All I want is a surge protector w/o conditioning


I have been searching the forums, checking web sites and cant find a plain surge protector! They all have some type of line conditioning built into them. It does not matter if it is rack mount or a strip.I use a Seakay Linerover parallel line conditioner and dont want any other type of conditioning to get mixed in.The surge protector (if I can find one) will protect a modest home theater,consisting of a Denon DVD player and Receiver.A Pioneer 43" plasma ,Tivo, and a HD satellite receiver.I would also like to have surge protection for 3 coax satellite inputs and 1 phone line. I used a catv coax surge protector but it could not pass the satellite signal. Please help me find a surge protector Thanks
nerspellsner
First, install a whole-house transient protector at your distribution box, (I use one of the Joslyn Electronics Systems devices). Ensure that your primary household ground rod system has low impedance & clean solid connections.
Next, install MOV's in parallel with all of your a/v system's AC outlets: use at least one (but better three if you can fit them in the boxes). Hot to ground; hot to neutral; neutral to ground. I use GE V130LA20B mov's available from industrial vendors such as Allied Electronics, Newark Electronics, Mouser, DigiKey, etc. You can even buy mov's from Radio Shack.
[nb: MOV = metal oxide resistor]
For the coax's you can buy coaxial transient protectors (these are typically wideband coaxial gas-discharge protectors with DC continuity so as to pass the ~20vdc LNB power supply voltage out to the dish--- see your local Radio Shack)with female in&out type-F connectors: & again, ensure their grounding system integrity. One model I've often used is made by a TruSpec; available from Dawn Satellite Systems (located in suburban Detroit, the town's name escapes me, but use a websearch engine & it'll come up).
The telco dial line can be protected with any of a multitude of available devices, or use mov's to make your own. Place a V130 type device across the pair; a V22ZA3 from tip to ground; a V68ZA10 from ring to ground (the ring has the -48 volts DC on it, thus the higher voltage, the V130 across the pair has to be high enough so as to not breakdown when 90vac ringing voltage is present).
Bob, thanks for your time with the detailed answer.I will try the coaxial transient protectors for sure.What physical size are the MOVs? The A/V outlets are in shallow electrical boxes with 10 gauge wiring.There is not much space left in the boxes.Can the MOVs be installed in the panel? Is there a circuit breaker that has surge protection built in?
Unfortunately so far I've been unable to locate / contact info. for DawnSat; it's been awhile since I've dealt with them & maybe they moved, sold, namechanged? TruSpec is a commercially oriented manufacturer; however these devices are fairly commonplace -- so shouldn't be hard to find. They typically incorporate a gas-discharge type supressor. Installation should be outside at the antenna & should be well grounded via a closeby grounding rod or perhaps using the antenna's pole itself if it's an in-ground pole mount. Then install another inline coaxial supressor just at the home's enterance, with a nearby local ground which would typically be a separate ground rod. Waterproof your outdoor coax connections.
Re: mov's: they're round & thin; look like disk capacitors with short, solid-wire leads. I put insulating sleeving on the exposed parts of the leads to prevent shorts to the outlet case (you can use heat shrink sleeving, or teflon spaghetti sleeving is even better). The V130 is the size of a quarter & the lower voltage models are about the size of a dime. They are made by numerous manufacturers. The V# is the voltage at which they start to breakdown as they clamp incoming voltage transients.
Yes it's not real easy fitting three mov's into a box with 10awg solid wiring but it is possible. Many of the manufactured plugin protectors cover all three modes for best results. Settle for 2 or 1 if not. The most important is the hot to ground mov, then the hot to neutral, then neutral to gnd. is last. Yes these are all parallel connections just like your line conditioner uses.
I'm not aware of any breakers with a built-in transient snubber although perhaps someone makes them? Do not use a GFI breaker; that won't provide the required transient protection & they sound bad when feeding power to an audio rig. Very large size mov's are available & you could fabricate a mounting to parallel-protect just the output of that breaker. However I rather advise a wholehouse protector as they're box mounted & can sit on the wall adjacent to the distribution breaker box. Again these are wired in parallel across both AC line phases to the common household ground connection, so your PC & other sensitive devices also have some protection. The cascade protection approach is best because no single device has to bear the entire brunt of any very large incoming spikes. If you have thunderstorms in your area, the repurcussions of having no protection can be devastating.