This was posted 3 years 4 months 18 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Jackson 4 Outlet Individually Switched Powerboard with 1 Metre Lead $10 (Was $20) at Woolworths

1290

Some other Jackson products at half price as well.

This one looks like surge protected

This Overload protected Power Board puts control at your fingertips with 4 individually switched outlets. Choose which appliances you want to be on, switching off the ones you aren't using to save on your power bill and in some cases extend the life of your equipment!
Features:
-4 Power Outlets
-Safety Overload Protection
-1 Metre Lead with Right Angle / Easy Pull Plug
-Individually switched sockets
-Handy Mounting Slots on the back
-Australian Business & Support
-Lifetime Warranty*
*See Jackson Power website for more information

Related Stores

Woolworths
Woolworths

closed Comments

  • +50

    Jackson 4 Outlet

    I prefer the Jackson 5

    • +63

      Because when shortened, it is 'JV'?

      • +2

        You two are made for each other.

        • +9

          No, we are not

      • +4

        💘

      • DAIM!

      • +1

        There's only 4 Jackson 5 members at present…

        • Mrs JV joined when Father JV got possessed.

  • Are these considered to be “surge protector” powerboards or is this a different kind?

  • +1

    Surge rating on these must be so low they don't even want to promote it. Wouldn't be relying on these to keep any expensive items safe.

  • Can somebody please recommend a decent surge protector/powerboard for Computer?
    I don't want to spend too much though, I have been using the good old Dick Smith branded Surge Protector but it is tripping my safety switch, so I need a new one.

    Thanks

    • +1

      I need one for my hi-fi set up. I might need a 12 outlet bids or maybe I should just get two 6 outlet boards.

      Edit. This could be perfect. Very cheap. Has overload protection…

      Is surge protection different to overload protection?

      Edit. Yes

    • +1

      Officeworks always has some good surge protection ones on sale. Have a look.

    • +1

      +1, also need to replace my old Dick Smith ones!

    • +2

      Maybe could consider having surge protector installed on the switchboard or even contact electricity provider if that's possible?

      • What is this? The Dick Smith ones never die.

        • +1

          The green light on some of mine has gone off, so presumably no longer providing surge protection (the surge protection has been used up).

          • @caprimulgus: I literally had the same thought today when I checked my old DS ones - no green light. Bit the bullet and bought a couple of these for the AV and TV etc. https://www.cyberpower.com/au/en/product/sku/cpsurge08usb-an…. Critical items are already on a Cyberpower UPS, never really had an issue with the previous ones I've had either.

            • @RockmanRock: Is there a reason this one doesn't have switches on the individual ports? I personally would like to be able to turn individual items off without having to unplug them from the board completely, and do you have to turn the whole board off if/when you want to unplug just 1 thing? Or is that the purpose of UPS?

              • +1

                @Frunk: Well this isn't a UPS as it doesn't have a battery, just surge protection. I would imagine it doesn't have individual switches as it is designed for home theatre, so is probably behind all the TV and stuff so hard to get to - if like my setup. They do have other models for the office which may have individual switches.

                Unplugging when plugged in would be no different to unplugging direct from the wall without switching off I suppose.

    • Tripping your safety switch without anything plugged in? What are you running on it? You may have too many high wattage devices on it.

      • I only got my PC and two monitors plus mobile chargers connected.

        Randomly when I turn on/off the master switch, it trips the safety switch…

        Happened with my other Dick Smith surge protector too (so far two had the same issue, the previous one with TV plugged in)

        It still works though but I am not going to risk it…

        Very strange

    • +1

      I know you don't want to spend too much, but I highly recommend a UPS for your expensive gear. It is usually 100$+ depending on which unit you buy. My one has 6 power outlets and works really well. Australia can have pretty dirty electricity and I hear my UPS click over every few days, which could potentially be damaging computer components. If it is too expensive, I would keep an eye out for good deals on OZ bargain. They pop up from time to time.

      • Thank You Sir.

        Question: do I need to connect the UPS via a surge protector though?
        Or Connect the PC to UPS via a surge protector?

        Or the UPS has built-in surge protection to save itself and the connected devices?

      • +2

        A cheap UPS will not have pure sine-wave output, it will have "modified sine wave", which is actually more of a modified square wave. The power waveform will be hugely worse than mains power.

        Many devices don't mind how bad the power signal is, but some devices will get hotter and have a reduced life when run on a modified sine wave. Anything with a motor in it may not work at all.

        • +1

          Also, cheap UPSes are not online UPSes, they're either offline (the cheapest) or line-interactive (mid-priced). Both offline and line-interactive UPSes don't do anything to clean up incoming power. Offline UPSes only kick in when there's a power outage and line-interactive ones only buck or boost if the voltage goes above or below a threshold. You'd need an expensive online pure sinewave UPS to provide clean power.

