Timers vs the Powerbar

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by lorenz0

funny that you mention this power bar. there is actually a powerbar/timer that is exactly the same at home depot. coralife just put's there name on it and the one at home depot is 1/2 the price

There's one feature on the Coralife which the HD version does not have and that is that two of the four timed outlets work opposite to the other two. They are colour coded yellow and blue, so when the yellow outlets are live, the blue ones are off. This can be useful for alternating between day and moon lighting.

I have a Coralife and am actually thinking of picking up the generic one as an additional timer. I also found a much smaller digital timer at Can Tire, but it is only a two prong so you're limited as to what type of equipment you can plug into it. It also has fewer timing features, e.g. it can only be timed at 5 minute intervals, not by the minute. It is small enough that you could plug two side by side into a power bar though. I think the main reason the 3 prong (grounded) digital timers are bulky is because they are buillt to handle up to 15 amps which is the maximum a normal circuit is able to supply. You can't miniaturize the relay too much if it needs to be able to handle that amount of power. Safety.....