Dish and surge protector question

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comfortably_numb

comfortably_numb

Dogs have owners, cats have staff
Original poster
Pub Member / Supporter
Nov 30, 2011
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New Mexico
I had Directv back in October, when my dish took a direct hit from a lightning strike. It took out one IRD, a 32-inch flat panel TV and an HDMI port on my large, 52-inch LCD TV. After that incident, I bought a power strip with coax pass-through's to "catch" a strike before it hit my IRD. When I switched to Dish last month, the installer told me "you can't run your satellite wiring through that power strip."

My question is, since it worked just fine with the DirecTV receivers, why wouldn't it work with Dish? Is there really that much signal loss when you pass the coax through a surge protector? I could live with a little signal loss if it meant I wouldn't have to replace a lot of A/V equipment again lol
 
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It is debatable. Some swear you shouldn't, others say it's no problem. I've been running my dvr's plugged into a ups for years with no problem. This way, if there is a brief power loss, I don't lose the buffer or if I'm recording, I don't lose the continuous recording.
 
I have had my TV and receiver on a UPS for over a year now...no problems whatsoever. In fact, The UPS has prevented more problems since we tend to get a lot of brown outs here (around once a month).
 
It's not so much that you're gonna get a little signal loss as far as signal strength numbers. That would be fine. Most, if not all, of the surge strips on the market have low frequency barrel connectors on them, which aren't rated to pass Dish's signal frequencies. These connectors may work forever, they may work for a month, or they may not work at all. I guess it doesn't hurt to try it, and if at some point you get complete signal loss you can always bypass the surge protector and plug straight into the receiver.
 
comfortably_numb said:
I had Directv back in October, when my dish took a direct hit from a lightning strike. It took out one IRD, a 32-inch flat panel TV and an HDMI port on my large, 52-inch LCD TV. After that incident, I bought a power strip with coax pass-through's to "catch" a strike before it hit my IRD. When I switched to Dish last month, the installer told me "you can't run your satellite wiring through that power strip."

My question is, since it worked just fine with the DirecTV receivers, why wouldn't it work with Dish? Is there really that much signal loss when you pass the coax through a surge protector? I could live with a little signal loss if it meant I wouldn't have to replace a lot of A/V equipment again lol
Click to expand...

I would have to say give it a try if you don't have any problems then it's working. As far as plugging the Sat receiver into the power strip I have been told, by Dish tech support, that Dish receivers should be plugged directly into the wall, not into power strips or surge protectors. Again if you do and don't have problems then...it works for you.


Ross



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The problem is that the Barrol connectors in the surge strip are not rated for 2.2 ghz

There are surge protectors that are so called Dish approved, but I wouldn't waste your money.

I would run the sat feed directly to the receiver. If your receiver gets fried, so what it's covered from Dish as long as you don't tell them your system was struck by lightning.
 
Buy a surge protector with insurance....DNS installers carry and sell one with 12 outlets. If the sucker doesn't do its job, belkin will replace or repair uptown 300,000 dollars worth of equipment plugged into it.

Who ever has 300,000 dollars worth of AV gear should invite me over so I can see your set up.
 
A surge protector will not protect you from a lightning strike, they only level out the smaller surges in the power. A UPS will protect you better from a lightning strike as what ever is being powered actually runs off the battery and the AC just charges the battery, but even then, they cannot protect against most lightning strikes.
 
The advice by tech support to plug the receivers in directly into the wall is wrong. Power surges come in many different forms. You can get a micro voltage spike from your heat/ac cycling on and off. Every electronic device in your house should be protected by a surge protector. This includes washing machines and refrigerators.

I had a 2 surges last year from the power going out.
In June we lost power from the famous DC derecho in June. When the power came back on, I lost a surge protector, a UPS (the MOV's burned. Which is what they are designed to do), and a home alarm panel. Also a circuit breaker broke.

In December, the power was going on and off. Then the power went off and I heard a loud boom. I thought the transformer outside popped. Which is something they do yet they still work. Come to find out that I lost 2 Tripp Lite 3200 joule surge protectors. I had one UPS plugged into each of the Tripp Lites since that June surge the fried a UPS. So this time both UPS's were fine. The MOV's in both Tripp Lite's were fried. Also I had 2 of those cheap 6 outlet direct plugin surge protectors that had MOV's burn. And a defrost control module in the fridge burned.