        • Interesting. So, if the UPS does not have a pure sine-wave output, it is not worth using for expensive gear? I was basing my advice on my IT consultant's recommendation, who has multiple UPS himself. He said that being in a regional town, we have a lot of inconsistent, dirty electricity. He recommended an APC, which as you mentioned, is modified sine wave. It is linked here : https://www.scorptec.com.au/product/ups/ups/72019-bx700u-az?…

          • +1

            @ChaseAus: That APC Back-UPS is a line-interactive UPS and not an online UPS, so the inverter circuit (which is what produces the sinewave/modified sinewave output) doesn't run at all unless there's a power cut.

            That means the power that comes out of it is exactly what is going in to it noise and all, unless the line voltage goes above or below a set threshold (the line-interactive part).

            If the power in your area often goes out of spec (230V +10%/-6%, +6%/-2% preferred), then it could be worth using depending on the design of your equipment and how much your power goes out of spec.

            If the problem is noisy power (waveform distortion, harmonics, noise from other devices nearby switching on/off etc), that UPS won't help. You'll need an online UPS for that.

            • @eug: Which affordable good UPs do you recommend?

          • +1

            @ChaseAus: A line interactive UPS uses transformer taps to regulate the incoming mains voltage over a limited range without using the UPS batteries. The UPS may or may not contain filtering and surge absorbing components, but for a cheap unit, probably not. If garbage (ie dirty electricity) comes in on the mains, that garbe will go straight through to the equipment plugged into the UPS.

            Since it's a modified sine wave UPS, once the batteries do kick in, the quality of the mains waveform will be vastly worse than it was before. This probably won't matter too much for computer equipment with good quality power supplies.

  • https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/search/products?searchTer…

    First 5 entries are for cigarettes… farq me :|

    • +1

      First 5 entries are for cigarettes… farq me :|

      …after which those first 5 entries would come in handy.

  • No usb?

  • +2

    Made in Vietnam.

    • +2

      VCP

    • +2

      Thanks, I was looking for one made there.

    • +3

      Not individually switched.

  • +29

    From reading the comments here, it appears that some people may be confused about the difference between surge protection and overload protection. They're completely different things.

    Most powerboards have overload protection, which switches off the power if you try to draw more current than the power board is rated for, usually 10A or 2400W. The power board usually has a little push button that you can press to turn the power on again. This feature is designed to help stop you burning your house down.

    Some power boards have surge protection. This is in the form of some circuitry inside the power board that is designed to filter the power and to clip off any momentary high voltage surges. This feature is designed to help protect the equipment that you plug into the surge-protected power board. As with most things, surge protection can range from pretty well useless to very good, and price alone often isn't a good indicator of how good the surge protection is.

    Some surge protected power boards also have surge protected network (ie RJ45) or TV antenna cable ports. Older ones also had surge protected telephone ports. Again, these range from useless to pretty good.

    I don't know if they still exist, but one company used to provide insurance cover for devices connected to their surge protected power boards.

    I probably should make it clear that nothing is likely to protect a power board or the equipment connected to it from a lightning strike or from high voltage power lines touching low voltage power lines because a tree or something has fallen on the power lines.

    • Thanks for this. But wut?! do you mean surge protection is likely a gimmick?

      • No, but as with everything, some devices can be great, and others can be useless.

      • +13

        Thanks for this. But wut?! do you mean surge protection is likely a gimmick?

        The problem is that there are surges and there are SURGES. A surge protector can protect you against some surges but would be useless against SURGES. So it depends on what kind of surges you're likely to encounter in your area.

        It's a bit like a cycling helmet. A helmet can save your life if you hit a pothole and fall off your bike, but it's not going to do a thing if a truck runs into you. To add to that, some helmets are better than others. e.g. a free bike share helmet vs a fancy helmet with MIPS.

        • Great analogy

    • +1

      I should also add that surge protection devices can often be sacrificial - that is, they give up their life to protect your equipment. In some device, the device might stop delivering power if that happens, in other devices, an indicator light may come on to tell you that the device needs to be replaced, and in other devices, there might be no indication at all that the device is no longer protecting your equipment.

      • +1

        Can you recommend any brands/models that do surge protection well?

        • Sorry, I haven't had to buy any for years, so I don't know what's on the market.

          Look for something with a brand name that you've heard of. Look for something with the actual surge ratings revealed - it will be in joules and generally, the more joules the better - that's the amount of "excess" energy that the device can dissipate and stop from getting to your equipment. You'll find figures in the hundreds to the thousands of joules.

          You'll probably need to pay much more than you expected. While a high price is not necessarily a good indicator, a low price is usually an indicator of rubbish.

          • @pjetson: This article says surge protection will be rated in Volts.

            Level of surge protection
            As a general rule, if you live in a city there's less chance of a severe surge making it to your home and you can probably get by with a rating of around 2000 volts (2kV), whereas in a country area, you'll probably need around 4000 volts (4kV). Figures are given on the packaging.

            Now I’m confused.

            • @sween64: Choice is also confused. I have no idea what they're talking about. If a surge protector is letting 2000 or 4000 volts through to something that is supposed to run on 230/240v, does that really sound like protection to you?

              On the other hand, if Choice really meant joules and not volts, those numbers make sense. I don't think the writer has enough technical knowledge to be writing on the subject.

