I am always on the look out for interesting and unique tech gadgets and gizmos that will make our lives easier in some fashion. At CES 2014 we met up with Accell purely by accident on our way somewhere else. What caught my eye wasn’t some crazy new phone or tablet that would launch eventually. No, what caught my eye was a circular based surge protector that formed a pyramid shape. The products name was Powramid and it looked unlike any other surge protector I had ever seen.
- One Powramid
- Instruction/user/safety manual
The visual design of the Powramid is based off a traditional pyramid design. It offers up 6 plugs that circle around the unit at, i believe, is a 45 degree angle. Integrated in the base you will also find 2 USB 2.1 A out ports for charging anything that uses a USB cord.
The actual numbers:
· JOULE RATING: 1080 Joules
· OUTLETS: 6 Grounded
· CORD LENGTH: 6ft. (1.8m) Grounded
· USB CHARGING: 2 Ports, 5V, 2.1A Shared
· RESETTABLE CIRCUIT: Yes
· ELECTRICAL RATING: 125V,15 Amps, 1800 Watts
· Max. Spike Amerage: 36,000A, Max. Spike Voltage: 6KV
· CLAMP RATING: H-N 400V, H-G 500V, N-G 500V
· NOISE REDUCTION: Up to 40dB from 150KHz to 100MHz
· RoHS Compliant
THe Powramid also comes with a 5-Year connected equipment $100,000 limited warranty too.
What I like about the Powramid
What isn’t there to like to about it? Having 6 power plugs that you can ACTUALLY use is pretty outstanding in my book. You all know what I mean, you have those printers or chargable devices that have a huge power block that takes plug planning and you usually lose the use of one or more outlets in the strip when it is plugged in. I didn’t have that issue with the Powramid. All the power plugs I have that are large didn’t hinder any other plug.
The inclusion of the 2 USB 2.1A out plugs is icing on the cake. That frees up potentially two outlets right there and at 2.1 amps, it has the power to charge up your tablets and other demanding devices.
The power/safety switch location along with the protective cover is a great little addition that serves as an ascetically pleasing topper to the pyramid design. It also helps to ensure that your foot, your cat, your dog or your kids don’t accidentally knock the power off also.
What I didn’t like about the Powramid
I can usually nit pick something out about a product. While I have a few future product design ideas that I think would go over really well, I can’t seem to fault this one at all, personally.
Other thoughts
I didn’t go out and attach a lightning rod to my house in an attempt to give the Powramid a joult, but I did have a chance to let it do its thing the other day. The power company needed to do some maintenance in the neighborhood on Monday morning and planned to turn off the power to our house for an hour. I figure that was the best chance to let it ‘protect’ my old PC. So I left it powered on and plugged into the Powramid. Nothing dramatic happened. Power went off, everything shut down, power came back on and the Powramid was off and I needed to hit the power switch to bring everything back up. Nothing fried, so that was a good enough sign for me. If we get any crazy lightning storms I’ll be sure to leave that old PC running and see what happens.
Accell offers a variety of version of the Powramid. This is the Power Center and USB charging station. It is available in black or white. The white version has a green power button in the top center, but is other wise identical. They also have the Power Center and Surge Protector that doesn’t offer up the USB ports. Plus a whole bunch of other cool and interesting little things.
Interestingly enough the black version is currently less expensive than the white version on Amazon right now. They both retail through Accell for $34.99, but you can get the black version for $22.75.
