I have talked about this many times before, but this is very important, and spring is coming so I thought I would mention it again. All surge protectors are power strips, but not all power strips are surge protectors. (Too long, don’t want to read it? Here is a video that says the same thing.)
Lightning can strike anywhere, if it strikes near your home all of your electronics plugged in are in danger of getting hit by massive amounts of electricity that can quickly destroy them. To solve this problem, you could always unplug every electronic in your home as soon as you stop using them, but this is not very practical and what would happen if you were using them during a lightning storm? Which you should not do.
The solution is to protect them even when they are plugged in. Never plug any electronic device directly into a wall socket. Always use a surge protector. Make sure it is a surge protector and not just a power strip. It should say surge protector on it. If it doesn’t, you should replace it with a surge protector. Surge protectors have a break point, kind of like a fuse in them that will break due to too much electricity running through them. They will break so the devices plugged into them don’t receive too much electricity.
When shopping for a surge protector, look carefully at the packaging. Many surge protectors come with warranty coverage that might cover a certain amount if they fail to suppress the surge, and it damages your devices. Always read fine print because these warranties might only apply for a certain time period.
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