How to Get Right Surge Protector for Your Electronics

Most of us are growing tech savy and are crowded with devices in our home than the number of plugs we have in the wall, which is why a surge protector is a best solution to own in 21st century. However, all that shines is not gold and are surge protectors are not alike.

Huntkey a leading electrical and electronics online store based out of USA is one of the best destination for buying surge protectors based on different requirements.

Power Strip VS Surge Protector

To start with, not every power strip is a surge protector. It may sound cliché but it’s a basic piece of knowledge every buyer should have. A power strip just splits your outlet power into multiple plugs whereas a surge protector is does the important work to protect your electronics against power surges and any interference in your power supply. Power surges happen once a blue moon but their capability is enough to damage your highly expensive gadgets and make them dead.

A buyer in most of the cases would pay more for a surge protector than a power strip, but it’s worth it.

Selecting the Right Surge Protector

Five major points to consider while buying a surge protector: –

Number of ports. Don’t assume that certain number of ports in a surge protector is of the right number. Based on your requirement and local standards purchase the surge protector. There is no pre-defined condition that a certain number of ports surge protector is of high standards.
Device to be plugged into the surge protector. Your TV and PC set may require a surge protector with different standards compared to that of a lamp stand and light stand. Based on the device to be plugged buy the surge protector accordingly.

Make sure that the surge protector you’re going to buy is certified by Underwriter’s Laboratories, and meets their UL 1449 standards. This will make sure the surge protector you purchase will actually be doing the work it is entitled to.

Performance Ratings to take into Consideration:-

The surge protector might look well packaged to ensure better sales for the company manufacturing it but before making the purchase you need to make sure it meets your requirements standards and the standards laid down by watch dogs.

Joules Ratings: This number highlights surge protectors energy absorption rating. It works like a shield that blocks the excess unwanted energy. Higher the joules value means the surge protector has the capability to sustain more hits through single or multiple events over time before wearing out.
Clamping Voltage: The voltage at the which the surge protector swings into action to divert the excess voltage to go around without hampering the device. At times this clamping voltage is also called as Suppressed Voltage Rating. This performance rating is of far more important than Joules. The lower clamping voltage the better it is for your devices.
Response Time: The response time measured in nanoseconds showcases how fast a surge protector will react to divert the excess voltage. Even though electronics seem to work instantly but in reality, they still require time to operate or reaction time. Response time goes hand-in-hand with the clamping voltage. IN this case also lower the response rate the better it is for the device.
UL 1449 Ratings: Ratings by the Underwriters Laboratories UL 1449 is the recognized safety standard that stands valid or is accepted for surge protectors in order to check their originality. The UL 1449 standards lists the following criteria’s for QA of every surge protector: –

o Certification Criteria

o Design Requirements

o Product Performance

Surge protectors without the above information are not safe to use.

While the above listed are the main points to consider while buying a surge protector at the same time many manufacturers have also come with an array of extra add-ons in every surge protector to make it more consumer friendly. Here the point to be noted is that with every new extra add-on price would also increase. Some of the new additions are:-

USB ports
LED displays
Ethernet,
Co-Axial or telephone jacks
3-line protection
Built-in circuit breaker
EMI/RFI filtering or power conditioning
UPS battery backup
Energy-saving Mode
Wireless remote control
Motion sensors
Entire house surge protection

All surge protectors listed on Huntkey are UL 1449 compliance and meet all safety requirements laid down by industry standards.