Surge Protector
Protecting you investment should be one of your main priorities while creating your home theater system. If you have not already purchased a surge protector for you home theater system, get one as soon as possible. All it takes is a bolt of lightning or a voltage spike in the power to destroy thousands of dollars worth of your equipment.
Benefits of Surge Protectors
The benefits of surge protectors are two fold; they protect the connections into your home theater system and they provide a central location for all of your power connections. The safeguards a surge protector provides for your home theater system are invaluable. Power surges and lightning strikes take place in fractions of a second. A fraction of a second is all that is needed to make your home theater equipment completely worthless. While an incoming thunder storm is fairly obvious, there are no warnings for voltage spikes on a power line. Even if there were, there would be no time for you to take action and save your home theater system. Be proactive, be preventative.Surge protectors also add convenience by giving you a central location for all power connections. Some surge protectors even have labels to help you keep track of which cable leads to what device. If you have ever accidentally unplugged your VCR, you know how annoying it can be to have to reprogram it. Labels on the surge protector will help to prevent these annoying accidents from taking place. If you already have a surge protector or have chosen one that doesn't come with labels, make your own. It's not hard and it's definitely worth the effort.
Surge Protector Connections
How many different devices do you intend to connect to the surge protector? Will you be adding any more components to your home theater system in the future? How far from the nearest wall outlet will your home theater system be? By answering these two questions, you will be able to know exactly how many outlets the surge protector must have as well as the length of the attached cord that will suit your needs. One aspect of power protection people often over look is that ALL lines into your home theater system need to be protected. It is not just the power cables that make your system susceptible to power surges. Your cable television connection, any lines connected to an outdoor antenna, and any phone lines that may connect to your home theater system must be protected as well. There are surge protectors on the market that come equipped with those connections so there is no excuse for not securing those lines as well.Shutoff Ratings
Take note of the shut off ratings for the surge protector; look for the over/under voltage shutoff value as well as the maximum current. The wall outlet 120V AC but you need to have the over/under voltage shutoff above and below that value. The voltage from the outlet is not constant, it fluctuates. It is only when that voltage exceeds or falls below acceptable limits that your home theater system will be put in to danger. The response time for your surge protector should be less than a nanosecond. That is .000000001 seconds. A response time of less than a nanosecond should be fast enough disconnect your home theater system from the power source before any damage can be done. Note that the level of protection increases with the quality of the surge protector.Indicators
The surge protector you choose should have visual indicators to provide you with information quickly. An indicator telling you that the protection is on is an absolute must. Another feature that should be high on the list of priorities is an audible indicator that will sound when a power surge has taken place. Some higher-end models come equipped with an LED to detail whether or not your home's internal wiring is grounded properly.Filtering
Some higher-end surge protectors offer built-in filtering for electromagnetic (EMI) and radio frequency (RFI) interference. This filtering will provide your home theater system with cleaner power than surge protectors that are not equipped with EMI and RFI filtering. While the quality will not be equal to that of a power conditioner, it is better than the typical surge protector.Warrantee
Many of the quality surge protectors on the market guarantee that your home theater equipment will be protected from power surges and back it up with strong warrantees. Make sure the surge protector has a warrantee for not only itself but all equipment connected to it. These warrantees should be written in terms of time and the maximum dollar value that they will reimburse you for your home theater equipment. If it doesn't have a warrantee, it's not worth the risk.Basically the message here is don't learn the hard lessons. Allowing your home theater to be destroyed by power surges is not only extremely expensive, it's incredibly foolish. Be proactive, be preventative. Take the necessary steps and you won't feel the urge to rush home and unplug your system every time a dark cloud moves across the horizon. You can find that peace of mind in the surge protectors at Guy Buys.