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Thread ID: 76112 2007-01-21 04:13:00 cheap power strips Greven (91) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
517947 2007-01-21 04:13:00 I needed a power strip yesterday, so I went down to The Warehouse & bought a 6 plug elto one for about $6. It is a horrible power strip - things don't plug in properly without a lot of wriggling & forcing the plug :mad:.

What is the cheapest brand of decent power strips, and where do you buy them from?
Greven (91)
517948 2007-01-21 04:18:00 I bought a cheap "Results" branded one from Mitre10 early last year - works fine, just like a brand-name one. somebody (208)
517949 2007-01-21 23:51:00 PDL, available from hardware stores. sroby (11519)
517950 2007-01-23 01:56:00 "cheap" and "good" ... ? Most of the cheap ones don't have actual sockets ... they have strips of thin brass bent to form occasional contact with plugs. Running 10 amps through one "socket" usually causes enough heat to melt the case.

I look out for proper power strips at auctions. They have metal cases, and real individual sockets (like the ones on electric stoves).
Graham L (2)
517951 2007-01-23 05:29:00 "cheap" and "good" ... ? Most of the cheap ones don't have actual sockets ... they have strips of thin brass bent to form occasional contact with plugs. Running 10 amps through one "socket" usually causes enough heat to melt the case.

I look out for proper power strips at auctions. They have metal cases, and real individual sockets (like the ones on electric stoves).

They sound expensive. how much do they usually cost ?
Greven (91)
517952 2007-01-23 05:38:00 its not the cost its the advailability. try finding the good ones.

unfortunatly most manafactures only make the cheap type. a lot only have a contact on one side or very thin contacts which become loose very quickly. a loose contact will over heat, melt the plastic and can catch on fire.
tweak'e (69)
517953 2007-01-24 02:48:00 The cheap ones are probably OK for a bunch of things which pull 5-20 watts, but anything which actually uses amps is best given a good connector. It's probably a good idea to get IEC cords with tapon plugs to feed computer boxes and laser printers. Then you can plug a power strip in the back of the tapon for the rest of the rubbish like modems, inkjet printers, etc. Graham L (2)
517954 2007-01-24 05:07:00 The cheap ones are probably OK for a bunch of things which pull 5-20 watts, but anything which actually uses amps is best given a good connector. It's probably a good idea to get IEC cords with tapon plugs to feed computer boxes and laser printers. Then you can plug a power strip in the back of the tapon for the rest of the rubbish like modems, inkjet printers, etc.

IEC? :confused:
Greven (91)
517955 2007-01-25 01:13:00 IEC power cords look like this (www.dynamix.co.nz/productimages/pdfs/page096.pdf). Look at the ones with the "C-POWERCT" code for what a tapon looks like. Graham L (2)
517956 2007-01-26 05:13:00 I needed a power strip yesterday, so I went down to The Warehouse & bought a 6 plug elto one for about $6. It is a horrible power strip - things don't plug in properly without a lot of wriggling & forcing the plug :mad:.I bought cheaper ones than that from the warehouse a year or more ago, and use them behind my audio equipment (in a rack) and my son uses 2 for his part of our computer network.
They were fine UNLESS used in an environment where things are going to get moved, or a non low draw appliance is used. In those situations, i have either installed more sockets on the wall, or done as Graham has advised.
personthingy (1670)
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