Why Use A Surge Protector For Your Treadmill?
Every home gym has a chance of having a power demands or surge, and you want to make sure that your gym equipment is protected in case of a power surge.
When you connect your gym equipment to a surge protector, the surge protector recognizes when a surge has occurred and will automatically shut down all connected equipment.
Running on a cardio treadmill can provide a great cardiovascular workout, but it can also be dangerous if you don’t have a surge protector on your device.
If you’re shopping for a good treadmill, check out our other reviews;
- Best treadmills for incline
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- Best treadmills for under 300
- Best treadmills overall
A surge protector is a device that prevents electricity from being interrupted by a lightning strike, power surge or other types of electrical failure.
When you are finished using your electrical treadmills, you don’t want to risk it being damaged from a power surge protector.
To make sure that your surge protector is doing its job, ensure that the equipment you have plugged into the surge protector is not energized when the surge protector turns off.
To learn more, read on!
What is Surge Protector on a Treadmill?
Surge protectors for incline treadmills come in different shapes and sizes depending upon which kind of power supply it comes equipped with.
Most often they are built-in or attached to some other equipment such as exercise bikes. They usually comprise three parts: a transformer, voltage regulator, and fuse holder.
A surge protector is basically just an outlet that has been designed with special circuitry inside it so that when something like lightning strikes or your computer gets too hot/overloaded.
They can absorb all of those extra jolts and surges until everything cools down again damaging nothing plugged-in.
These devices usually come as either wall outlets, USB ports, Ethernet connections, etc…
The most common type of fuses used in these devices are labeled as CE, CEC or IEC. The CE stands for circuit breaker; however, this term has been replaced by FUSE.
These fuses have a rating between 20A and 100A. A 30A breakers may be overkill when dealing with smaller machines like treadmills but might not be enough protection against surges coming directly from the wall socket.
In this scenario, the device would probably blow out its fuse because the total amount of energy being discharged through the wire exceeds what the unit can handle.
What is the Best Surge Protector for a Treadmill?
Nowadays, many manufacturers include electrical surge suppressor kits inside their models, so all you need to do is buy one separately. This way, you don’t have to worry about buying extra components just to make sure everything works properly.
However, if you want additional protection, get yourself a good quality and expensive surge protector. It’s important that the unit itself provides sufficient protection while still allowing adequate airflow.
Make sure that you have the correct surge protector installed.
Two type of surge protector for treadmills:
You’ll find two kinds of surge protectors for treadmil – inline and external.
- An internal surge protector goes right under your treadmill stand where the wires connect to the motor.
- External ones go outside the enclosure and attach themselves to the wiring harnesses.
What should you Not Plug into a Surge Protector?
There are certain types of appliances that are not only dangerous for the public to use, but also cause many electrical issues.
Not only can these appliances cause fires, but they can also ruin electronic equipment and appliances. So, what should you not plug into a surge protector?
Surge protectors can be dangerous for the following appliances:
- Treadmills
If your surge protector is connected to an outlet with wall-mounted outlets or on one side of the machine, there’s no need to connect it directly to the power source in order to make sure everything works properly.
However, if you’re using a portable charger like this one from Bosch, be careful when charging while running because anything plugged into the surge protector could overload the system.
- Microwaves
While most microwave ovens have built-in surge protection systems, some don’t. This means that even though you’ve got a surge protector, the appliance still needs its own dedicated circuit breaker in case something goes wrong.
Things to Consider
If you’re looking at getting a new surge protector for your treadmill, here are some things you should consider before making any purchase decision:
1. How much space does the unit take up? If you plan to move your treadmill around often, it’d better be easy to move. Otherwise, you’ll regret having bought such a bulky item.
2. What kind of surge protection does it provide? Inline versus external units differ, especially in terms of how well they work.
They both offer different levels of safety, but those who prefer them will tell you that inline ones perform better than external ones.
However, if you plan to run the same model year after year, then an external unit won’t mean more convenience since you wouldn’t have to change the configuration every time you upgrade.
3. Are there any special features that come along with it? Some may include a fan speed control feature, which allows you to adjust the rate at which air flows through the unit depending on how fast you’re moving.
Also, some allow users to choose between AC and DC power sources as opposed to being limited to either.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we hope our guide helped answer all of your questions regarding whether you should install a surge protector onto your treadmill.
We also recommend getting a good quality surge protector for maximum performance. You definitely don’t want to risk damaging your expensive device by giving it too little protection.
After all, nothing beats the feeling of walking away from a long workout session without sweating buckets!
