"w_tom" wrote in message
...
When an MOV protector fails catastrophically, then
it was
grossly undersized.
=== Undersized how? They're rated for x joules, more
than that causes the MOVs to conduct, until they open
the ckt. If you mean undersized to protect against
monsrous surges, OF COURSE!! The sentence means
nothing.

It operated in a region not defined by
its manufacturer - in violation of the part's intent.
=== How do you know that?

But if
a power strip protector is undersized,
=== What does that mean?

then the homeowner will
know of the surge.
=== It's more likely the homeowner will NOT know of
the surge, since the vast majority of the time an MOV
fails OPEN once it conducts, he may not even know it
was surged unless it has indicators for functionality.

That promotes more sales of undersized
protectors that really don't provide the protection
and, as
Rob Mills demonstrates, can even create a house fire.
=== NO surge protector can protect beyond the number
of joules it's rated at, and it would very UNlikely to
have started a fire if nothing else in the house was
bothered. That surge, if it really happened, was large
enough to jump the gaps of the MOVs once they opened
up, and thus was capable of jumping many other gaps.
Sometimes though, a protector CAN sacrifice itself for
the equipment, which sounds like what happened, but ...
it wouldn't have started a fire unless it was sitting
inside a pile of tinder that sparks could have ignited.
The plastic would nto have melted or other equipment
would have been damaged. Black stuff only indicates
spark, not flame.

The effective protector earths a surge; and the
homeowner
never knows it happened.
=== No, protectors do much more than that; they are
wye-connected varistors usually with inductive walls to
keep the lines within safe ranges of each other whether
it's earth or hot to neutral or ... and so on.

Protectors that provides effective protection are
located
close to earth ground AND are properly sized.
=== What the hell do you mean by "properly sized"?
And what the heck does "close to ground" mean anyway?

You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

This is called
a 'whole house' protector. Where it is located? Not
on a
pile of papers on a desk, or behind the furniture, on
a rug,
or within dust balls. Just more reasons why plug-in
protectors (that cost so much money) are so
ineffective.
=== Wrong, proton breath; they are quite effective and
useful and are recommended for very good reasons. I
hope you aren't using any and that you shortly suffer
several power and phone line lightning hits within 5
miles of your home or less, preferably the transoformer
you're fed from. You're a moron in this area.
So, uhhh, just where is it located, by the way? Do
you even know?

Pop