Reqs for a surge protector

[afteractionreport]

Looking for a good surge protector. It will be for my refrigerator. The outlet it is connected to runs hot and has burned out several of my defrosts timers...

Dont know much about them.
Jouels?

UPS not required...

Any reccomemlndations are welcome...

Thanks

[sigstroker]

A UPS is going to have better surge protection, but one big enough for a refrigerator is going to be spendy, probably > $100.

[Marauder2003]

If the outlet runs hot methinks the fridge draws too many amps for the circuit it is on.

Surge protector won’t help with that.

[westom]

The outlet it is connected to runs hot and has burned out several of my defrosts timers...

Implementing a solution long before defining a problem is a fool's errand. A plug gets hot because it is defective, is connected to a defective receptacle, or is consuming excessive current.

A surge protector completely ignores that current. A surge protector has a let-through voltage numbers - typically 330. That means it does absolutely nothing until 120 volts rises well above 330 volts. How often is your 120 volts exceeding 330? It does nothing for restricted currents.

Why assume an inferior plug or defective receptacle is causing a timer failure? Those may be coincidences. If low voltage (indicated by a hot plug) exists, then at greater risk is a refrigerator motor. How many have been replaced?

A hot plug means a defect in that plug or receptacle. Fix them. Stop using wild speculation to assume a surge protector will do anything useful. Identify the defect. Only then fix it. A hot plug means either the plug (its attached wire) or receptacle is a poor conductor; cannot safely provide sufficient current.

[Dan_Eastvale]

In our house in Eastvale they had garage outlets on GFI plugs. We had a fridge in the garage. A fridge on a GFI is bad.
Hopefully a quality surge protector will work.
Just don't like to loose everything in the fridge and freezer.

[afteractionreport]

Implementing a solution long before defining a problem is a fool's errand. A plug gets hot because it is defective, is connected to a defective receptacle, or is consuming excessive current.

A surge protector completely ignores that current. A surge protector has a let-through voltage numbers - typically 330. That means it does absolutely nothing until 120 volts rises well above 330 volts. How often is your 120 volts exceeding 330? It does nothing for restricted currents.

Why assume an inferior plug or defective receptacle is causing a timer failure? Those may be coincidences. If low voltage (indicated by a hot plug) exists, then at greater risk is a refrigerator motor. How many have been replaced?

A hot plug means a defect in that plug or receptacle. Fix them. Stop using wild speculation to assume a surge protector will do anything useful. Identify the defect. Only then fix it. A hot plug means either the plug (its attached wire) or receptacle is a poor conductor; cannot safely provide sufficient current.

Well, had an electrician come and replace out outlets. He did a voltage test and said it was higher than normal or hot as he put it. I live in an old building with old electrical.

[Dubious_Beans]

Well, had an electrician come and replace out outlets. He did a voltage test and said it was higher than normal or hot as he put it. I live in an old building with old electrical.

Well, a surge protector isn't going to help protect against higher than normal line voltage.
How about buy an inexpensive DMM and measure it yourself with fridge running and when off and post the numbers. That would be a good start towards determining the real problem.

[bigmike82]

... you're not plugging a 120V appliance into a 208V outlet are you?

[Marauder2003]

Well, had an electrician come and replace out outlets. He did a voltage test and said it was higher than normal or hot as he put it. I live in an old building with old electrical.

Where was the test done? At the socket or the incoming line at the panel? If the latter you need to talk to the power company.

[westom]

He did a voltage test and said it was higher than normal or hot as he put it.

The many replies are citing a major mistake. "higher" is a subjective term; says little to nothing useful. Subjective is how scams and confusion get created. To make an informed reply, others are asking for numbers.

Meanwhile, a GFCI is completely different and completely unrelated to a surge protector. Those address completely different and unrelated anomalies.

A GFCI is about protecting humans. A protector is about protecting appliances.

[Marauder2003]

[MaHoTex]

Implementing a solution long before defining a problem is a fool's errand. A plug gets hot because it is defective, is connected to a defective receptacle, or is consuming excessive current.

A surge protector completely ignores that current. A surge protector has a let-through voltage numbers - typically 330. That means it does absolutely nothing until 120 volts rises well above 330 volts. How often is your 120 volts exceeding 330? It does nothing for restricted currents.

