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(More customer reviews)The Smart Strip SCG5 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology and Coaxial Surge Protection has a lot of claims built-in to the product description. Can it deliver on all of them? Well the short answer is *mostly yes*. It does work for those claims that I could test, but not all claims could be tested right away. As with all power and electrical equipment there is some chance of device failure so you have to make sure to clearly read the instructions and follow them carefully. But in a nutshell, here's my take on the claims.
1. Is it energy saving? Well, this was the hardest claim for me to truly verify strangely enough. It's easy to attach this to a usage monitor like the P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor but few people have those on hand. Luckily I do have one, but my test was still inconclusive when I compared this against a regular inexpensive power strip that had been completely shut off. So from a power saving point of view, both options seemed to work similarly while still drawing some small amount of power.
2. Does the autoswitching work? The more involved question of whether the automatically switched outlets work to cut power use is somewhat easier to test. The answer is still not totally satisfying, and is more like a *maybe*. Let me explain. If you are lucky, as I was, and you find that this unit works for your devices without adjustment, you will see them turn on and off based upon the control outlet device. For more confirmation, using a simple voltage meter like the Equus 3320 Auto-Ranging Digital Multimeter will allow you to see what each of the switched outlets are drawing in terms of power.
That makes this ideal for use with your TV entertainment center. This is an inherently simpler application than computer use because the types of devices in an entertainment center (DVD player, video game consoles like XBOX360, Wii, and PS3, AV Receiver) all draw a similarly larger amount of power. However, for computer applications with printers and speakers, your peripherals may all draw different amounts of power. The results is that you will have to likely do more adjustment with computer set-ups.
3. Does the coaxial surge protection work? Well the quality of the coax connectors is actually quite good. They are gold plated, and an extra cable is included that also has gold plated connectors. This is also somewhat difficult to test, but unluckily for me I have to deal with a lot of surge events on my coaxial line and feel very comfortable leaning towards confidence in this feature so far. I've had several tuners burned out due to frequent coax surges. I tested this for a few days with a tuner that I knew was near the end, and I can report that it seemed to function as advertised. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement but it leads me to the next, and probably most important point.
4. Does this thing work as a surge protector on the outlets? It's a well known secret that most cheap power strips offer no surge protection worth depending on. I could not duplicate or predict the frequency of surges in order to know this for certain. But the instructions include some specific and involved ratings that are based on UL (Underwriters Laboratory) specification 1449 ver 2 rating (330 V, 48K Amp 3 way protection). That is a pretty good rating for a device this size and if it's not accurate I will know within a very short period of time and update this review.Now while I'm not going to rehash all of the instructions here, there are a few factoids which should be useful for those who are planning on using this.
1. This strip is larger and fatter than your average power strip. The plug is a fully grounded off-set three prong plug that must be seated in a truly grounded outlet to work. This cannot be plugged into a different power strip or extension cable. It's not uncommon for older homes or apartment buildings to have grounding issues. Make sure you have up to date grounded electrical outlets in your intended space. If you don't get a green *OK* light when this is plugged in, you may have an issue with your outlet or potentially a dud.
2. The adjustment knob can be turned with a screw driver and is only meant to be adjusted a half turn in each direction for one full turning radius. Follow the instructions. First you have to adjust it to make sure all the switched devices go on and then adjust it to make sure they all turn off. You should not be turning this thing in circles. If you can't get all your devices to switch on and off, you may not be using this for the right devices or you may need a replacement device.
3. Which brings me to my next point. It's kind of a repeat point but it should be emphasized. I get the impression this strip is ideal for large power consumption devices like home entertainment equipment, video game consoles, DVD/BluRay players, etc. Those who are mixing power hungry printers with small speakers will have to do more adjustment to get it to work with all of them at the same time. That's probably the main reason some people have had problems.
Truthfully, the manufacturer is sort of to blame by trying to make it seem like it's easy to get this to work with all devices. It isn't. The instruction manual outlines uses such as 40 watt bulbs and medium or large shop equipment. To me that implies that putting high power-drawing equipment along with low-power drawing equipment is probably the source of some problems.
4. This is rated at 15 Amps of power, which is more than enough for 7 outlets of normal use but not enough to run all of your home appliances off of. While most people would not push those limits, make sure you have a sanity check on what you are installing on this device. Seven electric refrigerators are likely to be above the power rating for this or any such electrical device.
5. If you are using this with a computer, sleep mode is not considered *off* but is rather a low-power state. If you want your power saving features to turn *off* all your switched peripherals, you have to set your computer for Hibernate mode or literally shut it off. This is another reason why it's simpler to use this with a home entertainment center. When a TV is off, it's off. With all the power saving settings for laptops and computers, they may be convenient but they can be confusing too.
I know this is a lot to swallow. I hope this helps people planning on setting up these strips. I would strongly recommend this as a choice for home entertainment centers. For computers, an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) along with a surge protector is probably a better solution.
I will definitely be keeping an eye on my unit to make sure I have no device failure due to surge or other reason. Make sure you test yours to make sure it's OK when you get it.
Enjoy.
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