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Product Description
Damaging surges associated with lightning or utility problems can travel along your utility and data lines, damaging your electronic devices and destroying your valuable data. Even smaller everyday surges can degrade the performance of your electronics and decrease their life. The APC 11-Outlet Performance Surge Arrest Surge Protector (telephone/coaxial protection) offers the highest level of protection for your professional computers, electronics and connected devices, as well as provides surge protection for all of your data lines. Its state of the art circuitry provides protection for even the most sensitive electronic equipment.Product Details
- Size: na
- Color: Gray
- Brand: APC
- Model: P11VT3
- Fabric type: na
- Platform: Windows
- Format: CD-ROM
- Original language: French
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 2.40" h x 7.50" w x 13.70" l, 2.33 pounds
Features
- 3020 Joule Surge Protector Power Strip
- 11 Total Power Surge Protector Outlets with Sliding Safety Shutters, 6 Outlets are Block-Spaced for Larger Adapters
- Telephone and Co-Axial Protection against Power Surges along Data Lines
- 8' Cord with 180 Degree Rotation and Right-Angle Plug
- Lifetime warranty and $100,000 Equipment Protection Policy provides peace of mind
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews304 of 322 people found the following review helpful.
9/28/2013 Update - Previous:Don't buy - Doesn't Protect & APC doesn't back "Equipment Protection Policy"By Russ
9/24/2013 Update - After sending a strong email to APC, I was informed that they would now pay my claim. So today I recieved my claim check and APC eventually did the right thing.
The APC surge protector doesn't protect. APC denied claim....Stay away!
On June 25th 2013, lightning struck right beside my home. It tripped the main breaker to the house. After getting the power back on, I noticed my electronic equipment that was properly connected to my APC surge protector wasn't working. I filed a claim, and sent in the surge protector as instructed. APC denied the claim as they informed me the surge protector was fine, and showed no internal signs of damage, burning or indicators of power surge.
There are 2 schools of thought -
1. obviously it is ok, as it didn't "perform" as intended and allowed my equipment to be damaged.
2. APC "checked" their own product, in their "own" lab. APC said it showed "no internal signs of damage, burning or indicators of power surge", "no loose parts". There were loose parts, as I heard loose piece(s) inside surge protector while I was preparing it for shipment to APC facility. APC indicated "NO" on loose material section of Test Report, and that just isn't true.
I also filed a claim against Belkin as well (for damaged equipment in 2nd room), and that was denied as well.
Surge protector companies like APC and Belkin are lying to consumers, as their protectors don't protect and their so called "Equipment Protection Policy" is a joke. My equipment was connected properly and simply wasn't protected.
Thank you for providing a false sense of security while using APC/Belkin products. I will no longer be using APC/Belkin equipment, and sharing my thoughts with others.
R. Adams
72 of 76 people found the following review helpful.
I got a lemonBy bummster
I got a lemon. So that is definitely clouding my review of this item. All plugs, except for the bottom plug in the middle column, work. So, I ended up with a 10 plug surge protector. But if one plug doesn't work, well that doesn't give me a sense that this product will last. It's too bad. This has all the bells and whistles that I wanted and if the 11th plug had worked would have been perfect and I probably would have given it a 4. Brutal.
The plug spacing is just about perfect for what I needed. The cord is long and the plug on the end is right angled and pivoted on center to 45 degrees. All the little things are well done, except the pressure required to plug in something. It takes a heck of a lot of effort to both insert and remove a plug. The one that is not working however, requires very little pressure. While not really a con that the force required is high, it's pretty high. I do wish that one of the plugs was always on, but that's more a product of my needs than an issue.
Turns out, that I am unable to return/exchange this item as well due to it containing "Hazardous materials" or something. At least that's what Amazon's website is telling me "so far" when I tried to go through the motions of returning it. I've contacted Amazon via email to see what my options are. I'm sure they will make me "whole" again, but If not, well, I may open it up and repair whatever wiring is messed up inside. I'd rather not, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.
Update: Amazon emailed back while I was writing this review and is sending me a replacement. Crazy fast response times! But they do not want the original one back due to the hazardous materials policy. Typo in the system maybe, because i don't see what is so hazardous about a general purpose surge protector.
Update 2: Got a replacement, and it's working just fine. The replacement also has a rather high insertion force required, but all the plugs work so whatever. I took the old one apart to see what was going on, and found what I figured happened. Moved some pieces back into position, and the "defective" one is working again. I posted an image of what was inside. Again, I have no idea why this is a hazardous material eligible product. Adding a star from 2 to 3 since my personal "ifixit" rating for this item is a 9. :-D
84 of 92 people found the following review helpful.
