Equipment protection

PSOVLSK

An aquaintence of mine (who happens to be an electrician), told me to use a GFCI outlet for my HT equipment to better protect it. This makes perfect sense to me, yet seems too easy considering the cost of a GFCI outlet compared to the cost of many surge protectors...not to mention the fact that I would think I would have heard this mentioned before now.

Also, would running a dedicated outlet for my HT equipment be a good idea or a waste of money. The reason I ask is that I heard a small pop in my speakers a few weeks ago when I turned off my light switch.

Any opinions, or better yet, can anyone provide facts.

Thanks from a newbie

Frank Z

A GFCI outlet makes no sense for an outlet used for electronics. They are great in bathrooms, kitchens, and outdoors.

Yes a dedicated 20 amp cicuit is a good idea.

Zen Dragon

GFCI's are primarily used in wet locations. Their benefit is they sense a change of current to ground within milliseconds and trip to remove voltage from the circuit.
Circuit breakers can run several seconds or longer during an overload condition before they break. So no a GFCI is not warranted.
Running a dedicated circuit is a good idea, particularly if you are running high amplification. Surge protectors are always a good idea, and some people install expensive power conditioners to further reduce noise in the system. Power conditioners are of the most benefit if you are running higher end equipment that is more revealing of noise within the electronics.

unc2701

Dedicated 20 amp is a great idea.

GFCI is a good idea if you have ground loop and want to lift the ground without violating code. If you don't have ground loop, there's no benefit apart from the fact that GFCI outlets tend to have a slightly better build than the $0.49 bulk outlets.

PSOVLSK

Thanks for the replies. I thought that it would be common knowledge to have a GFCI if it were beneficial. That just seemed like too easy of a solution, especially considering the rather large surge protection industry. I can't imagine there beign much a martket for surge protection if all you needed was a GFCI.

Follow-up question about the dedicated 20 amp circuit. I know the cost can vary greatly depending on many variables, but anyone know a ballpark figure of what I might expect to pay. I'll have to hire someone, as I'm somewhat of an idiot when it comes to running wires in the walls, etc.

Thanks.

unc2701

$60-$80 an hour... how long it'll take is going to depend a lot on where the box is and where you want to go. I pulled mine in about 30 minutes, but I had conduit to the box, a big crawlspace and an open wall. If it's on a different floor than the breaker box, it'll get expensive FAST.

reeltrouble1

Yea, the fact is its pretty much a waste of your money. Wont hurt anything, might give some tiny slight improvement, but if money is an issue, the actual objects that make the sounds might be good place to start. If you have to run a line then its not much more to run the 20 amp over the 15, so then you might, I run everything on 15 amp shared lines and it sounds marvelous, stupendous, great, out of the world, knock your socks off. No pops, drips or errors.

Besides that well, the pot is now stirred. If Frank says its a good idea, well then that is good enough for me.

Welcome to Club Polk.

RT1

Skynut

my stuf fis plugged into 2 different 15 amp outlets. My amps are straight to the wall and everything else goes through my power conditioner.
I think my system sounds pretty good and there is no background noise that I can hear.

Pablo

Another question to ask when considering a dedicated line is what is already running on the line you have now. I ran a 20 amp line myself (it was pretty easy since I was fairly close to the box) and it did make a minor improvement.

But if you already have a ton of stuff on that line (lights, outlets, a dehumidifier, ect..), then it's a good idea to run a new curcit. I once tripped the circut by plugging to much in the outlets, and that convinced me to run a new line, now no problems, and cleaner sound.

Also, a GFI is only a breaker, while a "good surge supressor" is actually a line conditioner that will clean the current (it removes the small spikes and dips).

dorokusai

A GFCI outlet will bring you about as much sonic benefit as sticking your finger in the same outlet.