Power surge protector

[aimeeandbeatles]

Considering the incident involving the lightning hitting the house and causing the giant power surge that blew up the deep-freezer my mom got me a power-surge bar. It has 12 plugs and a guarantee for money if stuff blows up from a power surge. I already am going to plug in both computers & my LCD monitor. So my question is, of these things around my desk, which are susceptible to power surges and should also be plugged in?

1. Printer/scanner/copier combination.
2. Battery charger. (Actually, I'm wondering if it got fried, but I'm getting a new one soon).
3. External hard drive.
4. Computer speakers (2.0, no subwoof or anything).
5. A lamp where the lightbulb blew out when the power surge happened. It works fine once the bulb was replaced which shouldn't be a problem. Only issue is, lightbulbs are expensive here (I think they banned the old-style ones, although we still have a few packages of them. But the old-style ones I can't seem to find anymore and I think they were talking about banning them some years ago.)

Thanks.

 

[Cutlass]

Everything plugged in is susceptible to a big enough power surge. But I would bother with a surge suppressor for a lamp. Electronics are most at risk.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well lightening literally hit the house, or to be specific, the powermeter box. I'm surprised that nothing else did blow up other than the deep-freezer (which was kind of old and faulty anyways). But I dont know if I'll be lucky a second time

EDIT: Well the deep-freezer and 20 fuses. 10 blew up the first time and then 10 blew up again when my mom tried to plug in the deep-freezer again. I counted them

 

[Cutlass]

By the way, the best surge suppressor is an uninteruptable power supply. Like something from APC, but other companies make them as well.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

By the way, the best surge suppressor is an uninteruptable power supply. Like something from APC, but other companies make them as well.

My mom won't get me one. It costs too much and she claims she has one anyways but I've seen it and it's basically a brick and I don't have enough money in my account yet for one.

 

[Zelig]

Everything plugged in is susceptible to a big enough power surge.

Yeah, if you get the right kind of direct hit, your stuff is getting fried, surge protector or no surge protector.

Also worth being careful about your cable/dsl line, surges can pass through those, to the modem, and then through the ethernet lines across the network.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yeah, if you get the right kind of direct hit, your stuff is getting fried, surge protector or no surge protector.

Also worth being careful about your cable/dsl line, surges can pass through those, to the modem, and then through the ethernet lines across the network.

Can it go through a router? We have a router between the modem and the computers.

 

[Cutlass]

My mom won't get me one. It costs too much and she claims she has one anyways but I've seen it and it's basically a brick and I don't have enough money in my account yet for one.

$50 A decent surge suppressor costs that much. A good surge suppressor can cost more than twice that. A $10 surge suppressor gives you what you pay for, which is not much of anything at all.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

$50 A decent surge suppressor costs that much. A good surge suppressor can cost more than twice that. A $10 surge suppressor gives you what you pay for, which is not much of anything at all.

I think the surge-bar my mom bought (it is not a UPS) was around $40-50. The receipt is in her purse so I can't check. A cheap UPS around here cost at least twice as much I don't know about a good one

 

[Zelig]

Can it go through a router? We have a router between the modem and the computers.

Yes, as I said in my post, it can go through ethernet lines and through all the devices connected to your network.

 

[Cutlass]

Well that is strange. Amazon has several well under $100 in the US but not Canada.... And the 2 dollars are pretty close at the moment. Only a few cents different.

But Newegg.ca has this for $65CA http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101343&Tpk=apc backup battery

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'll give the link to my mom

 

[Zelig]

Well that is strange. Amazon has several well under $100 in the US but not Canada.... And the 2 dollars are pretty close at the moment. Only a few cents different.

But Newegg.ca has this for $65CA http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101343&Tpk=apc backup battery

Amazon only sells books in Canada.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Amazon only sells books in Canada.

Thats funny because I ordered some other stuff one time when I had a preloaded credit card. I got some CDs and a game.

 

[Cutlass]

Amazon only sells books in Canada.

Then why do I see a listing for other stuff?

 

[Zelig]

Then why do I see a listing for other stuff?

To be pedantic, amazon only sells stuff that you could buy at a regular bookstore.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

To be pedantic, amazon only sells stuff that you could buy at a regular bookstore.

I didnt see any of the three cds or the games at my regular bookstore

 

[deanej]

Well, the large chains in the US sell CDs at least.

Back on topic: I don't think much of anything will actually protect electronics from lightning, but I've heard that insurance companies are more likely to pay for equipment if it's plugged in to a surge protector.

 

[shadowplay]

To be pedantic, amazon only sells stuff that you could buy at a regular bookstore.

I actually just ordered a 1TB external hard-drive from Amazon.ca.

 

[Zelig]

I actually just ordered a 1TB external hard-drive from Amazon.ca.

Fantastic, but probably 90% of the non-bookstore items that amazon.com sells, amazon.ca doesn't.