On Sep 29, 5:40 pm, N8N wrote:
Those "couplesurgestrips" did what no protector must do - failed.
I "fail" to see how that is bad - apparently an overvoltage got
through my whole house protector (according to the power company, in
their nice "GFY" form letter, a high voltage line was knocked into a
low voltage one by a falling tree, neatly bypassing the transformer,
so it must have been a big jolt) and the surge strips shut themselves
down rather than pass through the overvoltage to the equipment
connected to them.

A surge does not enter the home like a wave on the ocean.
Electricity does not work that way. A surge first flowed through
*anything* in that path to earth. Long after that surge is flowing,
then something fails.

No surge protector works by stopping or blocking a surge. If a
surge protector failed, it simply abandoned appliances to the surge.
To provide protection, the protector must remain functional.
Ineffective protectors even fail as fast as possible to avoid these
scary pictures:
http://www.hanford.gov/rl/?page=556&parent=554
http://www.westwhitelandfire.com/Art...Protectors.pdf
http://www.ddxg.net/old/surge_protectors.htm
http://www.zerosurge.com/HTML/movs.html
http://tinyurl.com/3x73ol or
http://www3.cw56.com/news/articles/local/BO63312/

Observe the protector in pictures from zerosurge.com. Pprotector
components were removed and its light still said the protector is OK.
Why? Because a power strip protector is not electrically between the
surge and appliance as N8N has assumed. Protector components only
work when conducting; when diverting; when condcting and not absorbing
a surge. If power strip varistors disconnect, then an appliance is
still connected directly to AC mains and the surge. The appliance
must protect itself. Fortunately, all appliance already contain
protection internally.

How to sell power strip protectors to the naive? A surge too small
to overwhelm protection inside the computer easily destroyed the power
strip protector. Now the naive will recommend more power strip
protectors .... using assumption rather than knowledge. The power
strip protector was grossly undersized. Therefore a surge too small
to harm the computer destroyed that power strip AND got the naive to
recommend more.

No surge gets "through" anything. A surge can go left through the
protector or right through appliances. Appliances are connected
directly to AC mains even when plugged into a power strip protector.
Nothing does, nothing claims to, and nothing can block a surge. But
grossly undersizing a strip protector gets the naive to buy more.

Will a silly little varistor inside that power strip stop or absorb
what three miles of sky could not stop? Of course not. Assumption is
that a power strip will somehow block what three miles of sky could
not. Reality: a protector is only as effective as its earth ground.
Power strip protectors without earth ground do not even claim to
provide that protection in numeric specifications. A failed power
strip did not provide protection. Burn out is even a complete
violation of varistor manufacturer specs. A protector that failed did
nothing and sometimes will create those scary pictures.