Why assume an inferior plug or defective receptacle is causing a timer failure? Those may be coincidences. If low voltage (indicated by a hot plug) exists, then at greater risk is a refrigerator motor. How many have been replaced?

A hot plug means a defect in that plug or receptacle. Fix them. Stop using wild speculation to assume a surge protector will do anything useful. Identify the defect. Only then fix it. A hot plug means either the plug (its attached wire) or receptacle is a poor conductor; cannot safely provide sufficient current.

Right. Excessive current combined with inherent resistance. This is rather curious though since he said that all plugs were recently replaced. For the heat to be generated at the plug the resistance would need to be present at that location, not further along the circuit.

Perhaps the compressor in the fridge is not cycling and running all the time.

If the plug is getting hot I'd be worried the rest of the wire is as well; think fire hazard.

The many replies are citing a major mistake. "higher" is a subjective term; says little to nothing useful. Subjective is how scams and confusion get created. To make an informed reply, others are asking for numbers.

Meanwhile, a GFCI is completely different and completely unrelated to a surge protector. Those address completely different and unrelated anomalies.

A GFCI is about protecting humans. A protector is about protecting appliances.

Holy smokes, I've finally come across someone that knows transient suppression as well as me.

How do I know this? Well, if people are talking about let-through voltage this isn't their first rodeo.

Everything you have stated thus far is right on target.

[Fizz]

A UPS is going to have better surge protection, but one big enough for a refrigerator is going to be spendy, probably > $100.

More than that. Do not ever connect an inductive motor load to a standard modified sine wave UPS. You MUST use a pure sine inverter or your compressor will have a VERY bad day.

Same goes for Fans and certain computer power supplies. They require utility-like power. No DC to AC inverter produces a perfect sinewave but the higher end ones get so close it's inconsequential.

Seriously, try hooking up a fan to a cheap UPS, it'll make all kinds of ruckus.

[Fizz]

Looking for a good surge protector. It will be for my refrigerator. The outlet it is connected to runs hot and has burned out several of my defrosts timers...

Dont know much about them.
Jouels?

UPS not required...

Any reccomemlndations are welcome...

Thanks

If the outlet is hot it probably means the connection at the junction(s) are poor. You're running the load through what's effectively a resistor.

An outlet or upstream switch should never be hot to touch. It's possible for the junctions to heat up and the breakers not blow, so long as the total draw is below the breaker limit. However, as small room heaters and hair dryers/heat guns show us, you can get quite a bit of energy through an outlet.

[command_liner]

Well, had an electrician come and replace out outlets. He did a voltage test and said it was higher than normal or hot as he put it. I live in an old building with old electrical.

One can have a poor neutral on a center tapped system, with the other side of the circuit having a constant load. This will result in a high voltage at the outlet. Also this condition can be transitory: my house in Lowell used to pop bulbs in the bath on the first floor when the washing machine on the other side of the circuit got heavily loaded.

You do not even need a poor neutral, just old 220 split AC wiring. My house in Fountain Valley had that. 220 at every outlet, and three conductor wiring with a tiny ground. Load half the circuit hard, and the other side saw voltage go up. Push toast down in the toaster and the clock on the microwave gets brighter.

Just last week I found the same class of problem with a $15M piece of equipment in Italy, where asymetric loading across phases was dragging the neutral around, eventually leading to blown up power regulator chips.

A friend of mine used to live near the Edison plant in downtown Boston. His line voltage was 135 VAC always. He had to buy special light bulbs.

The standard trick for this sort of thing is to install a "buck/boost transformer", which can be used to compensate for over or under voltage. Or sometimes we ham radio guys just go out and buy a large variable auto-transformer and just set the voltage lower for a particular piece of equipment.

In your case I suggest checking the voltage at each breaker. Also check the neutral inside the breaker box. Is everything tight everywhere? Some old style breakers use a single bar that the breakers clamp on from one side. These things oxidize, then slowly are cut away by plasma during high power demand. Very strange things can result. Check where the breakers attach to the power bus. Any erosion? You need a new panel.

Back to your real question, which was answered elsewhere. If you can manage it, get an Eaton whole-house surge suppressor. These are easy to install and cheap for what you get. But you do not need a surge suppressor.