In 2006 the motherboard on a big screen died when the power flickered a few times. It was on a surge protector that will do nothing for an event like that.

The new hopper with sling has a red tag on the power cord by the plug that says:

"For added protection of all your electronic equipment, it is recommended that you add a surge suppressor."

I would advise to put all of your home theater equipment on a UPS which is plugged into a surge protector. It's cheaper to replace a surge protector.

Note that some with surge protectors the electric keeps working after their MOV's burn. In that state, you are not protected.

And good luck trying to file a damage claim with a surge protector company.

I currently have the sat coax connected directly to the receiver. Thinking about getting one of these:

http://www.hometech.com/hts/product...d=PI-TSS2400&gclid=CMrAsPy6pLUCFc2j4AodpwUAxw
 
I could understand putting those in if you had cable service from cable, but since the satellite signal starts on your own roof, if lightning strikes your dish those won't stop that voltage. If lightning struck the cable line miles down the road from your house it might. Lightning can peak at 100,000 or more amps. Even if a full lightning protection protects 99.9% of the current then you will still get a 100 amp surge. If lightning was to strike your house it will not only follow one path to ground, it will distribute itself across all paths to ground because of the amount of amps.
 
Dishman1978 said:
Buy a surge protector with insurance....DNS installers carry and sell one with 12 outlets. If the sucker doesn't do its job, belkin will replace or repair uptown 300,000 dollars worth of equipment plugged into it.

Who ever has 300,000 dollars worth of AV gear should invite me over so I can see your set up.
Click to expand...

HAH! Try collecting.
 
ekilgus said:
HAH! Try collecting.
Click to expand...

Exactly; same as collecting from homeowners insurance for electronics zapped by lightning. I looked into these a long time ago. You'll have to prove that the damage was caused by a lightning strike, which means spending money to have a repair tech to certify that fact. Not worth the expense to buy specifically for the "warrenty".

If your dish/house takes a direct hit, you're gonna have problems no matter what you're using. I have a UPS for the power connections so I can ride over short outages, but take my chances with the coax not running thru any sort of surge protector.
 
A power outage fried the HD in our dish receiver just a couple months ago. I had it on a surge protector only and of course it did nothing to save the receiver from the quick 5 second power on/off brown out blip that happened right before the power went out for good. Sure, Dish replaced the receiver (remarkably fast I might add) but of course it's a hassle and inconvenience, so needless to say I learned my lesson and put my AV equipment on a UPS.
 
To those of you using UPS, do you put your TV's on the UPS as well? Or just the satellite receiver? I've noticed that HDMI ports on TV's seem to get fried via the satellite receivers as well...
 
comfortably_numb said:
To those of you using UPS, do you put your TV's on the UPS as well? Or just the satellite receiver? I've noticed that HDMI ports on TV's seem to get fried via the satellite receivers as well...
Click to expand...
I do personally, not to allow me to watch it during a power outage, but to regulate brownouts. The general rule of thumb with electronics it to turn them off or unplug them for 10 seconds before powering them back up to let the residual energy drain out of the system. Since most brownouts don't last more than a split second to a few seconds, I don't believe that it's good on the electronics to experience that. The AC to DC power supplies will continue to try and make the the same DC voltage even if it's not receiving the proper AC voltage puts a strain on the components. This is why most power supplies in computers burn out. a UPS will supply a constant AC voltage to the device and will act as a buffer for both brownouts and spikes.
 
Scherrman said:
If you're taking a direct hit from lighting you're probably screwed regardless of surge protectors.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. If your house takes a direct lightning strike your first thought after "What the f#&k was that??!!" probably won't be about your home theater equipment.

I seem to recall the reason Dish told customers not to use surge suppressors was because the ViP series used Homeplug and the surge suppressor would block the communication.

I am a big believer in using a UPS for the big electronics. I have my TV, AV Receiver and Hopper connected to one. I get a lot of brown-outs which is something the UPS protects against but a surge suppressor cannot.
 
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