Questionable surge protection at best and in all likelihood will do more harm than good.By Dan J
UPDATED MARCH 21, 2017
Like many people, I bought the product because I did know any better. It was a name brand product and had lots of favorable reviews. I just assumed that it was a good product. One day I smelled something burning and saw smoke coming from this surge protector. Had I not been there, the house could have burned down.
This is the only reason why I gave this product a 1-Star (Negative if you will) review. I also wanted to share with others what I have learned since I purchased the item, namely that this product is a "surge suppressor" (i.e., it reduces the size of the surge), but does nothing to "eliminate" the surge.
As I searched for alternate technologies I found that Series Mode filters work on an entirely different principle, are not sacrificial and are indeed the superior technology. Series Mode filters eliminate the surge instead of suppressing it and hoping for the best.
It is not that I disliked this (MOV-based) technology as I did buy it & had high hope for it, rather I like many who bought it just assumed that it would protect my electronics in a safe manner.
As I stated in this review, most people will buy this "surge suppressor" plug it in, then plug in their electronics and write a 5-star review without really testing the products "main" functionality (the reason we buy this is to protect our gear and our home). When it does not do that, it's a bad product. When you dig into the technology you'll see that it literally lulls a consumer into a false sense of security. It truly deserves a negative review. Some will disagree with me, but if you saw smoke coming from the surge suppressor would you think it was a good product? Here's the rub, this can happen with any brand of surge suppressor that uses MOV's at the heart of their surge technology. It doesn't matter if the surge suppressor cost $10 or $600.
UPDATED JULY 10, 2016
MOV technology is PARALLEL technology because the MOV is in parallel to the electrical path. In the absence of a surge, the MOV is off and the only path to electronics is the electrical path. In the presence of a surge, WHEN the MOV turns on, both the electrical path and the path through the MOV exist. Until the MOV turns on the surge continues along the electrical path, but even when the MOV is turned on some of the surge energy still reaches the protected outlets; it can't be helped with this technology.
UPDATED APRIL 15, 2016
The manufacture only guarantees a low impedance return path from the MOV in the Surge Protector to the outlet, because that is a known distance and easily met. The manufacture cannot guarantee the state of your house wiring or the distance to the buildings (homes) Ground Rod. If the distance is greater than 10-feet and it often is, the surge cannot make it's way back to the ground rod. This is especially true in larger homes, or homes/building with apartments on the 2nd, 3rd or higher floors. If you're living on the 20th floor of an apartment building the wiring will be several hundred feet to the "earth ground" and the surge will find an alternate path. When you buy this surge protector and plug it in, you're basically testing the outlets and not the Surge Protection capability, and unless you're less than 10 feet from a buried Ground Rod this device will not divert the surge to the "earth", but the surge still has to go somewhere? If you use all the ports on this device, the surge will enter into one of the other connected items on the Coaxial or Phone or Network (if you have that connection). End result is a slowly damaged TV, DVR, AV Receiver, Cable Modem, Computer, etc ...
UPDATED JANUARY 15, 2016
Conflicting information between paper documentation, APC Technical support, labeling on underside of the product and website (online information).
1) Manual states:
"This device features an internal protection that will disconnect the surge protective component at the end of its useful life but will maintain power to the load - now unprotected. If this situation is undesirable for the application, follow the manufacturer's instructions for replacing the device."
2) APC Technical Support (via email):
"Our units do provide power when the MOV wears down but the surge protection light on the unit will go off. So then you know it needs to be replaced but it has a lifetime warranty."
3) LABEL on UNDERSIDE OF THIS PROTECTOR purchased on 09/22/2015:
Voltage Protection Ratings: L-N 400V, N-G 500V, L-G 500V
Who to believe?
Seems like the (1) Paper Documentation, (2) APC Tech Support, and (3) Product itself all state the same thing, but the website (online documentation) states something entirely different. 3 Votes to 1 suggests that the website needs to be updated as it's providing very misleading information to the consumer.
What's the big deal if the Clamping Voltage is 330V, 400V or even 500V?
It means that until the surge protector starts working, the very electronics or appliances plugged into it are protecting the surge protector, which is pretty ironic. You buy protection for your electronics and the electronics is doing the protection for the surge protector at the beginning of very large surges or spikes and for all surges less than 400-500 Volts in amplitude.
What does it mean for APC? Fewer product returns as their surge protector will last longer.
DECEMBER 31, 2015 - My original Review
Purchasing surge protectors are often an afterthought. We buy one, plug it in and if everything works we feel good about the purchase.
