Surge protectors.....

[1982vett]

.....what a joke.

Lost another router last week. Wasn't aware we had any close lightning strikes Wednesday night but the oven and stove clocks were blinking Thursday morning. Internet had been degrading the last two weeks and was dead Thursday morning. Called the ISP and recording stated they had outages in our area so we waited patiently for a day till my wife couldn't stand it and called. Talked to a technician Friday. He said the problem had been fixed so we ran the usual tests and set an appointment for onsite support for the 25th...... Had no reason to suspect router was toast as intranet was working fine. Anyway, I've been logging slow speeds since September and had talked to an alternative ISP in December. At that time I would have needed a taller tower (which could be done) but he said they had plans were to move to a different tower which would eliminate the need for me to make any changes. Wife called to check on their status of the move and found out the had recently done the upgrade but had taken a lightning strike and knocked it offline. As no one was yet on the tower it wasnt a high priority to fix it so wife makes another call to Rise to complain. Squeaky wheel got greased today. We are back online.

So the count for dead electronic devices on surge protectors since we moved into this house just under 6years ago goes to 3 tv's, 1 switch, and 3 routers.

 

[TCRanch]

Preaching to the choir! We pay a monthly fee to our electric Co-Op for a whole house surge protector. Last big storm zapped my coffee pot. Granted, it wasn't brand new but it was ridiculously expensive and I essentially mainline the entire 12 cups within a couple hours every morning. So now I get to spend quality time completing warranty info, fairly certain I don't still have the original receipt and will most likely get a pittance in exchange for what I paid for a new one.

 

[wbvs58]

Where I am the big risk is the telephone line. Anything that has the telephone line plugged into it and also plugs into the power supply the spike comes up the telephone line and jumps across to the power and sends a spike up the power cable and takes out other electronics plugged in. When I did have a telephone land line during thunderstorms I would get big flashes from telephone sockets just like a flash light going off, you would also get the smell of those old time flash lights going off.

Ken

 

[1982vett]

Years ago Mom and Dad had a 40 ft television tower get hit. Melted the antenna, fried the tv and blew a light switch out of the wall.

A few years ago lightning hit the pole just before the transformer pole. Blew the transformer. Didn't lose anything that time.

 

[ga.prime]

Surge protectors work for me, but this isn't Texas where everything is bigger.

 

[76 Bar]

Not all surge protectors are created equal. My number one priority are computers and associated peripherals. A decent UPS costs ~ $100 bucks USA and well worth the money.

 

[snoopdog]

Preaching to the choir! We pay a monthly fee to our electric Co-Op for a whole house surge protector. Last big storm zapped my coffee pot. Granted, it wasn't brand new but it was ridiculously expensive and I essentially mainline the entire 12 cups within a couple hours every morning. So now I get to spend quality time completing warranty info, fairly certain I don't still have the original receipt and will most likely get a pittance in exchange for what I paid for a new one.

Ahh so, you are not the only one that mainlines coffee at 3 am, I feel much better about my addiction now

 

[greybeard]

I gave up on those devices and now just unplug everything computer and electronic related anytime the weather is bad. My router (actually Verizon jet pack) is wireless, but the laptop stays plugged in except for stormy weather.

 

[DLD]

Years ago Mom and Dad had a 40 ft television tower get hit. Melted the antenna, fried the tv and blew a light switch out of the wall.

A few years ago lightning hit the pole just before the transformer pole. Blew the transformer. Didn't lose anything that time.

Sounds pretty familiar.

When I was a kid CB radios were a big thing. We had a CB antenna on a 40' tower. Knowing it was supposed to storm, we would unhook the coax cable from the back of the radio, and just leave the end of the cable laying on the floor. One morning about 5 am we woke to thunder and lightning and the smell of smoke. Lightning had hit the antenna and blew the end off the coax cable, and caught the carpet on fire. We got it out fast, only melted about a 3-4' circle of carpet. The smoke was the worst part.

After that we made a connection outside and disconnected it there in bad weather.