Looking for a new surge protector for a TV. Usually have had Anker or Belkin but many of the surge protectors on those sites don’t show the # of joules or offer fairly low joule protection; 300 - 600 joules. My understanding is for a TV, should have at least 1,000 to 2,000 joule protection. Tried contacting Anker & Belkin by phone, chat, & email but either not getting replies or get AI-generated replies that don’t really answer my questions. Suggestions?
PS Needs to be surge protection on a power strip, not just an outlet plug. Neither the TV nor the cable box have cords long enough to get to the power outlet so need a power strip.
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I’ve had good experiences with CyberPower (all listed with joule ratings). 
Dave
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For years I’ve used Tripp-Lite surge protected power strips. I’ve never had problems with them. I just checked and found they’ve been bought by Eaton who makes a lot of electrical supplies. Eaton still carries the Tripp-Lite surge protector line here.
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Several things:
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As you write, the number of joules it can dissipate is important. If you get a surge larger than that, it won’t be able to protect your equipment, and will likely blow itself out. The more the better. Surge suppressors that can dissipate 2000J or more exist and are probably worth getting (assuming it’s a reputable brand, otherwise the specs may be bogus).
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Another important number is the “clamping voltage”. This is highest voltage the strip will allow through. Note, however, that this is the peak voltage, so your line’s RMS voltage (120 or 240) is not the number you want. For normal sine-wave AC, multiply the RMS voltage by √2.
Line voltages are nominally 100, 120, 220 or 240v RMS, depending on your location. These correspond to peak voltages of about 141, 170, 311 or 340v.
In general, lower clamping voltages are better, but it must never be below your line voltage’s normal peak levels. The lowest clamping voltages I’ve seen in US surge suppressors is 330v. Needless to say, this should not be used in places that have 240v power, because normal peak voltages are higher than that.
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MOVs. Most surge suppressors use MOVs to do the heavy lifting. A MOV is a device whose resistance varies depending on the voltage. Its resistance is highest when the voltage is closest to zero and decreases rapidly at some distance (positive or negative) from zero.
MOVs are connected between the hot and neutral lines of a power strip. At normal operating voltages, the current passed is close to zero, so it is as if there was no connection. But if the voltage gets too high (e.g. during a surge), the resistance will drop, and the current will be shunted to the neutral line, keeping it away from your connected equipment (possibly tripping a circuit breaker in the process). Some power strips also connect MOVs between the other wires (hot to ground and neutral to ground) to protect against surges that may arrive on those lines.
Of course, all devices have a maximum current capacity before they fail. If a surge is too large for the MOV to handle, it will get very hot and will likely blow out. In some cases, they’ve been known to catch fire, although your power strip’s enclosure should be able to contain that fire until it goes out on its own - be sure to make sure your device has a UL rating.
Note also that a blown MOV will not disconnect your devices from mains power. If it blows out, it will behave as if it wasn’t present - meaning your devices will continue to work, but with no surge protection.
It is a good idea to periodically inspect the inside of surge suppressors. Just open the case and look at the MOVs. If any look burnt or cracked (meaning they have blown out), replace the entire strip. Don’t trust LED indicators that say “protected” - in many cases, they will remain lit even after a MOV blows out.
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You can get surge suppressors that don’t use MOVs. These will use other kinds of circuitry to shunt surge current to the neutral and/or safety ground lines. These can generally withstand much larger surges and can withstand repeated surges without blowing out. But they tend to be much more expensive devices.
I use surge suppressors like this for my most expensive equipment (like home theater gear). The brand I’ve been using it ZeroSurge, although there may be other brands that use similar tech.
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Metal vs. plastic case. Most surge suppressors have a plastic case. But this means that when a surge arrives and those MOVs get hot, it can melt the case. Possibly damaging a carpet underneath. Surge suppressors in metal cases will be able to better dissipate the heat without damaging surfaces.
See also:
Update 3/5/25: Rewrote the section about MOVs. The previous text had a lot of errors. This text is better.
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See the excellent reviews in the the NY TImes Wirecutter review:
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Thanks for that review. The recommendation for the Furman strip reminds me of another important feature: power filtering.
A power filter is at its core, an inductor. Inductors, when used in an AC circuit, pass low frequencies and block high frequencies. When used in a power strip, they block frequencies significantly higher than your line’s normal 50/60Hz (so-called “dirty power”). These frequencies can come from a lot of sources, including:
- Electric motors, including those in appliances, air conditioners and laser printers.
