Customer Reviews

Monster Digital PowerCenter MDP 900 with GreenPower and USB Charging

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Update: 08-2010 It's been over a year and a half since this product first came through my laboratory for testing and certification. The three units we were left with are still in use and have saved their equivalent costs. I fully expected by now that the price would have dropped by 1/3 to 1/2, but it has not. I am tempted to subtract a star for being overpriced since I know what is inside it and how it works, but I'm going to leave the product for now at 5 stars simply because depending on your situation (TV, PC, entire lab workbench, etc) it can pay for itself in 1-3 years. If it did not save that much power, it would drop 1 to 2 stars for being overpriced given the internal simplicity. On the other hand, simple is good because simple designs are less likely to fail due to fewer parts. I still expect a price drop from amazon when I see CFL's selling for $1 ea at the hardware store, which used to be $8 ea.

Almost every electrical device nowdays draws some small, meaningless amount of power - say 4 watts in "sleep" or off mode. Its waiting to hear from the remote to turn on usually, or perhaps waiting for a wake on lan signal that nobody uses. Not to mention those so called "wall warts" that plug into the wall outlet and look like, well, a wart. Well, technically a 7 watt wart.

The idea of this device (my lab was involved in early certification) is to ONLY turn on secondary devices when a "MAIN" device is operational, thus saiving the 6 devices x 5 watts = 30 watts x 24 hours x 365 = 262.8 KWH / year * 10c/kwh + tax = about $30/year, so the device pays back conservatively in 3 years, faster if you have more addon devices.

Say your home stereo centers around the nice TV. CD player - 7 watts, Amplifier for THX audio? 16 watts, equalizer, 10 watts either on or off - doesnt care, CD changer - 4 watts off, all those devices are wasting electricity - called 24 hour loads, they load the electric grid 24 hours a day and do nothig with that power.

By installing this and selecting the TV as the master device, plug in your protected devices, then plug in all the devices you need to run your audio video system into the remainder of the plugs. When the TV is off, everything else will be off too. Turn on the TV and your whole audio video system is ready to go.

There is a 2nd advantage. With the storms comming all your precious devices will be disconnected when you are not using them - like running around unplugging stuff that is valuable before surges hit the power lines. Grounding protection is also built into the product.

You've heard it before and I'll say it again, if everyone saved 262 kwh per year, we would have less emissions from power plants maknig power that is wasted, we would have less ice melt, lower sea levels, and a healtheir planet. And people who know me would never call me a tree hugger or an environmentalist, I drive a humvee that gets 8 MPG although my commute is only 2 miles, but when whales are slaughtered and power is wasted, I feel like something must be done, because if I don't nobody will. I do secretly clap for the tree huggers who stand up for their principles, so I am standing up for mine. Wasting power is bad, and everythig is made to do it these days.....

There you have it - 3 years it's paid for itself in the WORST case, 1 year with the typical home theater system. Works for computers too, turns off displays, printers, faxes, external drives, and all those wonderful chargers that plug in, plus routers if you do not have a wireless home net with more than one pc, and even the dsl modem. Another application of the same product.

I have 3 of these remaining after tests were completed, and I found it to be of superior quality. Today my TV, computer, and laboratory equipment is protected by the remainder that were leftover. And my electric bills shrank right away. QED.

Your TV or Component must drop below 17 watts in standby mode to disconnect the Green Outlets. My Plasma TV would not disconnect the Green Outlets but the AV receiver did.

I use this for my computer setup. Being that I have WAY too many devices that do not shut off when I shut the computer off like a USB hub, a Dymo Label Writer, and more, I use this to shut off those little power leaches when I shut down the computer.

The device seems very well built and is very solid. It does emit some blue and green light from the power switch area so you'll want to plan on putting it some place where that light isn't a problem. I got mine in Amazon Frustration Free Packaging, which was awesome.

The only thing I wish were different is that I wish more of the outlets were "green" outlets that shut off when the main device shuts off. I am breaking the rules a bit and using a second power strip off of one of the green outlets so I can shut off a few more devices. I'm not overloading the device as they're all tiny power consumers, but still, not a recommended use but it does work if you ask it to.

I couldn't be any happier with this device, other than the price. I've always used Monster on my home theater setup too, and may get another one for that location.

Very nicely made,.. Monster is the best for your money.

I tested with kill-lo-watt reader,..standby is 0 sometime 1 watt.

Will get more soon,.. my old similar size surge protector used about 30 watts standby.

This might pay for itself within 1 year.

Well made, works just like it says. Would be nice if when your computer went to sleep the green plugs would turn off. I rarely find myself completely shutting down my computer. buy all in all the product is great and does exactly what it says. The amazon packaging is also really nice, no plastic to mess with.

I love the green power feature that stops vampire power. Didnt plug my printer into the green controlled outlet however because every time id wake the computer from sleep the printer would go thru the motions of being powered on and i didnt want to hear that every time. Also some mounting screws wouldve been nice. Had to go out and pick up some #6 head screws to mount it since standard drywall screw heads are too large to fit in the mounting holes. LAME. Wouldnt cost Monster that much to throw in some screws considering the cost of their products. If it werent for that Id give 5 stars

So I have this set up in my bedroom with my LCD TV as the switching source. One half is always on and the other half is switched by the power state of one device. If you have an old power strip and run out of switched outlets just plug the power strip into one of the switched outlets, problem solved. Everything but my network gear is switched and linked to my TV. Kind of a hassle having a PC connected to it (TV as monitor), as obviously, suddenly cutting off the power is not good for a computer. So I have to shut my PC down (or put it to sleep) before I turn the TV off, and I know what your going to say, why not just use the PC as the switching device? Well its gaming rig so its loud and Im not always using it, and you get only one master device. At any rate rest assure your electronics are off cold with this thing. There will be no stand by power usage at all from the switched devices which will, over time, pay for the power strip. As for the features they advertise (cleaning the power etc), I have not really noticed any difference before and after in interference so I think that's just a marketing thing. Green like with anything means an initial investment that pays for itself and then save you a lot of money down the road. Think of this as the CFL bulb of your electronic gear ;). If you have the money just buy it, looks cool too! On a side note, the "frustration free packing" means its just in a cardboard box without the cool monster packing... Cheers!

Excellent, beware of the drawback: This power strip designed specifically for computers does not support sleap mode.

We purchased this Monster Digital PowerCenter MDP 650 with Green Power primarily for the "green power" feature. We already had a perfectly good surge protector our A/V equipment was plugged into, but my wife wanted something which would prevent the standby power consumed by our Wii, a DVD player and a Blu-Ray player.

We first tried plugging our satellite receiver into the control outlet. When the receiver was shut down, the other components continued to stay on in standby. We figured maybe the receiver was going to standby as well, and therefore wasn't triggering the switched outlets to turn off. We then tried plugging the TV into the control outlet. Even with it off, everything in the switched outlets continued to receive standby power.

Monster advertises this surge protector as being for computers, and maybe a computer would shut off completely triggering the switched outlets to turn off, but our AV equipment couldn't do it. I'm giving it two stars because it seems like it still works as a surge protector, just don't expect to save any "green" on your power bill from it.

Works as stated. The bonus was we were able to hook it up to our TV to turn off all the media devices when the TV was off.