Ungrounded Surge Protection?

[Endo]

I got a Belkin Compact surge protector for my Mini Vivaldi (15A) for Christmas.

http://www.belkin.com/surgeprotection/compact/

When I plugged it in, one of the lights on top lit up red and indicated it was "ungrounded". Does it need to be grounded to work? I'm surprised my 15A outlet is ungrounded but it's an older house (with new 200A electrical panel and mostly new wiring) and perhaps they missed grounding some outlets for whatever reason (before I moved in).

[JohnB]

Sounds like an excellent excuse to rip out the 15a circuit & replace it with a nice 20a grounded line. Then you can flip that toggle to 20a & experience your Mini in its full glory!

[Niko]

I concur.
Then you can get a 20A surge protector on Amazon

[Endo]

Yes. I may go 20A. Still, it's a minimum $75 for the electrician to visit. Do you replace the whole line into the machine or typically just the 15A plug?

[Niko]

I would replace the whole line which should end up at a 20A breaker. Depending how far the box is, you may need to go with a heavier gauge.

[MDL]

You can't just put a 20A receptacle onto a 15A circuit or you will risk burning your house down.
However, I would urge you to check your circuit breakers to be sure about the circuit. My house has 20A circuits in the kitchen, but the builder used 15A receptacles to save a few cents. All I had to do when my Vivaldi arrived was to change the receptacle.

Be very sure about this or you can create a fire hazard. Given that you seem to be a non-electrician kind of guy I'd have someone who knows what they are doing check it out for you.

[JohnB]

Yes. I may go 20A. Still, it's a minimum $75 for the electrician to visit. Do you replace the whole line into the machine or typically just the 15A plug?

You would definitely want to use a heavier gauge wire as the Vivaldi can pretty much max out a 20a circuit if everything were to kick in at the same time. As MDL said you might just get lucky but even if you had a 20a breaker hooked to that line in your box you would want to determine what else was running off of that circuit. Ideally you want a separate 20a line just for the machine. I installed a dedicated 20a circuit for the S1 & a dedicated 15a line just for the grinders. Lots of fun in a 250 year old house where the petrified chestnut beams are 8" thick.

[Niko]

I have two independent 20A breakers (for two separate Vivaldis) in one kitchen. Since I moved one S1 to another location, the second 20A circuit belongs to the grinders now.
I now see how important the wiring and breakers are after the 5th time the S1 has tripped the breaker in the new location - and that's running in Econo mode! Can you imagine the fun running at the full 20A?
...then again it is a Greek household that runs at 155,000,000,000 watts sometimes