Surge Protectors — Do You Need to Learn More About Them?

If your home is anything like mine, you have surge protectors all over the place, providing power and protection to appliances and 21st Century digital devices. Even my refrigerator is plugged into one after a power surge took out a number of refrigerators in the neighborhood.

Some surge protectors are powerful devices that promise, not only to protect appliances and devices but to pay for replacement devices if it does protect during a surge. Other devices, power strips that look like surge protectors, are just glorified extension cords.

Although I’ve purchased many of these devices, I’ve never known enough about what to look for when buying a surge protector, and I knew nothing about how they work.

So I went looking for a tutorial and found one at CNET.  Ten Things You Should Know About Surge Protectors, provides all sorts of information including the difference between a surge protector and a power strip, the need to think about outlet spacing, warranties, how a surge protector works, and much more.

There are also “green” surge protectors that claim to use far less energy when they are not actually running something.

Other resources include two Wirecutter articles about surge protectors, one published in 2018 and another in 2019.

• The Best Surge Protector
• The Best Portable Power Strips and Surge Protectors With USB Charging