UPS vs Surge Protector

[Squanchy]

Hey all, 

 

Not sure which sub this belongs in,

 

Looking to protect my home theater system... not sure which I should get. A UPS or a really good surge protector.

 

In my mind I thought UPS was the best you could do, but I was reading around and got some mixed info saying surge protectors may be better at actually protecting.

 

Any help? 

Thanks!

 

Edit: I live in the midwest, lots of storms if that helps.

[Skiiwee29]

UPS's usually have surge protectors built into them. But for a home theater system, a good Surge protector is all you will need since you likely wont need to shut it down in the event of a power loss event like you would/want to do with computer hardware. 

[fakeirish]

Honestly it really depends on the product and what you want. From my experience a lot of UPS , as long as you go for good and not cheap, have surge protection sockets included in the overall unit, but still don't have as many as a regular surge protector could provide. Also good UPS systems are costly, usually over $150 (not including the battery that needs to be replaced every couple of years), while a good surge protector can be far less than that( < $50).  

 

On the other hand surge protectors won't provide you with a source of power when it does go out, however they will be cheaper and provide more ports to plug in whatever.

 

While watching a movie or something while the power is out does seem appealing you can easily do that on a laptop or something, and from the sounds of it you just want something to protect your electronics. Sounds more like you would need a surge protector compared to a UPS system since the later is more for important work you need to save or do when the power goes out. Personally I have a surge protector on my home theater system while a UPS on my desktop and accessories which works just fine.

[Squanchy]

Excellent responses. I currently have the exact samething, I have a ups for my desktop... I will get a good surge protector then.

 

Thanks for the info!

[xXxAdamxXx]

As far as surge protection goes there's no difference between a regular surge protector and most consumer UPS's, also since it's just to protect a home theater system i'd just go with a good regular surge protector and instead make sure the house and outlets are properly grounded. If you want you can ground an individual outlet, that said lightning can arc pretty easily over any surge protector so the only full-proof protection is to just unplug stuff from the wall during a really nasty storm.

 

Now there are UPS's that effectively act as a shield or buffer between electronics and the grid and they do this by powering everything off the battery at all times and charging from the wall but they're also very very expensive and mostly for commercial (ie: servers). Consumer UPS's (like the $150 ones) draw power directly from the wall, with a spare battery on the circuit that the UPS switches to in the event of a power outage however that can cause an issue as that switch over to the battery could be too slow for some setups (this is why servers use the really expensive UPS's).