It’s a new year so let’s start off by killing some vampires! No not that kind, I’m talking of course about energy vampires! You know those appliances and gadgets that stay on drawing energy even when you turn them off?! It’s called standby mode and it’s supposed to actually help you and make things start faster, but all they really do is cost you money. I hate them personally, just sitting there in standby mode doing nothing at all except costing me money. Over a year ago I got a product from a company called TrickleStar for review that helped kill those energy vampires by cutting them off. I use it to this day actually with my home theater setup. Since then though the company has expanded their offerings with many new products and they’ve kindly sent me one of their newest for review here on DIY Guides called the TV TrickleStrip. It sort of resembles a power strip, but the physical resemblance is where it all ends. Read on to learn more about a product that I think everyone should have in their homes.
TrickleStar TV TrickleStrip
TV TrickleStrip
Model: 180SS-US-6CX
-Advanced Powerstrip that provides premium quality, fireproof surge protection for a TV and peripherals
-Reduces the amount of vampire power consumed by TV peripherals
-Inbuilt current sensing circuitry to sense when a Control Device is On or Off and then switch On / Off selected Outlets
-Adjustable switching thresholds
-Auto / Manual switch allows product to be used as a normal surge protector or a energy saving surge protector
-Resettable circuit breaker
-Advanced noise filtering
-Secondary surge protection: F-type coaxial
Features:
-100% Carbon Offset
-Advanced Powerstrip
-6 Outlets 1 Control Outlet 2 Always On Outlets (1 outlet transformer spaced) 3 Switched Outlets
-Selectable Auto / Manual modes – can function as a normal surge protector
-Selectable switching thresholds 18W / 35W
-15A resettable circuit breaker
-144,000 amps / 2160 Joules X3 Surge Protection
-LED Status Indication (Ground, Surge Status, Control, Always On Outlets, Switched Outlets)
-Coaxial surge protection
-<48dB noise filtering
-6 foot incoming power cable with angled space saver plug
X3 MOV Surge Protection
Traditional surge suppression products use standard MOV (Metal Oxide Varistor components). The Product incorporates advanced X3 surge protection technology. X3 MOV technology is encased in a ceramic casing and is capable of suppressing more energy and dissipating heat faster than traditional MOV’s. More importantly the ceramic casing is fireproof and is capable of preventing fire during abnormal surge conditions.
Product Warranty
2 year warranty against defective manufacturing and components
$50,000 connected device warranty
Price: $34.95
The TV TrickleStrip comes in a nice big box with information all over it as you might expect.
Inside the box you’ll find the power strip itself, user manual and even a couple velcro ties to help you with cable management.
The strip is white and green in color and the outlets are separated into groups by labels. The construction is heavy plastic and it feels very well made, it should hold up well.
On the far end you’ll find a breaker switch, 15 amps actually.
The TV TrickleStrip doesn’t only protect your electronic components but your cable connections too with two coax connectors on the very end.
On the top of the TV TrickleStrip you’ll find the TrickleStar logo along with two LEDs and a switch. The switch though isn’t on and off like on most strips, it’s labeled auto and on. The switch lets you manually control the switched outlets to let them be switched or always on.
The power strip has six outlets with LEDs beneath them as well. Two of them are Always On, one is the Control and three are Switched.
The TV TrickleStrip works by you plugging in your TV to the control, then anything that you want to actually turn off when you press off is plugged into the switched outlets. Simply put turn your TV off and those three go off as well. Then you have two that are always on like for your Tivo or anything else that might have to remain powered on for memory possibly.
On the bottom of the strip you’ll find holes for mounting and a small switch that you can set for the power of your devices. It’s basically a sensitivity switch for the power of the devices you have plugged in. You can set in down low at first and if the devices plugged into the switched outlets don’t turn off then you can set it higher.
As I mentioned I already have one of the TrickleStar products on my home theater system, so I’m using the TV TrickleStrip with my children’s setup. I have them set up with a small 19” HDTV, Xbox360, PS2, Blu-Ray player, VCR and a small DivX player box. They love it all but the biggest problem is that they don’t know how to turn things off, they constantly leave things on and it drives me nuts. If you’ve got kids then you know exactly what I mean here I’m sure. I tell them and tell them to turn stuff off but they don’t.
I was using a regular power strip for them and the wiring wasn’t exactly nicely done. Here’s what you might call the before picture:
Then here’s what the same setup looks like with everything hooked up and using the velcro ties to tidy things up a bit. I hooked up the TV to the control then the Xbox360, Blu-ray and PS2 to the switched outlets as they use the most often.
When powered in the LEDs light up for you to see, for some reason the ground is not lit on the strip though, I thought the wiring was grounded, I could be wrong and I guess I’ve got to do something about that soon.
So it sort of solved the problem with my kids not turning things off, but now if they don’t turn the TV off the other stuff doesn’t fully go off either, especially the blu-ray that likes to be in standby mode.
I like the TV TrickleStrip a lot but there’s one improvement I might make and that is to make all of the outlets switchable. I would like to have them able to be set to always on or switchable independently of each other so you’re not limited to only three or only two, whichever the case may be.
The way it is now is fine though it works well and it’s constructed well, it does the job as it should, it eliminates standby mode and the use of power when things are not supposed to be using it.
As I mentioned earlier on I have one of the TrickleStar products already and I love it. The one I have allows you to use your own power strip with it and anything on that strip is switched. This new style is very nice since it incorporates the power strip right into it.
So if you’re looking for a way to save some money this year, then you can start small with something like this. It only costs $35 and once installed you don’t have to do anything expect what you normally do and you’ll be saving yourself some money.
