Question About 2 Notebook Surge Protectors

[Fellios_apc]

Hello,

I am looking to buy surge protector for traveling and 2 products caught my eye. Here are their models:

- PNOTEPROC6

- PNOTEPRO3 (this one is mentioned to be discontinued)

While the latter is discontinued it is twice cheaper now. I wonder how former (which I assume is newer) is better than one that is discontinued? By the way, both have a 3-prong power input and output which is the type of power supply I have on my DELL E6420 notebook.

Thanks

[BillP]

Hi Felix,

The main difference between the two products is that the newer unit has better surge protection.  If you look at the tech specs for each, you can find the 'Surge Energy Rating'.  The new unit has 600 Joules of protection, where the older unit only had 180 Joules.  The higher the Joule rating, the better the protection.

[Fellios_apc]

Thanks Ben. How many joules does average lighting strike pack?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi Felix,

A better way to look at it would be with the voltage of a surge rather than the joules. The regulation for surge protection devices is that they can handle a 6,000 volt surge and still protect your devices. You then have different different levels of Let-Through voltage, which is the amount of voltage that your devices will actually see after the surge passes through the surge protector. This device has a max let-through of 330v, which most computer equipment can handle with no issue.

[Fellios_apc]

Which device of 2 that I mentioned has 330v maximum let-through? The one that handles up to 600 joules or 180 joules?

[BillP]

Hello Felix,

Both devices have that 330V let through voltage.

[Fellios_apc]

On 2/13/2017 7:59 PM, Shanon said:

Hello Felix,

Both devices have that 330V let through voltage.

Hi Shanon. I read this help article  about let-through and joules. So it seems that surge protector with less joules is better for small electronics?

[ant_apc]

A little off-topic, but did anyone else just get an e-mail notification of this forum thread that never subscribed to? In fact, how do I unsubscribe? I don't see any way to do that.

Thank you in advance. 🙂

[BillP]

Yes this is off topic. In the future questions or concerns about the forum should be posted under the heading of General Questions & Suggestions. 

You can edit your preferences and deselect "send me e-mail notifications".