|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
130.199.3.130
An aquaintence of mine had a monster HTS1000 MK II, it had a problem. The switched outlets on the strip didn't work.I pulled out my trusty 3 neon light outlet tester, plugged the sucker in..
It indicated hot and ground reversed!!
Whoa! So, checked the unswitched, they were correct..
Figured this was like the APC thingy coupla weeks ago here.
Took it home, used a DVM to check it out..ground was correct..hmmmm..but, both hot and neutral showed about 40 volts to ground??
Turns out the switched outlets have goop across hot to neutral, transient supressors or something similar..and these outlets have hot and neutral go through a common mode choke.
The neutral and hot connections between the common mode choke and the outlets had broken solder joints. When I disassembled the beast, I noticed the neutral wire had three depressions in it, it was jammed between the case and the choke, it pushed the choke into the pc, this broke the joints.
Resoldered both compromised joints, put the unit together, and the thing works perfectly.
The initial dumb tester results really alarmed me with that reversed hot-ground thing, but it turns out the tester is not capable of wringing out all outlet issues. A broken neutral wire at a duplex outlet, with another load on the outlet will also indicate this.
While I fault monster for quality control, there was no safety issue with the device..
Is it possible the APC unit also had this problem?
Follow Ups:
I posted the original APC outlet concern. I'm in Canada, needed to phone APC in US- to make a long story short they sent me a new one, it lasted for 2 or 3 weeks and then the wiring OK LED went off for no reason- the wiring at the wall was correct and all the APC outlets were OK. This time they sent me a more expensive replacement ( APC 12 instead of APC 5) and everything works well. They still have not asked for the defective units back- I would assume the shipping is not worth it to them.
These units and others like them are mass produced in China with perhaps less attention to quality control than advisable. BUT APC has been incredible in terms of customer satisfaction- they have sent me two new units immediately simply on my word that the ones I have are defective. Mistakes happen- nice to see a company accepting responsibility for their products.
You yourself should know anything is possibleA perfect example is the overrated overpriced monster crap
...my Monster HTS2000 power strip/conditioner/surge protector sounds great and was pretty inexpensive (under $200, IIRC).
The three light tester results were quite alarming, but it was just a case of three light tester being unable to cover all contingencies.I still recommend using the tester for initial buzzout, but show a case where it is unable to provide a correct indication of the problem.
Quality control is always an issue when you make lots of widgits, specially when they are farmed out to another country. This one was made in China.
Typically, you try to engineer out problems of this nature, because relying on training to overcome small detail problems sometimes doesn't work well. In this case, when the PC was placed in the package, the screws pulled it in, compressing the wire with the toroid. Had the assembler hand placed the pc against the standoffs it is fastened to, they would have felt the resistance of the interference. Moving the wire half an inch to one side would have alleviated the interference.
The unit is UL approved, appears to be of robust design, and meets the need, so I do not concur that it is "crap".
Pricing determines market share, they can do what they want there.
So really, I have no judgement against monster product on any front, but I personally wouldn't spend that much for one of these widgits..the user in this case, bought them because of a previous transient event which took out some electronics.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: