Do you run your cabs through surge protectors?

Power Strips

If so, do you leave the protectors on all the time?

Also, is there a recommended time you should leave a cabinet running?

I have mine plugged into surge protectors all the time, the surge protector I have is remote controlled, so I can turn them on all at once and turn them off remotely, once it is off, it is completely off. I usually leave my games on no more than a couple of hours if me and friends are playing, I don't leave them running if they aren't being played.

Here is the one I use:

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Conserve-Switch-F7C01008q-Energy-Saving/dp/B003P2UMNK
 
All my cabs in the gameroom are on surge protectors. I no longer turn on cab switches (which most of the time are inaccessible) and just turn the surge protectors on (one whole wall is on a surge protector on a wall-switch controlled outlet).

Games should NOT be left on 24/7 if you want them to work long-term with minimal issues (or start or increase burn-in of the tube). They also should NOT be left off for months at a time and expect them to still work perfectly every time you deign to turn it on.

Other than that, there is no set "perfect" time for them to be on. If you want it on because it looks cool, do so. But if you leave, go to bed, etc - turn it off.
 
Same with me all games are on surge protectors, no more bending down to maybe turn them on. One switch hidden and they come on. When I turn my games on I just always leave them on for a few hours at the least.
 
I have my 2 pins and the Zoo Keeper plugged into a plug mounted surge protector since I can access the power switches easily. The 2 nintendo cabs have the power cables routed around the side and I just plug them in to play. - Barry
 
Yes - for sure. I like the switched ones so you can turn a bank of games on/off at once. I generally have them running when it gets dark and turn them off at night before I go to bed.
 
now, i have to ask, is it better to leave the surge protector on? i.e., does it protect when off? only reason i say that is that i generally unplug all my games in event of electrical storms, but with a surge protector, do they work even if they're turned off?
 
my 2 machines are on surge protectors, and unplugged when i'm not using them (not sure why i unplug them but i do lol).

edit: I've been meaning to add whole house surge protection at the box for a while (i'd still use surge protectors tho).
 
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now, i have to ask, is it better to leave the surge protector on? i.e., does it protect when off? only reason i say that is that i generally unplug all my games in event of electrical storms, but with a surge protector, do they work even if they're turned off?

That's what I was wondering, too. Anyone know?
 
I'm currently finishing my bar / game room but I did get the carpet installed last week and moved the games in that would fit. I bought two of these for each row of games:

http://www.amazon.com/American-DJ-P...L50Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318439596&sr=8-1

They work great as you can turn each game on and off individually. I just put them on the top of one of the cabinets.

This is the way to go. I've been meaning to pick one of these up. A bunch of people on here use them.
 
now, i have to ask, is it better to leave the surge protector on? i.e., does it protect when off? only reason i say that is that i generally unplug all my games in event of electrical storms, but with a surge protector, do they work even if they're turned off?

Very few surge suppressors are capable of stopping lightning. It arcs right past the switch and damping capacitors. Only the big oil-filled rack-mount ones can actually stop a direct hit from a thunderbolt, and their prices are well into the "if you have to ask" range.

On top of that, many people use the term "surge protector" to refer to any old power strip, regardless of whether it has any protection circuitry at all. If it doesn't have a joules rating, it's not really a surge suppressor.

Unplug your games during storms people!
 
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On top of that, many people use the term "surge protector" to refer to any old power strip, regardless of whether it has any protection circuitry at all. If it doesn't have a joules rating, it's not really a surge suppressor.

Also, remember that most "surge protectors" are little more than a 25 cent metal-oxide varistor, and a breaker. It'll protect from some things, but it's a far cry from real surge suppression.

But... frankly it doesn't much matter. Very little will protect anything in the case of a real lightning hit, as roothorick points out. Just be sure to unplug your games in storms, and you'll be fine.

That said, yeah, I use a power strip to turn games on and off.

-Ian
 
Buy the surge protector with the "million dollar guarantee" if anything goes wrong.

BTW - whole house surge-protection doesn't always help. I have a customer who thought he was fine and didn't need them on his game (even though I told him to use them) because he had one on the outside of the house. Well, that didn't help when he had his house remodeled and they came in and plugged all their table saws, etc into the outlets INSIDE the house. Lost the power supplies to both the games...
 
If you're exceptionally anal you could run your games through UPS's...

Quite possibly a bad idea.

I damaged an expensive Yamaha audio/video receiver by plugging it into a UPS. When it switched to battery the A/V receiver no longer worked correctly.

Most UPSs generate square wave equivalents to the sine waves that everything is expecting. Not sure if that was the issue or not but after a trip to the repair shop to get the receiver fixed I didn't do that again...
 
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Buy the surge protector with the "million dollar guarantee" if anything goes wrong.

BTW - whole house surge-protection doesn't always help. I have a customer who thought he was fine and didn't need them on his game (even though I told him to use them) because he had one on the outside of the house. Well, that didn't help when he had his house remodeled and they came in and plugged all their table saws, etc into the outlets INSIDE the house. Lost the power supplies to both the games...

I've been told that the whole house surge protectors are meant as a first line of defense anyway to knock the surge down and that you're supposed to use individual surge protectors regardless. Even for surges originating from the outside.
 
If you want to be paranoid, try one of these:

http://zerosurge.com/residential.cfm

I remember reading a review of these one time where the magazine tortured the shit out of one of these multiple times, pumping huge surges through it and measuring what came out the other side. These did very well.

Some of the (other brands) melted and/or caught on fire.
 
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