Questions about surge protector for TV

There are effective solutions. But there are also surge protectors that forget to mention they don't protect from the type of surge that does damage. Concepts are summarized in "Opinions on Surge Protectors?" on 7 Jul 2003 in the newsgroup alt.certification.a-plus or

"Ted S." wrote:

Your TV set more than meets the standards of the EC, FCC, UK, UL, and CRTC standards world wide for electrical specifications. These surge protectors, even though they don't hurt anything, are a mickey-mouse or low grade protection. They can write anything they want on it as for their policy, but try to collect. You would have to prove that the cause of your burnup was from the surge protector and not from something else. These contracts are very tricky to prove, and to collect on.

If you have damage that passed through one of these el-cheapo protectors, I can imagine taking one of these manufactures from Taiwan or China to court over a blown TV or computer. The lawyer's fees and extradition costs alone would be able to buy you a dozen new sets and computers just to start with! Not only that, you would have enough change left over to probably buy a new car!!!

A true protection is a real "true" UPS system. This would cost more than the cost of the TV set. You would require a 600 to 800 Watt rated unit at the very minimum for your set, because of the start-up surge. I have even seen a true UPS being damaged from an electrical surge from a lightning storm. A true UPS is good on a computer where you have very valuable data and backup systems to protect as best as possible, and must be constantly accessible.

Your TV set has surge and noise protection in the mains input section of the power supply. The one inside of the set is of better design than the ones in any of these $10 to $20 AC bars.

I think you should take that money for the AC bar, and buy a good DVD to watch on this terrific TV set!

Consumer TV sets have a lifespan of about 30,000 to 40,000 hours. After that, the CRT starts to generally show signs of weakness, and various components can start to wear out. Under normal home use, these sets can give very good performance for about 8 to 12 years. By then, with all the changes that are happening in the industry, you will want a new set!

In article , snipped-for-privacy@total.net mentioned...

I agree with your surge suppressor assessment. They're nearly worthless. And the worst part about it is that the price is absolutely no indication of the quality. The SOBs at the TV sales shops toss in "An $89.95 top-of-the-line surge suppressor, but we'll let you steal it for only $49.95." But they paid only $5 for this impressive looking piece of plastic, if that much, so they gouge you for another $45 bucks on your purchase. And it's a piece of junk. If you balk, then they won't allow you to purchase the 2 year extended warranty, which is another incredibly lucrative sale for the salesman, almost pure profit. It's almost as lucrative as rebates. Like he said above, the appliance will last for 5 or so years of use, and that second (or third) year of the extended warranty is seldom needed. So the salesman pockets $40 or $50 pure profit. You might notice that the warranty on the surge suppressor excludes a lot of things that would probably be the cause of failure. Nice. Real nice.

I've got an old RCA TV from the mid '80s, and it's still plugging along. Never had the back off it, just use it mostly in the evenings. It hasn't got the brightnmess it used to have, but it's okay, long as I wipe the dust off the CRT face every once in a while. I must've surpassed the 40,000 hour mark long ago. Even the original remote control still works. I can just barely read "Colortrak" on it, the plastic is worn so bad. I guess I got my money's worth out of it. :o)