little rick

I've just bought a new surge protection extension as I needed more than the 4 sockets my old one provided

Rather than faffing about at the back of the pc everytime I want to plug something in (It now holds 10) I went for a stand up one that will sit at the side of the pc

As with my old one it has a power button on to stop power to everything connected through it - as the old one was at the back of the pc and a pain to get at it was always on - new one easy to get at as stated above

Question is - if I turn it off is my equipment still protected from surge?
I would guess so as it will stop any power at the at the unit??? but I don't want to shut it off if I'm wrong
The distructions make no mention to the power switch at all and no metnion if it should be left on or off when not in use

ru'

If the switch is off it should isolate your kit from any surge, unless it's strong enough to arc across the switch, lol.

Bit late, but you could've plugged in an extension block thing into your old surge protector...

I you don't mind me asking - why are you (seemingly) paranoid about surges?

little rick

Thanks mate - that was my thinking but wanted a second opinion (as my electrical know how is 0)

Had a surge about 12 months ago and the surge protector I had was stuffed so lost the lot - PC, router, phone everything - all due to a thunderstorm

Real pain in the wotsits to sort and lightened my wallet a good chunk
Really dont want the same problem again from a silly little thing like a power switch - hence the worries over surges

Coffin Dodger

Surge protectors

Fools and their money are easily parted.

Sounds like your previous "surge" experience was from either your power line or telephone line being struck by lightening. That will trash pretty much everything connected to it, surge protectors or not.

Safest thing to do is unplug the phone line and stop using the PC until the storm has blown over if you live somewhere susceptible to the occasional strike.

John@TunerUK

A surge protector is connected between the phase and earth inside the unit. Isolating the surge protector with a switch would be both pointless, and require a more expensive switch. So even if it does arc across the switch, the surge protector would still dump the excess to earth.

If you've had a surge problem in the past with one fitted, then it had probably come to the end of it's life. The decent one's I've hard wired to distribution boards have all had a meter on them to tell you when they're ready for changing. At which point you swap the cartridge. Obviously this isn't possible with a multigang socket if it has no removable cartridge.

little rick

Thanks John

The old one (in place when I had the surge) was indeed stuffed resulting in no protection - I'm fairly sure the one I've just replaced is OK as its about 12 months old

The new one has a light to indicate when it's no longer protecting the equipment - it does mention that you can change a part if this happens but with my electrical knowledge probably safer to replace it if this happens

John@TunerUK

No problems buddy