Whole House Surge Protectors

[harvero]

Anyone know if these Sycom surge protectors work?

Holmes on Homes installs these almost whenever they open up the entry panel.

 

[Teken]

Does it work? I can't honestly tell you for a fact if it works, and hope I never will because it hasn't been tripped! I have read, and seen on TV that it does indeed work from Holmes on Homes.

There are countless other sites and reviews about this unit and all of them are positive. Please keep in mind that you also require a double pole breaker to protect both sides of the panel.

The whole install took me about 20 minutes to install because I wanted it to look neat and also as per the instruction manual.

 

[Gary S]

It sounds too good to be true. For $80 you get protection for all the electronics in your house? It might work, or it might not. I don't have the experience to say.
Whenever something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I usually stay away from things like that, and most of the time I end up being right. Some times these things work as advertised and save you money. Sometimes they don't, and they end up costing you money.
Right now, I protect all my computers in my house with UPS's. I know UPS's work, but I'm spending a lot more money than $80 to do it the sure way. I'm currently using 7 or 8 UPS's to protect my computers and critical electronics. UPS's are expensive compared to surge protectors, and you have to maintain them with regular battery replacement.
And, the UPS's **** power so I pay every month to run them, but since I put all my electronics on them, I've had no hardware failures at all, and no outages during power bumps.
Maybe somebody here has first hand experience with the surge protectors and can help you.

 

[mrb]

you need layered protection. whole house surge arrestor, then good quality surge protectors on sensitive / expensive electronics.

 

[Teken]

The intent of the whole house surge arrestor is to protect the home in a one shot deal. I agree the use of a UPS is absolutely required for those things such as computers and delicate electronics.

But, keep in mind given the fact almost all appliances have computers / electronics in them. A UPS will not protect those devices which costs *** more than anything you will ever have . . .

Imagine, your A/C, Furnace, Water heater, all your appliances destroyed from a surge. This is the only thing at the panel that would protect those items . . .

Also, for the sake of saying layering is the key in anything you do . . .

I have personally installed a whole house surge arrestor for the panel, telco, and video lines entering the building. Specific outlets also have surge arrestor installed in place of the standard 120 outlet.

Anything that requires absolute protection is on several UPS devices, and lastly this summer my entire house will be backed up by a 17 kW Generac Generator . . .

Layering is the key!

 

[cowboyjosh]

Yes, I install panel protection on every panel in the house. For instance if a house has a 200 or say 400 amp meter socket / feed thru panel, and another panel or 2 in the house say in the garage or basement I install a a Leviton 32000 series on the first panel, or main feed thru panel to protect against any surge from the street side, then I install either a Square D Surge breaker, or another Leviton unit, usually a secondary surge unit at the other panels and sub panels down stream in the building. I also like to install Leviton surge plugs where electronics like computers, tv's etc are plugged in, to protect from any surges introduced within the house say from a refrigerator or AC unit kicking in.

As for the Sycom units that Holmes on Homes uses, they are not bad, but their are better albeit more expensive units on the market.

http://www.TWAcomm.com/catalog/sear...45BF35B634CC21B81A8DC9&fs=leviton+panel+surge

 

[gatchel]

I use a ditek WH-8 package. It has surge devices for electrical, coax and analog telephone.
No problems yet...