I've got an old home- built well before grounding was required. So I have many key outlets that are not grounded.
In one of these outlets, I have a Wi-Fi extender puck- which seems to go out rather regularly. I'm suspecting that there's some noise in the power that is messing it up- as other pucks don't have this issue.
So I'm trying to find a small surge protector/ UPS that I can use for this outlet to keep the box running more reliably.
Searching the sub-tropical river does not really come up with what I need- I think. Many of the solutions are listed as travel adaptors, but it's not clear that they are UPS or surge protectors.
I need some hive help.
Buy a small UPS and this:
Edit: Can you describe the wiring to the receptacle in question, i.e. two wires in metal conduit, 3-wire Romex, etc.?
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
Two wires into a metal box. The wires are knob and tube- so the two wires run separately around the house. Upgrading is, well...
With that, it seems that I could get an outlet adaptor and then just ground the outlet.
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
That would be my suggestion. I poked around online and it seems there are some who believe that while the UPS would detect a fault (i.e. no ground) it would still work. This may be true of one brand and not true with another.
Test your setup with the equipment plugged in and turned on, then yank the plug out of the wall. The UPS should do its thing and the equipment should continue without interruption.
The adapter I pictured above, properly grounded, should be fine.
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Hopefully, someone who really knows this stuff will chime in and either agree or disagree. 
I doubt it has anything to do with a lack of grounding. Do these WiFi extenders even have a ground prong on their plugs? Doubtful. The ground wiring really does nothing at all if everything is working as it should. It's really just a safety feature.
In reply to Mazdax605 :
I don't think it's the lack of grounding, I think it's a lack of smooth power delivery, which is why I want a UPS/surge protector for the unit. But finding a UPS/surge protector that isn't grounded is the problem.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to Mazdax605 :
I don't think it's the lack of grounding, I think it's a lack of smooth power delivery, which is why I want a UPS/surge protector for the unit. But finding a UPS/surge protector that isn't grounded is the problem.
I think you're over thinking it. The UPS will work just fine without a ground in my opinion, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know exactly how the UPS/surge arrestor works with limiting spikes in the power, but my guess is having an equipment ground is not essential to this process.
In reply to Mazdax605 :
I'm not sure that I'm over thinking it- what I'm hoping that someone is aware of is a UPS/surge protector that does not have the ground plug as part of it. Otherwise, I need to either remove the plug or put in an adaptor. All I want is one designed that way.
The great tropical river site had some- but they are listed more as travel adaptors, and it's not clear that they are actually a unit I can plug in and leave there.
If the only option is to have one of the ugly adaptors, or remove the ground prong, I will do that. I'm asking so that I may find a more elegant solution.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:
In reply to Mazdax605 :
I don't think it's the lack of grounding, I think it's a lack of smooth power delivery, which is why I want a UPS/surge protector for the unit. But finding a UPS/surge protector that isn't grounded is the problem.
We had a similar problem at the office where I worked many years ago. The router was plugged straight into the wall, and every time the lights would blink, the network would go down. Management took my suggestion of plugging the router into a UPS, and that fixed the problem.
Here's a surge protector that could work- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H24FW81/?coliid=I3V87C5OZEYNS7&colid=1X7ULYR6Z5GHI&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Another question is do I really need a UPS, or will the surge protector be enough?
Surge protectors will generally only help with HUGE surges, like lightning strikes.
To smooth out uneven power, you need a power line conditioner. Some expensive surge protectors might have that included (?).
I used to live in a house like that. One fuse for all in inside power, I could see the computer screen flicker sometimes, etc. When I got the line conditioner, I could hear it click occasionally to adjust for power fluctuations.
alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:
Here's a surge protector that could work- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H24FW81/?coliid=I3V87C5OZEYNS7&colid=1X7ULYR6Z5GHI&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Another question is do I really need a UPS, or will the surge protector be enough?
You totally need a UPS. The problem isn't a surge, or voltage levels ABOVE where they should be. It's a sag, or voltage levels BELOW where they should be (likely near zero, momentarily). A surge protector cannot produce electricity from nothing. You need something with a battery, i.e. a UPS.
In reply to aircooled :
That's the kind of info I need. And it appears that some of the units I'm looking at claim to be power line conditioners with the polarized power inlet.
1988RedT2 said:
... A surge protector cannot produce electricity from nothing. You need something with a battery, i.e. a UPS.
I am pretty sure line conditioners do this by reducing available amperage (drawing more to bring the voltage up), so no battery needed in that case. If you are getting near the max amp draw, that could clearly be an issue. Working the basic electrical formula:
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
Having read about line conditioners- they take the noise out of the signal. Yes, if there's an actual dip in the signal, there's not much it can do. But given the loads on this circuit, I think it's as likely that there's just a lot of noise.
So I need to find a line conditioner.
Funny thing is that I can almost make a tiny UPS with 12V of battery and some inverters.