The problems only begin when our electronics starts behaving strangely for no apparent reason: a hard drive crashes, a motherboard is fried, a power supply fails prematurely, we lose a USB or an HDMI port, etc … We talk to more knowledgeable people and sometimes conclude that a surge managed to take out our electronics but not our surge protector. Yet at the heart of almost all surge protectors sold today is a 1970’s era device about the size of a quarter that costs about a quarter in volumes, called an MOV or Metal Oxide Varistor. It’s usually placed across the Line-Neutral, Line-Ground, and Neutral-Ground connections in what is known as Triple Mode Protection (sounds good). It works by turning on at a certain voltage and diverting the surge to both the Neutral and/or Ground wire.
It’s only when a surge happens that things begin to go very wrong. Surges can come from power company switching, lightning or induced by lightning on overhead or buried transmission lines, or from the very appliances within our own home that have a motor (i.e. an air conditioner, fans, mixers, blenders, fridge, washing machine, clothes dryer, hair dryer, vacuum cleaners and power tools to name a few). Each time one of these cycles on or off, a surge is generated. This usually happens as a result of a huge in-rush of current by electronics or appliances and can generate a surge. Ever notice how the lights sometimes dim?
The surge protector doesn’t actually suppress the surge; rather it attempts to divert the surge to the Neutral and/or Ground wires in the outlet and hopes that it travels all the way back to the mains electrical panel where the Neutral and Ground are bonded to each other and connected to a ground rod buried in the earth.
The further the surge protector is from the mains electrical panel, the more resistance (impedance in AC terminology) that it can encounter and often times the surge will look for another path even if that path is via the very electronics plugged into the surge protector or anywhere else in the house. When this happens, the Ground (which is used as a reference by modern day electronics) is no longer at zero volts and is considered contaminated for the duration of the surge. If the surge makes its way back into some electronics it can wreak havoc and take out motherboards, cause hard drives to crash or USB/HDMI ports to fail.
A second problem is that the MOV does not turn on right away (i.e., it has to reach a certain voltage) and many surges pack a lot of current so while the MOV is not on, the surge is actually being delivered to the electronics or appliances you’re trying to protect resulting in damage over long periods of time. This helps to explain why your electronics or appliance is damaged and the surge protector appears to be working. Oops. Also when the MOV is on, not all of the surge can be diverted (some actually makes its way into the very electronics you're trying to protect - that's the nature of the beast when you rely on an MOV)
A third problem is that each time the MOV is turned on; it takes a little less voltage to turn it on the next time. The good part about this is that your electronics is protected a little earlier (but still being damaged until the MOV turns on) since MOV turns on at a lower voltage. The bad part is that eventually the normal 120 VAC in the wall will cause the MOV to turn on all the time. When this happens, MOV failure is imminent (it's not a matter if, rather when) & the MOV will get hot very quickly and will smoke, explode and/or catch fire.
Of course house fires are bad news for everyone, so some manufactures have come up with ways to help prevent make them or make them occur less often, by encasing the MOV in a fireproof material and/or installing an in-line thermal fuse (physically it’s wedged up really tight against the MOV) so when the MOV heats up, the thermal fuse “opens” and the MOV is taken out of the circuit. Depending on the MOV location one of two things will happen:
(a) If it’s across the Line-Neutral, Line-Ground, Neutral-Ground connections the surge protector will continue to supply power to devices connected to the surge protector without any surge protection. Hopefully the status LED indicates the surge protection is no longer working – but this isn’t always the case.
(b) If it’s in series with the Line or HOT connection, power to the surge protector is removed and the surge protector stops powering anything connected to the surge protector.
Again, hopefully the status indicator has the correct status. But this means one has to check the status indicator on some schedule. Sometimes you need to unplug everything from the surge protector and just shake it a little - if you hear rattling, chances are one or more MOV's have failed, come loose and are a hazard that can short out the rest of the surge protector not to mention that your surge protection is no longer working.
Which is better? It depends on your application & what you want the desired outcome to be. If the surge protector is part of a security system or monitoring system you might want the surge protector to continue supplying power but you still have to check the status and trust that the status is correct. If you are in the middle of a movie and the power to the surge protector goes out, you’ll have to replace it before you can use the electronics again, but you still have to check the status indicator on some schedule. APC has said that this model will fail with power still being supplied to your electronics or appliances and unprotected. You have to rely on the status indicator to inform you that the surge protection has failed.
Manufactures of MOV based surge protectors want you to replace the surge protector on some schedule (either every 1, 2 or 3 years) as they have no idea if the surge protector has working MOV’s. If you consider an annual replacement of a $20-$25 surge protector, over 10 years, you’ll have spent $200-$250+ and have questionable surge protection at best.
