Power strip with surge protector used by the ship

[Sunburg1]

I constantly am told that power strips with surge protectors are forbidden. I just got back from a cruise on the HAL Oosterdam and watched a crew member setting up for a lecture plugging in and using a garden variety power strip with a surge protector. Is thai all another myth?

[crystalspin]

Not a myth. Are you sure it was a surge protector and not just an on-off switch?

[woodworker&knitter]

Power bars with surge protectors are not allowed, simple reason. Two or more cabins are on a power grid and if you blow yours you knock out the other cabins also.

This as per one of the ships electricians that hosted our table in November.

Just go the front seat and ask for one. They have 2 sizes, a regular and another one with a longer cord for those that use any type of breathing apparatus 

[TAD2005]

Many plug strips have on/off switches plus a circuit breaker if you exceed 15 amps or whatever the strip is rated at.  Neither of those are surge protectors unless the OP actually picked up the plug strip and looked at the specifications on the bottom.   

[Wehwalt]

I would suggest looking on these board for models that have been acceptable to the cruise line.

[TAD2005]

The OP was not asking where to get a plug strip.   He saw what he thought was a plug strip with a built-in surge protector being used by a crew member.   He was wondering if the clearly stated rule by HAL that plug strips with surge protectors are prohibited, is a myth and not enforced.

[fatcat04]

Here is the one we were given for dh's Cpap on NA last year.

[bEwAbG]

What the ship uses has been vetted.  What someone brings from home has not.

 

The prohibition on bringing your own devices with surge protectors is directly from the cruise line.  People aren't just making it up.

[chengkp75]

11 hours ago, Sunburg1 said:

I constantly am told that power strips with surge protectors are forbidden. I just got back from a cruise on the HAL Oosterdam and watched a crew member setting up for a lecture plugging in and using a garden variety power strip with a surge protector. Is thai all another myth?

The ship would not be using a power strip with a surge protector for one simple reason, they are not required for the protection of electronics onboard a ship.  The same reason that causes surge protectors to be hazardous on ships is the reason they are not required.  If your house is struck by lightning, it will carry through the metal piping to the ground connection at your circuit breaker box, and then back up the neutral (white) wire to your TV (since the white wire is connected to ground at the breaker box), sending tens of thousands of volts to the TV.  When lightning strikes a ship, it travels through the steel hull to the ocean (ground).  Since the white wire in a ship's electrical system is not connected to ground (different from your home), this massive voltage spike does not go back up the white wire to the ship's electronics.  None of the extremely expensive, and important electronics on the ship are protected by surge protectors, and I've been on a few ships that have been struck by lightning, and have never in 45 years had a single piece of electronic equipment damaged.  Differences in transformers in the electrical distribution system that reduces the generated power to the power used at the outlets, between ship and shore practices, also prevent the power surges that land power grids experience.

 

And, yes, if you think that the lighted switch is a surge protector, that is not correct.  That would indicate that a surge protector could be "reset" by turning the switch off and back on.  Surge protectors are "self-resetting":  they operate when the voltage is high, and don't operate when the voltage is okay.  Shipboard power strips will also look different from ones you buy, or even the ones that HAL gives out to passengers, because most ship's equipment is 220 volt, and the power strips that are European 220 volt ones have slightly different circuitry, but no surge protection.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge Chief.

[chengkp75]

12 hours ago, woodworker&knitter said:

Power bars with surge protectors are not allowed, simple reason. Two or more cabins are on a power grid and if you blow yours you knock out the other cabins also.

This as per one of the ships electricians that hosted our table in November.

Just go the front seat and ask for one. They have 2 sizes, a regular and another one with a longer cord for those that use any type of breathing apparatus 

While he is correct that multiple cabins are on the same circuit breaker, and overloading an outlet in one cabin will trip the power for the other cabins as well, this has absolutely nothing to do with surge protectors.  The same can happen in your house, as typically more than one room is on a circuit, even with no surge protectors anywhere in the house.  The overloading that will trip a circuit breaker is current, while a surge protector is designed to protect against high voltage, even when there is relatively small currents.  Either that "electrician" was trying to "dumb down" the explanation (to the point where it was incorrect), or I wouldn't trust that fellow to change light bulbs on a ship.

Edited March 1, 2020 by chengkp75

[SargassoPirate]

1 hour ago, puppycanducruise said:

Thanks for sharing your knowledge Chief.

 

Ditto. 

[Cruise4food]

14 hours ago, fatcat04 said:

Here is the one we were given for dh's Cpap on NA last year.

I had an identical power bar in my Massdam cabin powering the refrigerator via an extension cord. I hope they do not swap them all out just because of that old HAL logo, which still depicts the ship Half Moon. 😀😉

[fatcat04]

19 minutes ago, Cruise4food said:

I had an identical power bar in my Massdam cabin powering the refrigerator via an extension cord. I hope they do not swap them all out just because of that old HAL logo, which still depicts the ship Half Moon. 😀😉

One of our room service teaspoons this last cruise had the old logo on the handle. That made me smile. 😁