In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :
Hey, whatever works. A quick check on Amazon shows a decent line conditioner costs about the same as a small UPS, or more. The UPS would have the ability to ride through longer outages. I suspect the line conditioner won't be able to handle anything longer than fractions of a second.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
I'll admit that I'm playing with fire- as what I'm trying to smooth out is a tiny little puck of a repeater. I was hoping for a surge protector size min-UPS, as all it would need would be a few seconds.
For sure, I don't want to spend more than the puck cost me, and the pack of 3 was $110, so my upper filter limit is $35.
I will say you have more cojones than I. The moment I discover knob and tube that is carrying voltage, I won't sleep in the house. In fact, in many municipalities, once discovered, it must be removed. It is not legal and a violation of code to have K&T wiring in your home. No grandfathering, no nothing. My current project I found K&T wiring in the wall with 13v phantom, and touching the two conductors together made enough of a pop to throw the breaker. I don't even leave dead K&T in the walls anymore. Too much cause for confusion for future electricians.
Adding one of those gray grounding things won't do anything for K&T wiring. There is no physical path to ground. Those adapters work with MC wiring (the metal, spiral-clad sheath stuff). In that case, the sheath itself - since it is clamped to the box and the fuse/breaker buss - is the ground conductor.
Ground won't do much if any for electrical noise since it is the same length as the other conductors. The ground is basically a redundant neutral. The green/copper conductors and the white conductors all meet at the load box in the same buss bar. The ground is a safety, so if you have a broken neutral somewhere, the juice can go through the ground wire and not you. Your extender puck also operates on DC, not AC. Once the juice goes through the switching to DC, the noise is eliminated. It is very unlikely that it's your power or lack of ground that is causing the issue.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
The heavy users of the home has been changed- kitchen and bathrooms. Garage and "computer room" was added later, and is quite modern.
So the only remaining K&T in the house is the low power for the living areas- and that usage has gone down over the time I've lived here- TV's use less power, lights use less power, computers use less power, etc. So since it survived for 5 decades before I got it, with significantly less efficient stuff in the house, I'm not worried about it at all.
WRT the noise- the A/C unit that is outside is within 10ft of the puck- so the odds of that being the source of the problem is quite high. Even though they are on very different power systems- the A/C is on it's own, isolated system (as I get better rates). But it's a very noisy unit- which you can actually hear as it starts up.
A UPS is just a bigger version of the switching power supply for your wifi puck plus a battery.
I'm sure you know this, but audible noise has nothing to do with EMI noise. The type of noise that comes through the conductors would be your problem, and if the A/C has its own ground/supply, then it is a non issue. You could likely set the puck on top of the A/C unit and not get any interference. We're talking about the difference between 60 Hz and up to 5 billion Hz.
Noise in an electrical system comes from two sources; the load itself, or external EMI. Noise that comes from a 60Hz alternating current can only be noise that is 60Hz. Appliances and loads can amplifiy how that noise is reflected back into the conductor, but it can't make anything but 60Hz. This type of noise is something you may have heard in speakers when you use a dimmer to dim lights. External EMI that comes from some other appliance (like the A/C you mentioned) can only occur at 60Hz and a very small window of its relevant overtone harmonics. (60, 120, and a couple low amplitude frequencies in between) In short, the existence of any EMI or that may be coming from nearby appliances is A) not significant enough to interfere with other appliances, B) a violation of their UL standards per the FCC if they do interfere, and C) on a frequency level that is so vastly different that it could be louder - metaphorically speaking - than a 747 jetliner and not have any effect.
Add to that, your wifi puck is most certainly not 120v AC. I have never seen any appliance of this type that uses AC power. Even if you have a household "edison" plug and cord, the voltage is converted to a lower, DC power in a switching power supply inside the box. Electronic noise, by it's very nature must be alternating current. It can't not be. The conversion of power from AC to DC inherently removes all possibility of noise. This is the big draw for using an inverter generator. It "cleans" the power to DC and then reconstructs it to AC. Its the same reason why UPSs are treasured for sensitive equipment. Scrub out the noise by converting to DC, then invert it back to digitally-controlled AC with no noise.
Your puck's power supply is the first half of a UPS. It's the scrubbing DC part. Adding a UPS would be like re-distilling distilled water.
The only way that electrical noise is causing your issue is if the power supply for the puck is faulty and one or more of the diodes in the rectifier section have failed allowing AC power to leak through to the puck... in which case the puck would most likely not operate at all.
And I'll sleep better for your sake knowing there is at least less K&T in the house 
TL;DR... if the issue is noise (which it can't be), a UPS won't help because your power supply already does all the scrubbing you can get. If you're having trouble with the power going out, a UPS will help. A dip in power won't likely affect the puck. Switching power supplies are only responsible for providing probably 12v DC, and will be able to supply that (depending on the power supply) down to about 15v. So a dip won't cause it, but an outage will.
