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Long power cords
- Thread starter kenglade
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No, it's no joke. I just experienced a severe power surge that ruined some of my equipment so I bought a UPS to help guard against it happening again. For physical reasons I had to locate the device about six feet from my desktop. The manual that came with the UPS said not to use it with an extension cord. i assume that's because there is a factor that an extension cord adds to the efficiency/non-efficiency of the device. I want to plug my desktop directly into the UPS but the power cord is not long enough. I know a number of devices come with cords of varying lengths, apparently so extension cords do not need to be used. I was wondering if Apple also manufactured longer cords so I didn't have to use an extension cord.
I may not be that bright but I'm not given to posing humorous questions on a serious web site.
I would think that the most important part of not using an extension cord would be not to use one between the UPS and your power socket. That means that the UPS gets the full impact of any surge and can respond accordingly to protect your things. I imagine that it would not matter as much to use an extension from the UPS to your computer.
You could buy a legnth that you need. These won't have the flush piece on the apple cable.
http://rackmountpdu.com/Category/154-white-5-15p-to-c13.aspx
The UPS should be plugged directly in to the wall and not an extension cord.
As for going from the UPS to the devices, an extension cord is fine. Just get one that has heavy enough wiring to support your iMac.
One thing that the UPS manufacturer is rightly concerned about is people using extension cords with multiple sockets making it very easy for people to overload the UPS.