You might not think a power strip is a big deal, until you see the mess of plugs across multiple power strips on my desk. This 12 port strip, designed to easily handle oddly sized wall warts, definitely has the potential to improve my work space.
Overload:
This particular strip is advertised to be able to provide up to 15A to connected devices, with an overload trip at 15 amps. My computer and peripherals should never get close to that, so I started in the kitchen. Microwave, toaster, kettle, and espresso maker - the family has strict instructions not to turn all of these on at once, lest they trip the 20A breaker in the basement. At 15A, this should trip well before the main breaker. Start the toaster, turn on the kettle, start the espresso maker heating water, start the microwave (with water in it). It took less than 5 seconds from starting the microwave until everything turned off. The overload on this strip had tripped. And it reset immediately without a trip downstairs, which means the basement breaker didn’t. Reset, and we are back to heating, as long as it isn’t everything at once. Circuit protection works.
Surge Protection
Surge protection is not something I can test - each surge protected against damages / degrades the circuitry of the protective system, so testing would be to destruction even if I had the equipment. I could not find a UL or other testing lab mark on this, so presumably that was done in house by Anker. It claims to have dual surge protection for up to 4000J, and a connected equipment warranty for up to $300k in damage to protected devices.
Crowded Original Setup
With the overload testing out of the way, I shut down my office to make way for rearranging. Original setup had 2 strips, with a total of 14 ports available, 12 used, and 6 integrated USB ports with only two used. Some before pictures:
Getting 12 devices with all the wall warts I have on those two original strips was a bit of a chore, lots of rearranging, and every time I need to add something new it involved an anlysis of what could be removed safely, and what would provide enough space for the new plug shape. And that was true even though the original strip had two “wall wart friendly spots”.
Nicely Organized at the End
After, I have all but one of the original 12 devices on the new strip, and the 12th port is occupied by an Anker Power Port 2 for power to the 2 USB charging stations. It wasn’t hard to fit anything, and I can now actually access the reset button that was covered by a wall wart on the old one. The space is a great improvement. The secondary strip from before is still in use, but it has one port used for my speakers, one for an external hard drive that wasn’t plugged in before, and 4 free for anything that needs to be added temporarily. And any future reorganization should be simple - I kept the computer, network equipment, and permanently attached external hard drive at one end / side, so the other is just lights, monitors and charging - things that can be safely unplugged and moved around as needd.
Great product, highly recommended for a heavily used desk or entertainment center. I was tempted to take this to my entertainment center instead, but simply have a lot more devices on my desk, and that is where this shines.
And for anyone who prefers a video review:
PowerExtend12Review
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