Power Outlet Surge

[Whitty]

Hi , Been living in Samboan ,Cebu around 10 months now . Have had several electrical appliances fail . One failed dramatically the other day.....my genuine Apple iphone 5 charger exploded while charging my phone...sounded like a gunshot and blew charger to pieces with soot on the power outlet and charger..

Also only 10 days or so after arriving here my beloved Macbook pro failed in a big way. Investigation revealed logic board replacement was required. Quote was over 40,000 peso . Apple care came to my rescue and covered the repair cost...

These and other incidents of appliances failing started me thinking if the quality of the electricity could be the cause of these failures....If so is there we can do here to protect our expensive appliances from damage?

Regards

Richard

[scott h]

Surge protectors, voltage regulators or only buy cheap appliances that you don't mind blowing up on ya.

 

Sorry m8 all I got for ya

[Huggybearman]

Every DIY store such as Ace Harware and True Value sell Automatic Voltage Regulators which provide protection in the event of a power surge. You simply plug the AVR into your power outlet and plug the equipment you want to protect into the AVR. These surges are quite common when power is restored following a brown out. I have seen AVR's from around 150 watts to around 4000 watts. We have several 500 watt ones protecting all our appliances like tv, fridges etc. and they cost about 1500 php. Its not worth risking your equipment. Despite having brown outs on a regular basis we have not had any issues with our equipment being damaged.

Ken

Edit: For some reason the attached pic is upside down. Don't know why, and can't seem to correct it's orientation.

 

 

Fixed image. The reason must be that its upside down on your computer. If you have something like Windows Live photo gallery you can rotate it. Or right click on the image on your computer and select Rotate clockwise.

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by Jollygoodfellow

[Huggybearman]

Thanks JGF for fixing the image. I just snapped the pic on my iPad and posted it direct to the forum. It was the right way up on there but it doesn't seem to allow editing. Cheers

Ken

Edit. Just found out how to edit a pic on iPad. :)

Edited December 13, 2015 by Huggybearman

[Whitty]

Thanks Ken for the excellent reply. Sounds like the AVR is the fix I need.Thanks again

[Mike S]

I have an APC APV 650CS battery back-up that my desktop and monitor plug into I like this model because it has a replaceable battery but I have had this unit for 4 years and it is still working ..... it not only keeps my equipment on battery back-up power for 15mins. it also has a built in surge protector for both high voltage and low voltage ..... by the way APC company has an excellent repair service shop in Cebu City .... before I bought this model I had the one with the sealed battery .... 2 months before my warranty ran out the damn thing gave up the ghost .... the repair guy came to my house and replaced the unit with a new one .... next time it craped out I bought the 650CS and been a happy camper ever since .... :santa_trumpet:

 

I also have numerous surge protector power strips for my other electrical appliances but you need to read the instructions carefully before you buy them as some are only good for one good hit with high voltage after that they may work but not protect you from spikes .... and of coarse the good ones cost a bit more ..... JMHO .... :merrychristmas:

:cheersty:

[Tukaram (Tim)]

The power drops seem to be the worst thing on electronics.  Worse than spikes, and outages.  When the fan slows way down... the lights dim... your refrigerator groans... bad times.

 

I had everything on surge protectors when I first got here. When my PC blew up (luckily just the power supply) someone asked me if I had AVR's. I had not heard of voltage regulators being needed....  I now have one AVR for the PC and phone charger, and one for the TV, Playstation, and my wife's laptop. I can't say for sure they have actually helped, but nothing has blown up since we got them.  So far so good (probably should have them on my aircon & fridge too?)  :tiphat: