High leakage powerstrips

poppaclutch

poppaclutch

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I have come into possession of a dozen or so High Leakage power strips. Tag says they need to be grounded before power is supplied. With that in mind, can I just use them around the shop as regular power strips? What does high leakage mean?
Thanks,
Rick
 
poppaclutch said:
I have come into possession of a dozen or so High Leakage power strips. Tag says they need to be grounded before power is supplied. With that in mind, can I just use them around the shop as regular power strips? What does high leakage mean?
Thanks,
Rick
Click to expand...

Hi Rick,

It appears to be a term of art within the medical devices industry:

http://www.ecnmag.com/articles/2012...excessive-leakage-current-healthcare-industry

In this article, the leakage currents are in the microamp range. If that is the same thing as your power strip is warning about, the concern isn't going to apply in a home shop situation. (If you have a heart condition, or have a pacemaker installed, this may indeed apply to your use of these power strips.)

Note that I can't determine whether this is indeed the same issue as discussed in the linked article.

Walt
 
That's great, if one of your machines dies you can safely use a defibrillator on it.
 
pineyfolks said:
That's great, if one of your machines dies you can safely use a defibrillator on it.
Click to expand...

LOL... Good one piney...

Leakage current... Yes, a very important thing with medical devices. Whenever you have a powerstrip with surge suppression, it will likely have a higher leakage current. This just means that the power-strip itself is consuming some power and appears to be a load in parallel along with the items plugged into it. Stated in other terms, if you unplug a regular power strip and use an Ohm meter to measure the resistance across one of it's outlets, you should see infinite resistance. In the case of a strip with high leakage current, you will likely read a very high (but non-infinite) resistance.

I'm very curious about these power strips you obtained... I've never heard of anyone labeling them as "high leakage current". In the case of medical devices, power strips are highly complex devices and almost always have their own isolation transformer as extra safeguard against "power to the patient".

Ray
 
OK, here they are. What I am wanting to know is if I have to use the green / yellow ground wire attached to one end or just plug the three prong connector in to my supply and consider it grounded.
Rick
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I think I see why those are labeled like that. They are metal cases and may be not be internally grounded to the case to isolate the grounds for computer use. You should be able to use them as they are with out grounding the case. The only problem would be any internal damage that would cause the hot wire to contact the case internally, that would make the case electrically hot.

By grounding the extra earth wire you would eliminate that possibility by giving the power a path to ground that is not through you.

Recommendation, connect the green/yellow wire the the cover screw on your wall plugs.
 
These are Rack mount power strips. Not cheap even on the used market.
Computer room racks are usually steel and everything has to be chassis/earth/ground to avoid floating ground loops and energizing the equipment and service personnel. Like Jim stated, connect to ground and be happy. Just check that your wiring is correct, the hot is hot and neutral is neutral. Better safe than zapped!
Pierre
 
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