Line conditioners are voltage regulators, which will prevent any surge that enters the power line and give a cleaner power to an appliance that receives digital signals like an HDTV. These are different from surge protectors as they will absorb surges and eventually stop working. Almost all surge protectors use MOV technology, which is metal oxide varistors, to shunt excess power to a ground and as a result, the MOVs eventually degrade. In other words, many surge protectors are at best sacrificial protection devices. This is not a bad thing because they are fairly cheap to replace as opposed to replacing damaged equipment.
Varistor surge protector wiring provides a low impedance pathway to a surge when it receives an overvoltage surge. This pathway is the grounding area where the heat from the surge dissipates harmlessly into the air. It’s a split second reaction (less than a nanosecond), which protects devices at a cost. The cost is that with each surge a MOV absorbs, the quality of the MOV breaks down. This finite protection means that eventually your surge protector will have to be replaced.
How long a surge protector lasts depends on how often it encounters surges. As most household produce several surges a day, the lifespan of a surge protector will vary, but overall one device should last a few years. Lightning strikes present a different set of dangers that most surge protectors cannot overcome regardless of the protection they provide. MOVs aren’t built to sustain such high level surges. Some surge protectors come with alarms to indicate the device is no longer functioning properly. If the alarm on your surge protector power strip does keep going off, then you know you need to replace that unit.
With line conditioning, the power is regulated through a device to provide a fluid flow of power. This conditioning prevents surges, dips and interference by smoothing the electricity that enters the device. Without line conditioning you can have line noise that can disrupt service to digital transfers like HDTV picture quality or encounter a plasma TV power dip that can ruin your internal hardware. You want noise free surge protection for your HDTV. How this happens is it regulates the transient decibels running through the coaxial lines. Surge protectors can do this as well, but it’s better practice to use a line conditioner surge protector combo to achieve the best results. What it comes down to, as with having more Joules for more protection from a surge protector, having better noise reduction will give you better signal quality in a line conditioner.
As for use with a computer, it’s uncommon for a PC to use line conditioner surge protectors. The better solution is to use an uninterruptible power supply with surge protection. This is because a computer can lose valuable data if it suddenly shuts off. A line conditioner surge protector will not protect a computer in this way. It needs a battery backup device that will enable it to be manually shut down without losing any potential important information. You can use a battery backup surge protector with your home theater equipment. It’s especially advised for satellite users, as even a short outage can cause your satellite box to reboot and search for channels. This would take several minutes without satellite surge protection with a battery backup.
Getting a device with both line conditioning and surge protection can be beneficial as they will possess a low-pass filter to attenuate any surges. EMI/RFI noise can be severely damaging to electronics. The noise reduction is built into the line conditioner part of the device and since most electronics typically have a very high noise reduction capacitors built in them, the surge protector partition will shunt any excess surge that escapes your line conditioning.
Many manufacturers are turning to this kind of protection in their surge protection devices. Brick Wall, APC, Zero Surge all profess the superiority of their products that use less and less MOV technology for a cleaner inductor system. With these kinds of devices you don’t have to worry about your surge protection device degrading because of faulty MOVs. But there is questionable theory about the difference in line noise quality.
One device worth mentioning is the Panamax Pm8 Ht Power Line Conditioner and Surge Protector, which can improve picture and sound quality. It’s a compact unit that sits on the floor and protects your electronic equipment from line noise and catastrophic surges. If you are commonly hearing things like pops, hums, hisses and your picture is constantly breaking up, this surge protector will straighten you out. It mounts conveniently on the wall and can be concealed by a flat screen TV if you don’t have room on the floor.
It monitors the incoming line current and if there is an over-surge then it will disconnect your equipment. The power is restored once the coast is clear, so to speak. It has the ability to assimilate other line protection modules which means you have more versatility in choosing one brand over having many devices. This is what makes the line conditioner surge protector such a useful item. It already has system protection for cable connections and phone lines as well as top notch AC power line protection. This is one of the advantages of power surge devices for TV units of all makes that fit into a home theater system.
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