- Electromagnetic interference
- Some kinds of (low quality) switching power supplies
- Power-line networking (which explicitly uses high frequencies for passing data)
Although your equipment’s power supply shouldn’t be affected by dirty power, and should include some degree of filtering, not all do, and dirty power can reduce the lifespan of a power supply.
A power filter, whether standalone, part of a surge strip or part of a UPS, is a good thing.
The Furman strip is very expensive, but it has a specific target audience. Furman typically sells to musicians and other pro-audio users. They recognize that dirty power can get picked up by audio gear, introducing hum and noise into recordings.
You might find a larger listing of their products of interest, including the descriptions, which are all focused on audio production and live music performances.
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Oh gawd, not surge protectors again. What people believe is happening on the power line, and what it may do to their devices, and how to stop it, often does not align with physics or real conditions. There is as much nonsense and marketing obfuscation around this as there is around “audiophile” cables. And it just gets repeated and amplified. I call this Technology Mythology.
Bottom line, the best protection you can get for really important equipment is a double-conversion UPS. Complete isolation from the power company, and might save you from a nearby lightning strike. For everything else, a series-mode surge surpressor, like SurgeX. The other products won’t hurt, and might possibly help in some small way, but is mostly pointless. But I don’t even have my own computer gear on double-conversion at home, I have a line-interactive UPS (from MGE, now Eaton). Nary a problem.
Here’s a piece I did aimed at AV professionals that explains further:
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Advance apologies for what will likely be a long post. Please don’t be so quick to judge others for their concerns about power surges & surge protectors. I don’t know a lot about electricity & electric lines but past experience has caused me to be concerned about electric surges thru power lines. Some of this was a long time ago but…
1983: had my 1st microwave oven; they were not very common at the time. Was living in FL, had a power outage & when the power came back on, the surge blew out the microwave, couldn’t be repaired. In those days, they were all countertop models & huge by today’s standards. Surprisingly, the electric company took responsibility & paid for the replacement.
During late 1980s - 1990s: spent 8 yrs living in developing countries w/frequent power outages. Can’t tell you the # of electric items that were blown out due to the surges when the power returned.
Two years ago moved into a brand new condo building in a highly populated suburb of Washington, DC. We’ve had a few power outages; some due to weather, some due to power lines being accidentally cut by construction. In that 2 yrs, both my brand new clothes dryer and wall oven were blown out by surges when the power returned. Luckily, in both cases, the appliances were still under warranty so were replaced w/o cost but at a great inconvenience.
I’m not about to put surge protectors on everything in my home nor even on the major appliances. But having a decent surge protector on TVs & my computer gives me some peace of mind. Might be kidding myself but I’d like to at least make the effort. No judgement, please.
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This probably won’t make you feel better because I had a nearby lightning strike last summer and it took out more than electrical stuff.
In the cellar I lost the timer motor to my washer (it wouldn’t advance automatically. Easily replaced part but I managed to pick the single worst company to get the part from. I set so many 8 minute timers that Siri started to assume I wanted them at certain times of the day)
We lost a set of Altec speakers that were plugged in at the workbench. Thankfully none of the battery chargers went.
Up in the office, it came through my cable line. I’d just gotten fiber and was running them in tandem.
Fried: the Comcast modem, an 8 port switch and the TP Link wifi unit
Through the switch I lost the ethernet on my Mini and the ethernet on my dock. Those were a pain because I then had to buy USB ethernet adapters for the Mini and my laptop.
The iMac ethernet was spared somehow, despite it being right next to the switch and attached with the shortest cable of the bunch.
I have surge suppressors on all the equipment in the office but I don’t think any of them have ethernet protection and the one that has coax is on the wrong side of the room to have been useful for that modem.
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When I lived in Los Angeles and we had to depend on the Department of Water and Power, the power would go out on a regular basis - it averaged about once a month and lasted for an hour or so. We lived on the side of a canyon above a golf course and I could look out the window after dark and see what was out. My solution was to buy a bunch of UPS batteries and use them for all my electronics. That worked well except for the anoyance of having to replace the batteries every few years. Then I moved to Las Vegas (on the West side in Summerlin) where all the residential electrical power hardware is underground. In the 13 years we have lived here there has not been a single NV Energy unannounced power outage. I just gave away my UPS batteries. I think geography makes a big difference in what you need to do to protect your electronic devices,
Ugh, what a nightmare. Thankfully, nothing is plugged directly into my Verizon router, all is wireless. But the router is plugged into the same outlet as my TV & cable box. I’m hoping if I have them all plugged into a surge protector, chances of anything frying from a power surge are decreased.