Some companies that manufacture high end surge protectors recognize that ground contamination is a serious enough issue and make surge protectors with an MOV across the Line to Neutral connections only. This is a step in the right direction but since they don’t do anything to limit the amount of the surge that is transferred to the Neutral (before the MOV turns on) you have the same kinds of issues you have with the Ground AND you still hope that the surge makes it’s way back to the mains electrical panel. This kind of protection is called Single Mode. It’s actually safer than triple mode but with an MOV based implementation it still has problems (namely ensuring the surge makes its way back to the mains electrical panel & allowing some of the surge into the electronics as it cannot divert 100% of the surge - that's not how MOV's work; if it does not damage can still result in the very electronics or appliances you're trying to protect).
A lot of naysayers will say that Single mode [mode 1] offers no protection from surges coming in on the Ground or Neutral wire [common mode surges], but if you install a Type 2 “Whole House” Surge Protection Device (SPD) on the load side of the mains electrical panel you can account for up to 80% of external surges being dealt (shunted or diverted) to ground. And use the Type 3 SPD’s as a secondary (layered) approach. This and the fact that house wiring will limit the size of the surge entering the house means that surges on the GROUND or NEUTRAL are overblown – surge protectors have these kinds of protection because TRIPLE mode just sounds better than SINGLE mode.
Many surge protectors (including the floor, in-wall, rack mounted) carry a note that reads: "DO NOT INSTALL THIS DEVICE IF THERE IS NOT AT LEAST 10 METERS (30 FEET) OR MORE OF WIRE BETWEEN THE ELECTRICAL OUTLET AND THE ELECTRICAL SERVICE PANEL"
It's because these surge protectors are known as Type 3 surge protectors and not designed for use in an electrical panel. If you place the unit within 30 feet of the electrical panel they could act like a Type 2 surge protector and attempt to do the work of a protector designed to deal with larger voltages and currents.
The only effective way to deal with surges are to use an isolating transformer or a series mode power filter. For those old enough to remember, many appliances used to have a built in isolating transformer but in the last 50 years this is a trend that is all but gone except in some high end equipment. It’s an expensive and heavy solution although it provides excellent protection from surges.
Series mode power filters which have been around since 1989 can effectively deal with the surge as they are designed to slow the surge down in time, store it as energy and bleed it onto the Neutral wire a few volts at a time until it’s completely gone. It doesn’t rely on MOV’s so it does not need to be replaced periodically. It does cost more: $159-179+ for a new a 2-outlet 7.5 Amp/15 Amp version, or from $30-$100+ if you purchase a used one from popular auction site. You can also get 20-amp versions of them as well as versions designed to work in wet areas like aquariums. Contrast a used or new series mode with annual replacements of an $20-$25 MOV based surge protector and the economics favors series mode especially when you consider the questionable protection of an MOV protector versus the surge elimination of a series mode.
Since many UPS devices have built in MOV based surge protectors, you can safely plug a UPS or any MOV based surge protector into a Series Mode Power filter which will ensure the MOV based surge protector (or UPS) never sees a surge and both will last longer. So a 2-outlet 15 Amp series mode filter with this or any other MOV based surge protector gives you all the outlets you need and will make both devices last a long time.
The companies that make Series Mode Power filters are Zero Surge (the inventors of the technoloy), Brickwall (a private label of Zero Surge aimed at audiophiles), and SurgeX (a licensee of the technology & also sold here on Amazon). 20 Amp models are available as well as those used in marine (wet) applications (i.e., aquariums). There are also component versions that can sit on a shelf or rack mounted that offer 9 outlets as well as some advanced features like ICE (In-rush current Elimination), and COUVS (Catastrophic Over/Under Voltage shutdown).
You can install most series mode power filters within 30 feet of your main electrical panel as they are designed to withstand 6,000 volt, 3,000 amp surges 50 microseconds in duration every 30 seconds something that this surge protector would have a hard time doing.
Lastly, Ground contamination is such a big issue that even APC published the following information in their Tech Note #T3 back in August of 1991: "The best type of surge suppressors uses a "series" or isolating design". Manufacturers of (series-mode) surge suppressors, such as Zero Surge, Inc., virtually eliminate ground wire contamination.."
APC engineers had the integrity to acknowledge the benefits of the series-mode technology, even though they offer shunt-mode (MOV based) technology, and do not benefit from their candid observations.
The only reason I gave this product a one star review is because one day after I purchased this product I smelled something burning and saw smoke coming from this surge protector. Had I not been there, the house could have burned down. In the months after the fire, I found an alternative technology and offered it as a better solution to this problem.
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