If you dont already have one, GET A SURGE PROTECTOR!

[XRchic]

Just a warning to people out there without a surge protector for their home!

Our street had a power surge last night (about 3am) and we lost power until about 9am this morning. Once the power was reconnected, we found that things were not working. We called an electrician.

The surge has destroyed our dishwasher (brand new Bosch stainless), our hot plates (glass kind), our DVD/VCR combo player, our electric roller doors, our reverse cycle ducted aircon unit and our mains smoke alarm.

We can claim it all from ETSA which is good, and they have been up. They will pay us all for it, but Im sure its going to take a while. And the thing is that there are worse people in the street than us too - one old couple has no power at all...

So I really recommend you get a surge protector if you dont have one already. If we had one, we wouldnt have this drama. Apparently its only $130 fitted by an electrician.

Cheers

Jac

[XR6_661]

Don't all modern houses have surge protectors installed?

I have a surge protector power board for my electrical gear...LCD TV, PS3, comp, dvd player, stereo....Worthwhile investment!!

[Keepleft]

Originally Posted by XR6_661

Don't all modern houses have surge protectors installed?

I have a surge protector power board for my electrical gear...LCD TV, PS3, comp, dvd player, stereo....Worthwhile investment!!

1. No, 'safety switches' = yes, these help prevent electrical shocks.

2, Surge protectors can be those on a power board, or a central unit that protects the whole of house.

[fmc351]

Im getting one on Thu

[fairmont1998]

Thats some bad luck Jac :(

[opto]

I am an electrician, get a cartridge type and keep a spare cartridge, lawrence and hanson do one in the lanson range.

[MrEL]

Working for an electricity supply coming it doesnt sound like a surge as such. Im tipping that you guys were the victim of a "high low intermix" where the high voltage clashes with the low voltage further up the line.
Generally they get progressively worse as you head away from the fault and closer to a good earth point.
Either way nasty and hope it all works out for you.

[JADED6]

Gee a fair bit of damage.
Apparently surges happen all the time but you're the first I've known to have equipment damaged by them.
Luckily they'll be repaired/replaced but at quite a hassle because they'll likely send you a cheque which means more running around for installs or re-purchasing.
Hope all is well.

[351EL]

We had 3 lightning strikes at home in 4 days about 2 weeks ago.
They blew up approx $3000 worth of gear including our computer.
Good advice take it before you regret it.

[Duke]

Damn Jac, great advice thanks. I was under the impression we had protection too but we've only got the safety switches in our new house, not surge guards.

Have to look into one of those cartridge types mentioned by Opto.

[The Yeti]

hit up the powercompany for the cost of repair/replaicment

Simular thing happend to us a few years ago, our at the time 3month old computer, TV 2VCR's (defore DVD days) our camcorder and a few other bits and pices it was a a little bit of running arround but Integral camto the party with the majority of the stuff

[XRchic]

Originally Posted by The Yeti

hit up the powercompany for the cost of repair/replaicment

Simular thing happend to us a few years ago, our at the time 3month old computer, TV 2VCR's (defore DVD days) our camcorder and a few other bits and pices it was a a little bit of running arround but Integral camto the party with the majority of the stuff

Yep, the guy from ETSA was up in the street yesterday afternoon and gave everyone a claims number to ring to get everthing fixed/replaced. Doesnt look like there will be a problem with that. Just time.

[Martyvan]

Originally Posted by Keepleft

2, Surge protectors can be those on a power board, or a central unit that protects the whole of house.

I have one that protects the entire house, as well as a 'few' surge protector powerboards on selected high ticket items. Worthwhile investment when i had our fuse box redone.. only cost me an additional $80...

[Powdered Toast Man]

My house will probably just catch fire if it was hit with a powerful surge lol.

I knew surges can bugger your electrical stuff but that was a lot of damage!

[zetec]

Also one simple recommendation, if it's within easy reach, unplug computers, tv's etc when not in use over night and when away on holidays. Breaking the physical connection is the best way when not in use. Ideally however, a surge protector will cover it 24/7 for less effort and especially when you ARE using the appliances.

[Daymoe]

Unplug stuff in a lightning storm, ESPECIALLY MODEMS. Though, surge protector won't do much against a few thousand volts coming through your house

[Ives]

Had that a couple of months ago. Stuffed up computer's power supply, modem, house A/C & alarm system.

[Daymoe]

With computer PSU's they have a tendency to take out other hardware inside the PC too.

[MarkAW]

Your wasting your time with board mounted surge protectors and to an extent with a lot of the cheap powerboard with are "fitted" with a surge protector.

Board mounted protectors (those mounted to your household meter board) will protect your motorised itemss such as fridges, freezers, washing machines against lightnig strikes and high to Low voltage mains clash. They wont protect your highly sensitive computer equipment. Additionally the board mounted units are generally designed to "melt down" as a method of stopping the surge and thus disconnect the house from the supply. If your not home to change your "surge fuse" then you've got no power to fridge or freezer and will have to deal with the rotting food.

Powerboards fitted with surge protectors must specifically state that they will protect against surge currents - and generally the surge current from a lightning strike far exceeds the capacity of the devices. They should be satisfactory in most instances against high to low voltage mains clash but this cant be guarranteed. If a 132kV line were to drop onto low voltage mains jus a few doors away then there's nothing which will protect your sensitive equipment.

Solution - regularly back your system up onto DVD or external HDD which can be isolated from the household mains. Let the insurance company or local electricity distributor pay for the damages.

[Hunter]

Surge protectors aren't that great, but surge arrestors (Which are a different type of device entirely) can often help. But they're not cheap.

PCs should be on a mains-isolated line conditioning UPS if you want to protect them. My computer is too old to give a about so if it got hit by a surge I would not be worried. But if I had a decent PC I would consider buying a UPS (a good one, not the cheap types).

[I FluXx I]

Reminds me of the time some lightning hit a telephone exchange over here in WA. It spread to the Foxtel cable network and wiped out all the cable box's in the area. And it spread from the foxtel box through the tv and all other equipment. Even alot of peoples washing machines and fridges blew up.

[rodderz]

See if the sparky can fix the appliances Jac...you might be able to sell them on ebay!

PC's definately need a surge protector too... there would be the world of trouble for a lot of people if they lost the computer (I spose hard drive can be transferred though)

[Ives]

Originally Posted by 90sFTW

With computer PSU's they have a tendency to take out other hardware inside the PC too.

Yeh, actually my network card is stuffed up too because of the same thunderstorm. Other than that... all is good.

[superpursuit83]

I have one, took 2 air con controller failures to listen to the sparky and actually tell him to fit one. Expensive excersise fixing electronics Doh!

[XRchic]

Well we have been contacted by an electrical repair company which have been hired by ETSA to come and fix out gear possibly Friday but maybe Monday. They are going to completely replace some items and fix some others, depending on what they find. They are being totally cooperative actually and it doesnt seem like there is a problem with replacing/fixing the stuff.

All of our computers and modems are fine actually... quite strange.

[GORDZ]

we just had an outage 2 nights ago... came on and off liek 3 times in 15 seconds so i dived at the computer, ripped out the power cable then did the same for my amp and 47" lcd... thankfully nothing died.