You will see some eye popping numbers like $150,000 or $300,000 in equipment coverage being mentioned. Some manufacturers come with warranties for hardware that’s damaged during a power surge. Surge protector warranty claimīefore going over the picks for this review, let’s talk about warranties for a second. The Tripp Lite 850VA UPS Battery Backup is a better pick if you are looking to protect a gaming PC, or a home office where you are concerned losing data on hard drives. Surge protection is a built-in feature to most UPS hardware. It’s essentially a battery that goes between your hardware and outlet. If you’re worried about data corruption on an external hard drive or NAS, then you want an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). Keep in mind that a surge protector won’t do you much good if you are trying to guard against damage from a sudden loss of power. You should always look over an instruction manual to any piece of hardware that you intend to add a surge protector before plugging it in. There are some exceptions like older equipment. Most hardware built today can handle a loss of power. That’s fine if you are just using these outlets to occasionally operate handheld power tools, a small radio or other light equipment. You might want a Tripp Lite 16 Outlet power strip for your garage. You will eventually have to replace them like a light bulb or fuse.Īre power strips totally useless? Absolutely not. Surge protectors are designed to become damaged instead of your equipment. But you should also buy what you realistically need and not go overboard. So you shouldn’t skimp on a surge protector. Whether it’s a 4K TV, Xbox One console or gaming PC, your electronics cost you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. So don’t buy a power strip if you want to protect your valuable electronics.Ī surge protector should, at minimum, provide a strong line of defense against spikes of energy headed towards your equipment. But power strips can be erroneously labeled as surge protectors. Sometimes power strips can have basic surge protection. Power strips can often be mistaken for surge protectors, but there’s an important difference. Like the guard rail on the road, they take some damage each time they’re taking a hit while protecting your pricey goods on the other side. These MOVs should be running that unwanted electricity into ground. Surge protectors don’t react immediately.Įlectrical surges can happen in a few microseconds, and ideally, you want them to run into a number of metal-oxide varistors (MOVS). You need a guard rail of sorts to protect your PlayStation 4, or 4K Ultra HD Roku TV from the ricochet of electricity coming at it. You want a rating of at least 1,000 joules.Īll that unwanted electricity needs someplace to go. This is a measurement that indicates how much electricity a surge protector can absorb in a single event without failure. You will also want to pay attention to the Joules rating. How many joules of surge protection do I need? The standard let-through voltage for 120 V AC devices is 300 volts. Lower “ clamping voltage” generally indicates better protection. We are talking about let-through voltage, or rather, what spike in voltage will prompt a surge protector to divert unwanted electricity from the protected line. Surge protectors limits the voltage supplied to an electrical device by either blocking or shorting to ground any unwanted voltages above a safe threshold. This review will break down for you the best options on the market for a multi-device household. I will cover recommendations for cord cutters with lots of streaming devices or hardware, along with choices for a home office or PC gaming setup. There are a few important specs to talk about when deciding what will be the best surge protector for you. The Belkin PivotPlug 12-Outlet surge protector is the best surge protector to address most of your needs with shielding your hardware from life-ending damage. A decent surge protector will give you some peace of mind, and more outlets, which you probably need anyway.Ĭhunky, box-shaped adapters take up a lot of real estate: so much so that it crowds out other needed outlets. Even common sized plugs can crowd out potential neighbors. Start counting the dollar value of TV, laptops, PCs, game consoles and audio and video equipment and you’ll get there pretty quickly. I have thousands of dollars worth of electronics in my home, and chances are, so do you. So when lightning strikes a utility pole near your house, the surge protector takes the brunt of all that extra electricity instead of your TV, computers or whatever else you have plugged into an outlet. Surge protectors are designed to take the damage from unexpected spikes in electricity. The Best Surge Protectors for TVs, Home Office and Gaming PCs
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