Can power cuts damage electrical equipment?

acidrain

acidrain

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Hi all,

Just wondering if the above is possible because my power cut late last night due to someone not filling up the prepaid. Since there was no power I decided to sleep off the boredom. After returning home this afternoon my speaker system aint working no more ( i.e. doesnt show power coming in ). The power is working since i have other stuff on the same extension and the plug is connected with the switch at "on" but no signs of power.

Could I have inadvertently blown something when the power died?

thanks
 
But then surely the fuse should blow? Unfortunately i cannot see whether it has or not as its one of those white "pill" looking ones with silver ends ( still looks new ). Ontop of that my extension plug set has a surge protection.
 
acidrain said:
But then surely the fuse should blow? Unfortunately i cannot see whether it has or not as its one of those white "pill" looking ones with silver ends ( still looks new ). Ontop of that my extension plug set has a surge protection.
Click to expand...


There are many types of fuses.. the common ones are 'slow blow' ... it means the fuse takes a but longer to expire itself compared to the normal fuses. a 50mSecond power spike wont wont do anything to the fuse, but the first components in the circuit will take the entire load and let their magical smoke out.
 
Ricard said:
There are many types of fuses.. the common ones are 'slow blow' ... it means the fuse takes a but longer to expire itself compared to the normal fuses. a 50mSecond power spike wont wont do anything to the fuse, but the first components in the circuit will take the entire load and let their magical smoke out.
Click to expand...

the fuse info i saw is as follows: T2AH250V ( 2A, Time Delayed )

pic of the fuse can be seen here
( As you can see by the fuse, there is no way of telling if the wire has burnt or whatever this specific fuse uses )

But lets say hyperthetically it didnt do its job, wouldnt there be visible signs are a "blowout" on the board because i already looked inside but nothing.
 
I asked my dad about this today. The surge protection gear does not use fuses, but rather a very fast version of the trip switch. That's why they can also be reset.

You won't see the damage on the board. Only in rare cases does something spectacularly blow up & leave a scorched area.
 
It's could be the fuse. Can't you either test it or put in a replacement just to check? Otherwise just put a strand of copper wire or a small piece of foil in the fuse holder together with the suspect fuse to do a quick test. Don't leave it like this though. Make sure that you are only bridging the fuse holder and not shorting out anything else on the board.
 
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dablakmark8 said:
just check if the gas has caused moisture in the fuse.you wil see a brown substance
Click to expand...

From the link i posted, which shows you what the fuse looks like, unfortunately i cant see inside, it isnt a glass tube but rather a white porcelain type enclosure, therefore preventing me from looking inside, have no idea how to open it either without having to crush it.

Gonna try bridge the fuse gap with some fuse wire i have, touch wood it turns out to be a blown fuse and not the board.
 
dablakmark8 said:
damn you are brave,please replace fuse as soon as possible acid,4 thin wire is 10a fuse.
did you use 2 strands.
Click to expand...

I only had it on for a few seconds, just to see if a light came on but the wire i used is the same wire we use on the db board. Have on of those old boards which on take the fuse wire.

But ne ways, as soon i knew it was the fuse, went out now and got another one.

edit: just one more thing, is there a dif between a glass fuse and a ceramic one? Cos the one originally with the amp was a ceramic but the shop only had the glass ones. both are 2A fuses tho
 
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Glass fuses are not as mechanically strong as ceramic ones. The ceramic one in your picture
is probably also of a higher quality (i.e. the spread in fusing currents of a sample of such fuses should be much smaller) than the cheap glass ones that you can buy at a hardware etc. As long as the new fuse works reliably then I wouldn't worry too much. If it blows regularly then you may need to replace it with one similar to the original. I had similar problems with the fuse on the power supply for my HiFi - I replaced it several times until I found one with the same rating that works reliably. The current surge at power up would regularly cause it to blow.

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Fuse_(electrical)
 
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