] serge protectors

Joel:  Be careful about lecturing Lloyd (smile) he is an electrical 
engineer.

I think he was talking about small surges that cumulatively take away
the surge protection, while it seems like you are talking about a
catastrophic strike.

Dave

At 01:37 PM 5/13/2008, you wrote:
>Lloyd,
>I don't think that's what they were talking about. Everybody knows that if 
>a
>surge protector is forced to break the current during a power surge, then 
>it
>loses its capacity to protect and needs to be replaced, even though of
>course it still can provide electricity to what's plugged into it. and just
>because you can't see the pilot light, that wouldn't matter if you knew
>you'd had a dramatic power surge, like a lightning strike. If that were to
>happen, or the house current would go off and suddenly come back on, or 
>that
>sort of thing, I'd certainly get a friend or neighbor to take a look at my
>power strip and, if the light was out, install a fresh replacement.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <lras at loc.gov>
>To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:26 AM
>Subject: Re: [gui-talk] serge protectors
>
>
>As far as I know, surge protectors can fail in a way that you cannot detect
>without sight.  Failure can occur if there was a nearby lightning strike or
>other sudden spike of voltage on your AC outlets.  The metal-oxide varistor
>or other device inside the unit is supposed to short much of that charge
>out, so your computer is not exposed to it.  But it can only do this a
>limited number of times.  An L E D on the power strip may change color or
>go out to indicate that the surge protection function is no longer
>working.  But the strip will still supply unprotected power.
>
>This is not a matter of aging, but only a matter of exposure to large
>electrical surges.
>
>Having said all this, I have never had one of my surge protectors inspected
>to see whether it has sustained damage or not.
>
>At 02:07 PM 5/13/2008, you wrote:
> >Denise --
> >
> >If Best Buy, and every other retailer for that matter, could convince us 
> >of
> >it, they would have us replace everything we own as frequently as 
> >possible,
> >just to keep their bottom lines as profitable as possible.
> >
> >As for the surge protector going bad, yet still providing output power,
> >that
> >comes as quite a shock to me.
> >
> >It sounds to me like the technicians there simply don't know what caused
> >the
> >problem in the first place, so they're coming up with a bogus excuse to
> >explain away their ineptness.  And if your computer is still under
> >warranty,
> >then you'd better believe that they're trying to find some way of blaming
> >you and your equipment for being at fault, so they can charge you some 
> >real
> >bucks to repair or replace your computer.
> >
> >-- George
> >
> >
> >Denise avant recently said ...
> >
> >"i recently had to take in my computer TO BEST BUY FOR REPAIR. I WAS told
> >that some hardware inside of the computer may be causing my problem. and
> >the
> >damage to the hardware in the computer may have been caused by my serve
> >protector going bad. i explained that i had the protector for about 5 or 
> >6
> >years, and i was then advised that a replacement every two years was
> >adviseable. so thus my question.
>
>Lloyd Rasmussen, Acting Head, Engineering Section
>National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
>Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535   <http://www.loc.gov/nls>
>HOME:  <http://lras.home.sprynet.com>
>The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent
>those of NLS.
>
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