Blip Blip BLIP!

Got caught in the Mess in the Midwest over the weekend. Had the amp on, and the house flashed three times before the power went out.

 

Amp was on. The non-latching GFCI adapter I use in line with the amp did it's job and tripped on the first blip, doing it's job, and preventing any damage.



Cheap insurance ... Got mine at Amazon for less than $20 ...

http://www.trci.net/products/shock-shield/user-attachables/single-outlet-adapter

PS ... that happened around 8pm Sunday, and the power just came back a couple hours ago. No chance of hot cycling the amp ...

Could you tell me what make and model your gfci is? I couldn't find it on Amazon and can't find one anywhere local. I have the vta st-120 and would like to purchase one. I'm in Ontario Canada.

Cheers....Leigh

Ha. I tried your link a second time and it took me right to it! Thanks.

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Ain't sayin' it actually saved anything ... just sayin', as they say ...  

What I CAN say is it fired up right nice tonite ...

PS ... link I posted up was for the TRC home site. Here's the one for Amazon ...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XVG72G/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I bought a pair (one for the TV, one for the stereo) on sKiZo's recommendation and they worked perfectly when my power quickly cycled after a local knocked a power pole over.
Immediately clicked off and later when I was sure everything was copacetic, immediately (manually) clicked back on.
Good stuff. Cheap insurance. Thanks for the tip.

This one works like a champ, too:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XU7848/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It's water (& presumably beer and wine) resistant, too.

Yup ... same thing ... only different.  

TRC also has a triple plug version, but that gets kinda bulky. Wonder if they'll ever come up with an audiophallic version? Gold plated, wire woven from the hair of angels, cryogenically treated in zero gravity with a few more zeroes in the price tag ...

sKiZo wrote:Yup ... same thing ... only different.  

TRC also has a triple plug version, but that gets kinda bulky. Wonder if they'll ever come up with an audiophallic version? Gold plated, wire woven from the hair of angels, cryogenically treated in zero gravity with a few more zeroes in the price tag ...

Skiz, you are as usual on to something. After I corner the NOS Tung-Sol 6550 and RCA cleartop 6CG7 markets, and am rolling in dough, let's build a prototype and sell it to Audioquest.

A true audiophile would only accept unobtanium plating in their GFI.

I think I'm electronically challenged here. Aren't GFI's for areas in contact with water? What if my newer home has GFI's in the areas coded for them already? Why not just use a good battery backup/surge protector?

Laminarman wrote:I think I'm electronically challenged here.  Aren't GFI's for areas in contact with water?  What if my newer home has GFI's in the areas coded for them already?  Why not just use a good battery backup/surge protector?  

Good question. Dynaco-type amps do not lightly suffer a quick on-off power cycling, as often happens during winter. Once shut down, the amp should be allowed to sit powered-off for several minutes to let the caps discharge before turning them back on. An separate, mannually resettable GFI for your amps or power distributor will prevent a quick on-off-on event, because you have to get up and reset the GFI to restore power.
Bob L. also makes an on-board relay gadget for the ST 70 that does the same thing in a different way.
[edited to add:] A manual reset GFI is twenty bucks. A decent battery-backup isolator gizmo can run in to the kilobuck range, even without the unobtanium option.

Also worth repeating ... it's not necessarily the GFCI capabilities that are important for protecting your amp ... it's the trip on a blip feature. That's what prevents the amp from fast cycling and allows the capacitors to discharge normally after a momentary outage without firing live rounds at your precious bottles.

And don't confuse these with the standard GFCI breakers or outlets you find in homes - those may trip on a blip, but will automatically reset UNLESS there's a ground fault, which DOES require a manual reset.

I see. I live in a somewhat rural area and have FREQUENT power outages and flickering lights. I'd say a dozen a year. Some only an hour or so, others minutes. One lasted five days. Our sub station sits atop a wind driven hill on the western edge of the Catskills. Looks like I need get one of these. So by the fact it will trip, and turn off, it prevents the cycling, right? I never knew tubes were sensitive in that way. Soooo much to learn. Thank you.

Here's another  that works pretty good .  Just  splice it in the cord in place of  the plug .   The G902 .
http://products.ericson.com/viewitems/-protect-ground-fault-interupters/ed-protector-series-add-a-cord-90-degree-plug-gfci?