Is it possible to repair a whole house surge suppressor?

Stop buying junk. MOV surge protectors are really worthless junk. Here in

Look at TransTector ones. They use silicon avalance diodes which when compared to MOVs are indestructable. They are more expensive but in the long run cheaper as they don't fail like MOV ones.

You might also want to learn about how lightening works and how to avoid it.

Contrary to what people believe (yes Franklin got it wrong) lightening flows from the GROUND UP. Once a path is opened from the ground, the polarity reverses and the usual flash you see flows downward.

If you place grounded sharp pointed objects on top of buildings, you will CREATE lightening.

If you place large "fuzzy" grounded objects on top of buildings, you will dissipate any charges that build up and reduce the chance of lightening strikes.

I got rid of a lightening problem by placing a large 2m ham band (144mHz) antenna on my roof. It was a 12 foot beam with 10 vertical elements and

When I moved, I took down the antenna, I wonder what my neighbors thought when the lightening returned. :-(

Geoff.

It is an engineered device with internal protection matched to the MOVs. I would never repair one.

Surge hits to a MOV deteriorate it. With high ratings a suppressor will last a very long time. The worst case surge on a service power line to your house that has any reasonable chance of occurring is 10,000A. Suppressors with much higher ratings are readily available.

For a house, the IEEE recommends ratings of 20,000 to 70,000A _per wire_. For high lightning areas the recommendation is 40,000 to 120,000A _per wire_.

Make sure your fire insurance covers the suppressor you engineered.

This has minimal information and no ratings. Didn't look at the two below.

Also has minimal information and no ratings. If it only protects one wire don't get it - get one made for a service protecting both wires. I do like SquareD as a brand.

The IEEE (largest association of electrical and electronic engineers in the US) says that ">90% of both hard-wired and plug-in protectors use MOVs to perform the voltage-limiting function. In most AC protectors, they are the only significant voltage limiters.".

MOVs work fine.

In the US, since 1998, UL has required suppressors have a thermal disconnect to disconnect failing MOVS. I have seen no reason to believe fires are a problem on UL listed suppressors made since 1998. Would think that "230v land" would have similar requirements.

If you get high ratings, MOV based suppressors are not likely to fail. It is one reason why some suppressors can have warranties on connected equipment.

You can, of course, buy what you want.

Polarity reverses?

The usual process is for charge do descend in steps - a stepped leader. When the charge gets close enough to the earth the final link is a stroke from the earth to end of the stepped leader.

There is not a lot of research on what end on a lightning rod (now called air terminals) is most effective. The best information I have seen is that a 5/8" diameter rounded point is more effective, and the difference is minimal. Rods protect by being the highest point. They are a safe "point of attachment" for the lightning that will occur anyway.

There are commercial lightning protection systems that claim to work by dissipating charge. Everything I have seen is that they don't work. I believe they lost a court case in the US.

pared

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Geoff:

Lightening is what Michael Jackson did to his face. Lightning is that big electrical discharge from the sky

Bob Hofmann

Ask your home insurance agent. It's unlikely that the prospect of homeowner repair of fire-safety items is going to be highly regarded. Also ask if the damage to your surge suppressor is covered by your insurance.

Yes, the Amazon ads seem to have less info than one would want on something like this.

There are specs somewhere, adn I'll find them and compare with what you've said.

I've been here 28 years and once I found smoke coming out of the burglar alarm keypad/controller unit (yes, both) by the front door, which might have been caused by lightning, although I didn't remember any. Still the amount of vulerable equipment keeps growning and growing.

Thanks, for this thread and the previous one, and thanks everybody.

Well, it was en-lightening anyway ;-)

Kind regards, Eike

If fixed properly, how would they know? As long as he isnt obviously bodgeing something togeather it should be fine.

Leviton. Ground it well with as short ground wire as possible to good house ground.

-- Boris

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Its easy to find expensive ones. I guess if you can figure out how to take it apart you can fix it. I bought one a few months ago for $35. Here is another

greg

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So I showed you the same model you showed first. But, you do NOT need TWO.

There seems like a lot of confusion on protectors and the manufacturers seem to have various schemes going on. Some of the very small portable devices by Tripplite have ratings that indicate higher amps than the regular whole house protectors. I installed the 'secondary" protector in my breaker box and I probably have 10 other protectors all around the house.

You should not have to keep buying new ones. You got some kind of problem that requires attention.

greg

I didn't think of this until Michael posted but so what? Say I repaired it and say I didn't do a good job: My insurance doesn't require me to have a surge suprressor, so if I repair it and do a bad job, and it doesn't cause damage nor does it prevent damage the next time, they are no worse off than if I had never bought one. So they should still pay.

I want the SurgeSupp is more so I don't have to go shopping again, and read new instruction manuals.

Yes. Also, I hadn't even considered claiming damage to the surge suppressor on my insureance.

So do they sell at retail the MOVs or other parts I would need rebuild a surge suppressor.

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Yes.

You can also rent a suppressor from the electric company which they will install in your meter. I have no idea how they would know if it goes bad.

greg

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Compare this to the Leviton Joule rating.

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another

Thanks. Now it's 56 dollars. I see that Amazon has this 36 also including shipping.

Oh, thank you. I got confused by the drawing, at

Do you think I should to connect a surge suppressor to unused circuit breakers? Some instructions say to do that for increased sensitivity but others say nothing about it. Because the circuits I wanted to use are often off or almost totally off, just the baseline portable tv current or a cordless phone charger running.

It also says "Twist wires one half turn or more for every 12 in. (305 mm) of length." That means when all three wires are running together, right? In conduit or something? Once they separate, even if the wires are stranded, there's no point to twisting them, is there?

If thse are secondary, as they also call them, then where is the primary? On the electric pole?

I've never even needed one. I was just planning ahead.

Thanks a lot, GB, and thanks everyone.

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Codes may be different. Some circuit breakers will work with two wires, many will NOT. Its specified in the breaker specs. It may be against code in your area.

The picked up the cheapest Home Depot and it will work with two wires, and stranded wires.

Right.

Secondary seems to mostly refer to devices near or attached to the equipment. Like, your whole house air conditioner might use a secondary suppressor near the unit, which is fed from the breaker box wiring. Secondary devices will be attached via a breaker in any case. Primary?? Maybe the one in the meter.

Good going.

greg

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I think you mean lightning.

The "parallel" components (such as MOVs) in a surge suppressor will have some effect on every other parallel line (lines connected to the same phase). It doesn't matter whether any device is attached to the suppressor, or is turned on.

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A whole-house suppressor is wired without any circuit breaker protection, usually inside the circuit breaker box. Every item in that box has a "UL" or other safety certification, and NONE are intended for disassembly or repair. Your insurer may well claim contributory negligence if the item has been modified or altered. If something inside a 2 foot breaker box shoots 3 foot flames, the house is at hazard.

Faulty fuses, breakers, or whole-house suppressors are intended to remain safe (they're fail-safe devices); it's normal to replace them when they fail.