Last tuesday my panasonic lcd tv was struck by lightening. it was still under warranty, so i tried my luck by reporting faulty to them anyway, they found out and charged me for repair. never mind, warranty doen't cover lightening after all. anyway the story goes, i called them on Wednesday, and the technician came to pick it up from my house on thursday. on friday morning service center called me to tell me what went bust and quoted a repair fee of rm220. they need to change the power supply board. they didn't promise a completion date, only say 'will do asap'. so i didn't bother to follow up. to my surprise, they called me again the following tuesday to tell me it's done. and the technician had it delivered on wednesday, today! that's really fast considering they were not working on saturday and sunday

so if after sales service is your concern, panasonic is the way to go

You should add the belkin surge protector now. If the future if still kena zap by lightning, claim insurance from belkin and get a new TV

panasonic after sales have their own reputation...they do a great job regarding this..

really? how much is the belkin power surge? wanna add to my lcd lor..

ya, should invest in a surge protector. when that lightening struck, my auto gate, dvd player and a lamp also fried i heard surge protectors aren't a 100% guaranteed protection, but i guess it's better than nothing though.

i mean, if lightening can travel down a few kms of air, the best insulator, what can the little thingy do to save it? unless it's sacrificial and fries first before the zap can reach anything else.

anyway, the point is panasonic did a decent job there

around RM150 and above if not mistaken

There are few models for Belkin. price vary according. The best one, I think is Gold colour packing (Beware there is 2 models for that packing). The price for gold packing is around RM200+

---

Added on January 27, 2010, 4:55 pmOh ya. Insurance also very according to models.



This post has been edited by low98944: Jan 27 2010, 04:57 PM

you can always put a On-line APC UPS between it.. no matter how is 100% insulated from the power Grid..
unless lighting strike the TV directly thro your roof at your TV power cord..

that one selling for rm299 at all it hypermarket. there's a cheaper gold version exactly like that but without network port for rm199. both came with rm25k insurance.

Last time I brought around RM250. I got 2 both got network.

when you are going out, unplug your power and antenna 100% safe

So where you bought yours?
I saw in Harvey Norman and is quoted RM299.
Looking for a good deal to get one of this

Both at PC fair but at different year.

i agreed with that

you mean it doesn't strike when you are at home?

u can also go for cal-lab products...malaysian made and very effective...been using for 2 years now...

they have one with phone line so dsl oso covered or u can get for power only...meant for home theater and stuff...

Where can you get cal-lab products here?

ace hardware got

try search around lyn trade zone...

my dad's sharp LCD tv was fried once..not by lightning, but a sudden surge of power..TNB cut off supply as they carry out maintenance work at the substation...we forgot to unplug all our equipments...suddenly the power came on - i guess its a huge surge of current...fried the power supply.

called sharp immediately, the next day they send a tech..the tech brought with the spare part. he changed immediately. asked me if the tv still under warranty..i told him not cos its over 1 year, but my warranty card unfilled. he told me just write the purchase date as 6months ago. i did..everything was free.

that was my experience with 'after sales service' with Sharp.

very true lightning can travel down few km breaking through air...breakdown voltage for air is approx 3MV, that's 3million volts...so how can small surge protectors stops the lightning? direct strike lightning current are measured in kilo amperes...they can be anywhere between 40kA to 350kA...37kA is the average direct strike lightning current in M'sia.

once it hits the ground-known as secondary effect of lightning (could be via the down conductor of a lightning protector, tree or building or anything that's grounded) the current dissipates real quick..it travels in multiple directions (imagine star format) and gets picked up by any underground conductor or metallic objects...

coupled those facts with voltage drops as lightning current travels, on average, if the lightning strike were not too far from your house, you probably receive something between 8-10kA of lightning current, better known as lightning surge.

lightning surge protector, are commonly built with 2 common elements, namely Gas Discharge Tube (GDT) & Metal Oxide Varistor (MOV)

a typical single GDT can handle about 20kilo Amp of lightning surges
a typical single MOV (roughly the size of a 10cent coin) can handle about 8kilo Amp of lightning surges
another type gaining popularity is the Spark Gap type arrestor, which can easily handles about 130kilo Amp of lightning surges.

a typical MOV based surge protector (with multiple built in MOVs) can handle anywhere between 20kA to 40kA or some even up to 100kA & 200kA.

so if you dunno the fact, dun simply say that 'little thingy' surge protector cant do anything.

of course, if you spend RM150 and expect very good protection..then good luck to you...

an industrial surge protector similar to the belkin one cost RM1000 at least...

This post has been edited by daryl.k: Jan 29 2010, 01:07 AM