[datura647]

I live in a fairly old house and I'm pretty sure the electrical system sucks. I have one of those Monster "power clean" power strips (mainly because I needed a power strip not necessarily a power cleaner). When plugging into one of my outlets in my room, the "Ground OK" light is not on, and while plugging into another the light is on. Obviously I am using the latter outlet however this says something bad about my houses electrical system.


On to my problem, I have one of those little fridges in here and each time the compressor kicks on I hear a loud pop in my speakers (to a lesser extent with my headphones). The cheap power cleaner I have does nothing for this problem as it is the same as before I bought it. The fridge was plugged into a wall outlet not the strip. I recently decided the benefit of the fridge doesn't overcome my fear of ruining my equipment so I unplugged it. The pops are 90% gone, now very rarely will I hear a pop but not nearly as loud as before.


I did a lot of searching and reading about power conditioners and everyone seems to have their favorite (Power Plant, Brickwall, etc). I happen to get a discount on Panamax products so how does their MAX 5500-EX with AC regeneration compare to what else is out there? How worth it is it to go for this more expensive model over the cheaper 5400-EX which I believe is the same minus AC regen? Would these products even fix my problem? This is very attractive for me mainly because of the discount I get, so hearing comparisons of the performance of this unit to others might seal the deal for me. Let's assume we are comparing units costing around $400 give or take a few hundred

I am really nervous about the power problems in this house permanently damaging my equipment, any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Herandu]

Get a mains surge and spike protector, and plug your fridge into that. This will cut down or even completely remove any spikes from the fridge being fed back to the mains wiring round the house.

As for the protection of your audio equipment: that is a lot more difficult. If lightning strikes, nothing will help you. Your current Monster power conditioner should have done the job. If it lets through the mains switching clicks from your fridge, then it shows what I have been saying for a long time. It's a waste of money.

By all means try a few others, but the chances of a total solution are zero. That is unless you have your place rewired in a multi point pattern. They call it star wiring. Has to be done for lights, sockets, high current appliances such as air conditioners and electric cookers/kettles etc. That's what I did to mine.

 

[Knockturne]

The electrical system doesn't necessarily suck. Your fridge is just on the same circuit as your audio equipment. If you plugged the fridge/audio into a different power point you wouldn't hear it (providing it's a different circuit). It'd probably be cheaper/easier to get an electrician to put your audio on a new or separate circuit (you could even get him to use silver wire!!11!), don't quote me on that though.

 

[zanash]

you can by a small supressor with three terminals for about £5 ...in the UK these attach to the compressor terminals and ground .....I had the same problem and this totally eliminated it .

 

[datura647]

Herandu:
Are you saying get a separate surge protector just for the fridge?
I live in a place where lightning strikes are not a concern, I just want to clean my incoming power as much as possible. Do you know what it might cost to have star wiring done? Also my Monster power strip has something called "clean power v1", but wasn't advertised as a power conditioner and at ~$45 I don't expect a whole lot of performance, like I said this was mainly to provide enough power outlets for my needs.

Knockturne:
The fridge was plugged into a socket in the wall where the ground ok light wouldnt come on if the surge was plugged in, the surge is plugged into another outlet with the ground ok light coming on. Does this mean it's a different circuit? Also, would putting an outlet on a new/separate circuit eliminate the problems I am having?

zanash:
Are these made for fridges or specifically for this purpose? Do you have a link?

Do you guys think the panamax 5500ex will improve my sound? I don't know how much longer I will have this discount so if it's a good purchase I would want to snag it for the value.

Thanks to all who have replied!

 

[Herandu]

A separate surge and spike suppressor for the fridge will prevent it feeding back switching noise to rest of your mains wiring.
If your mains fuse box has separate fuses for lights and sockets, and also for the different floors, and lastly for your kitchen sockets, then you already have a star wiring configuration.
If you haven't, then the cheapest thing to do is to get your electrician to wire in a dedicated mains line just for your audio and video equipment from the mains fuse box to the room where you keep your audio and video bits and pieces.
That is what I have done for myself, and that mains line is also fed through a high capacity industrial filter made by a UK company called Bowthorpe. It might seem over kill, but I found out over time that many people have done the same. Get your electrician to use the same thick copper wiring that they use for the mains line for electrical cookers and air conditioners. It has less resistance and a wider power bandwidth.

 

[tbonner1]

If the filters fail, another possible solution would be to wire a separate line out our your power conduit for audio only.