I saw an interesting comparrison today between Monsters HTS 5000 and the Panamax M5300.
The rep hooked a light bulb to the M5300, applied 250vlts to the input(120vlt in power plug) and it shut off the bulb almost instantly!
After he 'released' the 'surge', it reset and the bulb shined again.

The monster HTS 5000 didn't fare so well!

Upon the application of 250vlts, the bulb got really bright and blew!!!
Followed by a large amount of smoke from the HTS 5000 !!

I watched the rep very closely in his operation of the 250vlt incertion, and didn't catch any 'slight of hand' on his part.

I'm planning on replicating this tomorrow (after I get an RA from Monster) and see what happens.

Any thoughts on this?

This message was edited by pilgram on 05/01/05 22:13 ET.

Just to be clear, do you mean the HTFS 500?

I have seen this exact same demo twice. Once I was the 'helper' from the audience who stood next to the trainer and opened the brand new Monster product packaging and inspected the setup with MY OWN multimeter. It is real. And staggering. I have heard one time when the monster smoked so bad it set off the building fire alarms and the fire department. I have also heard that monster has sent legal letters to pmax telling them to stop.

Its a great demo.

That explains why he promptly tossed it out the door!!!

I have also heard that monster

Why doesn't that supprise me!!!!

It was a HTS-500MKII
Is there a difference that I should be aware of?

Maybe a HTS 5000 II ? I don't know the 500...

There was a demo done by Panamax many years ago, where they had like 7-9 brands of surge protectors. They had a faraday device that would generate a huge surge (not as much as lighting, but a couple of thousand volts anyway).
They hit each surge protector with it - they weren't ashamed to also show the ones that passed just as well as their's. They had a Monster one and it failed miserably, along with a generic. There were one or two others that failed as well, I can't remember the other brands that passed - I want to say the Tripplite ISO bar was one that passed.
It's been so long ago, I just remember the Monster failing with the other cheap brands. Also - I don't know if they changed it now but the Monster's wouldn't protect against under voltage either.

If only we could show this to our clients in there homes :)
The sale after the fireworks could be tough

if they made a DVD of that test....heh

I'm getting ready to do a similar 'test' at the shop. I was going to do it today,but, unfortunatly, I got sidetracked and had to 'make clients happy'.

I'm doing this 'test' for my own satisfaction. But, I suppose I could set up a camcorder, burn a few DVD's, give them away, and get sued by Noel, like everybody else !!!

I would imagine that there is already a lawsuit pending against me !!
Mike has an M in it !!! :)

This message was edited by pilgram on 02/18/05 03:01 ET.

As dramatic as this demo is, I have become a life time supporter of Panamax after my client, who bought a panamax long before we met, called me with a max1000 that was no longer working. All of his connected equipment was fine, but his protection device was not. We went online and found the easiest replacement process I have ever been involved in. My client, instead of taking a replacement for free, took advantage of the 1/2 price upgrade and they sent him a 5100. He is very happy and so am I. I feel very confident in the quality of Panamax's equipment and the quality of the company.

It doesn't bother you that the "lifetime warranty" will not get you a replacement of a comparable product (they want to give you a inferior 4300 which is cheaper and has less outlets, no delayed outlets, etc)?? You hvae to pay to get the 5100 which has the features you started out with??!!

Saw that demo two years ago. The boss dumped Monster that month and has been selling Panamax ever since. It's nice to know that Panamax only manufactures surge protectors and not over priced cables too.

It's like everything else that Monster sells. Monster is all smoke and mirrors. In this case, mostly smoke.

Now we can all wait for Noel to sue us. Isn't that what Monster is best at-- marketing and sueing?

I remember you posting this before...
Man you are bitter over this, but isn't the next closest model better than the ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that everyone else gives you??

BTW, Panamax had a VHS video of the old test, the one that showed the P'max stopping the surge and the other brands letting it right on through.
I haven't seen a video of the new demo, but I have seen the actual demo several times.

The one I saw had the Monster strips with the multi-colored outlets vs the P'max Max 8 and the P'Max shut off during the surge "protect & disconnect" or something like that, then you could reset it when the surge was done.

The Monster strip (which is visually identical to the Fiskars strips sold at Ace Hardware, BTW) smoked pretty bad.