              Wikipedia is probably a better place to get your information, although it can get a bit technical.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surge_protector

              • @pjetson: Interestingly the NY Times article linked below also says volts.

                I've gotta get my basic understanding of electricity in order, time to watch some YT videos I guess.

                • +3

                  @sween64: From the NY Times article that you quote, talking about desirable traits in a surge protector:

                  High joule ratings: A joule rating tells you about how much energy the surge protector can absorb before it fails.

                  Another desirable trait is specified in voltage terms in the article:

                  A surge protection rating of 400 V or better

                  and

                  lower is better when it comes to let-through voltage, the measure of how much extra voltage reaches your electronics.

                  This is completely different to what the Choice article is (wrongly) saying. The Choice writer has apparently confused volts and joules. If you substitute joules, the Choice article is on the right track.

                  The cutoff (or let-through) voltage for a surge protector has to be high enough not to "trip" on standard mains voltage, which in Australia is about 320-350v peak-to-peak, but low enough to actually do some useful work, so probably around 400v is the lowest practical cutoff voltage. Having a cutoff voltage of 2000-4000v as the Choice article states is absolutely pointless.

                  The idea is to clamp (or cut off) spikes above the cutoff voltage. To do that, the surge protector has to dissipate the energy in the spike, and the energy dissipated is measured in joules. A lower voltage or shorter spike will not contain as much energy as a higher voltage or longer spike, and a surge protector with a lower joule rating will not be able to absorb as much energy as one with a higher joule rating.

                  • +1

                    @pjetson: Thanks for clearing this all up. I’ve skimmed over the wiki article and that certainly is quite a good reference. It doesn’t appear to be too technical that I think with a small amount of effort I could understand it.

    • I don't know if they still exist, but one company used to provide insurance cover for devices connected to their surge protected power boards.

      Belkin used to. Sold heaps of them when I owned a computer store.

      Had them pay out a few times as well - had quite a few customers with dodgy power that was unfriendly to their PC's. Never had an issue with claims. This was ~10 years ago now though, no idea if they still even offer them.

  • The the plastic used in newer Jackson power boards feels inferior.

    The older units have printed I/O (on/off) on the switches overall are more solid.

    The newer units have embossed I/O (on/off) moulded on the switches feel less solid.

  • Any idea on the quality of these Target ones?
    I have bought two but not too sure about quality (their is no master switch which is a bummer)
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/581857

    • +2

      My main comment would be that they do not provide any information at all about the level of surge protection. At that price, I wouldn't be expecting much.

  • +3

    If you intend to protect expensive equipment (eg a fancy new 75" LG OLED or a rip-roarin' PC gaming rig), pony up for some proper surge protection. Belkin Quality Pro is a good place to start: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0748MQXP5?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_s….

    There are other brands out there, of course, with similar or better joule ratings, but they seldom go on sale. You don't want less than 2000 joules in any case.

    • +1

      This. I have been using Belkin and Arista branded surge protection boards for many years now. I had previously lost a few devices due to power spikes and lightning, but not since. Granted i have moved sometime after so that plays a factor, but there is no way i'd connect anything i genuinely cared about losing to anything other than a decently protected board. The amount of people that buy a overload board misunderstanding it's function is a bit of worry.

    • Belkin Quality Pro is a good place to start

      Does yours click loudly like many of the Amazon reviewers are saying?

      • Not at all. Both of ours are completely silent.

        • -1

          No individual switches on it; is there a reason for that? I personally would like to be able to turn individual items off without having to unplug them from the board completely, and do you have to turn the whole board off if/when you want to unplug just 1 thing? Or is that the purpose of UPS?

          • +1

            @Frunk:

            No individual switches on it; is there a reason for that?

            I suspect that cost is the reason.

  • +2

    Worst brand. All my Jackson power boards have failed. Even brand new ones. Don’t risk it.

    • +1

      I kinda agree. With mine I tried to plug something in, it didn't go in, turns out the holes did not align out of the pack. Broke 2 slot plastic holder in the process, which means only two of the four slots "holds" the plug in, where the broken two needs to taped on to hold anything.

  • very low stock….

  • +1

    Years ago I bought a Jackson powerboard, the far end plug melt generated too much heat. Since then I haven't done Jack to this Jackson Powershell, nor I want anything from Jackson, done Jack All with brand

  • I think it might be time for me to get a new surge protector, I have a Belkin which I've had for 14 years, can't turn the switch off on it now…doesn't budge, still runs perfectly though.

    • If it's been absorbing surges for 14 years, it will effectively have been just a power board for many years now, providing no protection at all.

  • $16.90 in my area

  • This was actually ok to extend your existing Surge powerboard with one plug off it. because your existing Surge protected powerboard already does the protection and this has overload.

    Obviously I'm not switching everything on as chaining powerboard is no go but it allows me to not keep plugging and unplugging stuff as I have too may devices an 8 way powerboard…. still not enough so i can extend this by 3.

    Won't be turning on everything on it though, handy with seperate switch for each one

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