Hello everyone, l have a quick question. Lately we been having thunderstorms and the power keeps going out in our home. Lately l have been unplugging the battery tender before the power comes back because of the surge. Does anyone here use a surge protector for their tender? Costco near me has them on sale. What do you guys think or am l overthinking this? Thank you.

 

A surge protector doesn't provide total protection but they do help when lightning hits not so much when the power returns. Lightning can create a very short very high voltage surge in the wiring leading to and in the house that can blow out electrical/electronic circuits. The surge seen when the power company restores power isn't anywhere near as large.

Bill

 

I work in substations daily

The only way a Lightning strike can enter the home in a properly setup system,
is if it hits the actual low voltage OVERHEAD lines from the distribution transformer to the house. (not likely)
If you are fed underground, it's not even a concern. If it strikes a nearby tree, it really has to be REEEEALLY
close to your house to come up through your grounding rod that the power panel is (Should be) tied to.

Companies do not want to be constantly replacing $$$ transformers, so this is a basic safety device.
Texas unfortunately has the worst grid in the nation, so I can't speak for them tho.....

Every distribution transformer typically has what's called "Lightning arrestors" that will take a hit greater then the phase capacity , they blow immediately and "Short to ground". These are protective devices on every line in America, and every transformer typically has LA's.


When a customer see's the power dip out, and back in a few times (What you may be describing as a "Surge"), that's a power recloser , or smart grid trying to close the breaker because sometimes tree limbs break off, and cross phases and cause a disruption that the station relays pickup, and then reclosers try to reclose and "Blow off" the stray limbs so they can go back into service on their own. 3rd try, it's defaults to an OPEN status, and the power is down.

You can buy whole house surge protectors.
What alot of people don't know is even if the Utility goes down, customers often have generators that backfeed into the lines, and can also damage things if improperly installed, or dysfunctional. These are one of the utility workers greatest risks of injury believe it or not.

 

I leave my NOCO on a basic Tripp Lite surge protector in the garage when in use along with the myQ garage device. Not sure how much it helps, but it's something. I am planning to get a whole house surge protector eventually.

 

Thank you all for your quick replies. You learn something new every day. Thanks again.

 

We seem to have outages a lot. I have surge protectors for all my electrical equipment. I never thought about it for the battery maintainers. I have a Battery Tender, Junior and a C-Tek on the Vette and never had an issue.

 

Because I don't have my load center surge protected, I have them all over the house where expensive things are. I have one for my battery tender out in the garage. For $10 it's cheap insurance.

PS: I have a wireless speaker amp under my couch for my home theater rear speakers and it requires 120V power. The unit failed twice and then I put a surge protector on the outlet. It's been years since the last failure. My theory was that the design of it was bad and was very sensitive to the slightest over-voltage conditions. So like I said, it's cheap insurance. That wireless speaker amp wasn't cheap to replace twice.

I really learned a lot from reading post #3. Somebody knows their stuff (EE here).

 

I had one installed when I got a new breaker box. Not cheap but seemed worth it, and it came with some insurance in the event of damage.

 

Sure; why not?

 

I have my battery tender plugged into a surge protector.