Do you mean with an outlet tester or a VOM?How many of you actually check the wiring / voltage before plugging your gear in at venues?
I've tried that, but they just keep creating better ID10Ts.If it's a new situation I at least use an idiot tester.
Checking the receptacles is a good idea but most 'power conditioners' won't do much of anything other than probably provide some high frequency filtering of the power, perhaps provide some surge suppression (with many being MOV based) and maybe shutting down if the voltage drops too low, but they won't fix or compensate for any electrical system or wiring issues.As a former mobile DJ I ran my main audio and lighting rigs through power conditioners that would fix most problems, or at least notify me if something was wrong. Anything I placed around the room that was not part of the main rig, if it was a new location that I had not been in before I would usually use a circuit tester to make sure it had power and ground and the hot and neutral wasn't reversed.
There are power devices that incorporate UPS, voltage regulation, real surge protection and so on but those are much more comprehensive, and as you noted more expensive, devices than the simple and relatively inexpensive 'power conditioners' that many people use. An online or double conversion UPS can also often resolve many power issues as it always runs off the battery and inverter, thus providing clean, isolated power while a true sine wave UPS will give a clean waveform rather than a stepped waveform. But many and probably most power regulation and UPS units will not address wiring or grounding issues.I seem to remember (or mis-remember, it was over 10 years ago that I sold my company) that mine had something in it that would flip the hot and neutral if they were incorrect, as well as offer surge and brown-out protection (it had a built in ups) I do remember that I paid way too much for it at the time!
Now, what really does trip people up is our stage is wired with L5-20, L5-30, L6-20, and L6-30. All of them are 120v.
Ooh…pretty.If you want something that will tell you more than just that the outlet is wired correctly, then you might want something like IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. - SureTest® Circuit Analyzers.
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