The iMac is in another room & is wirelessly connected to router, no ethernet. Planning to plug iMac into surge protector as well.
I realize nothing will be 100% protected but trying to do the best I can do w/a reasonable budget. Hopefully surge protectors will provide some level of protection, assume that’s where the name came from.
Most of our power lines are underground, many of our outages are due to construction. There must be some above ground which would explain the weather-related outages but can’t remember noticing above ground wires lately.
Power doesn’t go out frequently, a few times/yr, generally for a couple minutes to a few hours. Sometimes it’s only for a portion of my condo building, which I don’t understand, but no reason I need to. Things happen & I’d just like to be prepared.
Used to have a UPS on my computer but it became annoying. An alarm would go on when the power would go out & it was often in the middle of the night. Not only would it wake me up, but in a groggy state I usually had trouble remembering how to turn off the alarm.
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One of the STUPIDEST “innovations” in recent years is the alarm on many UPS units. There you are in the dark trying to find the damned thing beeping at you so you can turn it off. I KNOW the power quit because I can’t see anything, I don’t need the UPS to yell at me as well.
I switched to CyberPower UPS units some years ago - pretty much for their ability to mute the alarm PERMANENTLY. Turns out they also have much better longevity than other brands.
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Has anyone had experience with “whole-house” surge protectors? Seems that if they provide the same protection for everything, it could shield things like microwaves, clocks, or in my case, a very expensive board in my heating system. (This would be in addition to UPSs for critical computers, routers, etc.)
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Although I have not installed one in my home, I can say that “whole house” surge protection is a marketing term.
There are three kinds of products that protect all the circuits in your home and might therefore be marketed as a “whole house” surge protector:
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A lightning arrester is a device designed to shunt very high surges (e.g. from lightning) to ground.
They are usually only used in power transmission systems or industrial applications, but could be hooked up to a residence near where the line enters your home (e.g. at the meter).
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A UL Type-1 (aka IEEE Category C) SPD (surge protective device) is something installed before your main breaker - between the electric meter and the main breaker in your service panel. It is designed to protect your home from surges that originate outside the home. These typically must be installed by an electrician, because you need to disconnect your home from the electric utility during installation.
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A UL Type-2 (aka IEEE Category B) SPD is typically installed in or directly connected to your service panel. These are designed to prevent surges that originate from one circuit inside your home (e.g. your HVAC system) from spreading to other circuits.
These are all in contrast to a UL Type-3 (aka IEEE Category A) SPD, which is what your typical surge-suppressing power strip is, and is not a “whole house” device of any kind. These will protect devices connected to the strip from surges arriving on the connected outlet.
These three types of SPDs protect against different things, and none of them provide complete protection.
While surges from outside your home (e.g. those blocked by a Type-1 SPD) are the ones most likely to cause major damage, a Type-1 SPD only solves part of the problem. Transients and surges that originate from inside your home (e.g. when heavy motors like those in your HVAC system cycle on) can also damage or reduce the lifespan of equipment (like computer power supplies).
If someone is offering to sell you a “whole house” surge protection system, get the detailed specs to see what they are actually selling. Ideally, it should include a Type-1 SPD where the power-line enters your home and a Type-2 SPD in/near each service panel.
But even with this, I would not stop using surge-suppressor/power-filter outlet strips for sensitive equipment like computers and A/V equipment.
And of course, no SPD is going to provide backup power or line conditioning. You’ll need a good quality UPS to provide that for any equipment that might need it (e.g. your computers).
See also:
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That sounds a bit like my experience a few years ago. I’d unplugged most equipment when a thunderstorm approached. There was a very close lightning strike and afterwards I found some equipment had been zapped.
Eventually I realised that it was several items connected to wired ethernet, even though the router was not connected to AC power at the time. For example, my Powerwall battery needed a new circuit board.
My (amateur) conclusion was that the EMF from the lightning had induced a high voltage in the ethernet cables. So these days I unplug ethernet cables if a thunderstorm is approaching (Powerwall is now wifi connected!).
Yep, I had that happen in 2004.
Have you looked at TrippLite?
Have looked at it a bit; will take me a while to wade thru it all to figure out what’s appropriate. Many of the TrippLite products are more heavy duty than I need.
Thank you!