On Thu, 2005-10-27 at 15:14, Keith C. Perry wrote:
> Actually, because I lost several thousands of dollars or equipement a couple of
> years ago, I recommended these "brickwall" products to a company.
>
> http://brickwall.com/index.htm
>
> We actually never deployed these units (grounding the communications lines ended
> up being a much cheaper solution) but I did talk and engineer at the company and
> apparently they have some hospitals as client that use unitss. I'm won't get
> into the technology of how they work since you can read that yourself but I
> remember having a warm and fuzzy after my conversation.
>
> I will pull one quote from their web site though...
>
> "Unlike MOV’s, TRANS-ZORBS and similar shunt based surge protectors that use
> elements weighing less than 1/4 ounce, Brick Wall surge protectors can easily
> absorb any surge repeatedly with absolutely no degradation."
>
> The important phrase here is "...absorb any surge repeatedly with absolutely no
> degradation."
Having worked on stuff with some massive surge protectors, I'd say that
surge protectors in a Radio Shack (or any other store) are like having
an umbrella compared to a regular rain storm.
The higher end stuff, up through this brick wall, are kind of like
variously well built buildings and storm cellers against increasingly
nasty storms.
And lastly, there's the direct lightening strike. Which fries
everything within a certain radius. It's equivalent to a tornado
touching down exactly against your storm cellar, and maybe even dropping
a locomotive right through the entrance as well.
And if that's not enough, there's always a meteor strike to ruin your
day.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protection, I've just come to realize
that everything is in shades of grey.
But I do agree that those MOV based surge protectors are pretty much
worthless, like bows and arrows agains the lightening (it's a cloudy,
stormy day here in Chicago, what can I say...)