Power surge, very blown fuse

[Madroaster]

I had a power surge this morning, or so I believe. It blew the 20A fuse, melted the wire at both ends that exits the fuse and enters the electronics, fused the fuse to the holder, and melted the fuse holder. I replaced the fuse holder, the wire, and fuse, and now the machine is coming up to temperature. Everything appears to be working well.

I did not have a surge protector on it, but I'm looking for one now. (I looked last year for one, but the Belkin one that people used to buy doesn't appear to be available anymore, and I haven't found a 20A protector anywhere else).

If you aren't surge protected, I'd recommend it. My feeling is I have been very lucky not to have had anything else damaged, and as soon as I can get a surge protector I will.

On a side note, I notice that the fuse holder LS installed is only rated for 18A (or 16A; that bit was somewhat melted), although it holds a 20A fuse. That's not adequate as I understand it; they must match. I don't know if it's just my machine that has this holder or if it's more common.

--Derek

[JmanEspresso]

This is interesting... It was my understanding that the Vivaldi is protected from power surges. Hence why you cant use a regular timer.


Do you live in the Northeast? We lost power last night, and I wondered if I should unplug my VII.. I decided not too. I have it plugged into a power strip, which isn't really a surge protector, but it does have the fuse thinger on it. But, when power came back on, there was no issues.

[JohnB]

The Panamax M2A20 is a good match for the Vivaldi & should be readily available.

[Madroaster]

This is interesting... It was my understanding that the Vivaldi is protected from power surges. Hence why you cant use a regular timer.

I hadn't heard that it was surge protected. It does have the fuse, but they aren't nearly as reliable.

Do you live in the Northeast? We lost power last night, and I wondered if I should unplug my VII.. I decided not too. I have it plugged into a power strip, which isn't really a surge protector, but it does have the fuse thinger on it. But, when power came back on, there was no issues.

I leave my machine on 24/7; it hasn't been off in months. We haven't had a power outage in a long time; the surge seemed to be just a surge. I do unplug it during electrical storms when they're close by.

[Madroaster]

The Panamax M2A20 is a good match for the Vivaldi & should be readily available.

Thanks for that. I had been going on the assumption that these were somehow difficult to find, but that's due to poor memory. What actually happened is this: I read about the Belkin protectors, which were something like $40. I looked for one of those because they were half the price of the others, and because Belkin makes good products. When I couldn't find one, I guess I just stopped looking. In the interim, my brain reasoned that I'd stopped looking because they didn't exist. I put it out of my head for the most part and, well, here I am. I'm a bit embarrassed. At least there was no damage to the machine. I'm ordering a surge protector this week.

[JohnB]

http://www.copiersupplystore.com/Displa ... arch=M2A20 has the M2A20 for $34 & has 30+ in stock. All the other sites I looked at were out of stock & more expensive.

[JohnB]

This is interesting... It was my understanding that the Vivaldi is protected from power surges. Hence why you cant use a regular timer.

The Stand By mode protects the machine from a spike when the power comes back on after a power failure. The Vivaldi still needs a surge protector unless you want to depend on the fuse when something happens with the machine up & running.

[Endo]

For those running on 15A (like me), you can get a standard surge protection power bar at any hardware store. Don't try it if you run on 20A though.