Our house was hit by lightenning - lost quite a few electronics. Thank goodness I had left my sewing machine unpluged. Do most of you use surge protectors on your sewing machines or just unplug them. Thanks for your input.

Surge protectors on everything here - we have lost a VCR, satellite receiver, and an almost new dishwasher, during 2 separate strikes.
Even though I have the protector on the sewing machine, I always unplug it when finished.

I unplug mine. The only good surge protector I have is used for my pc and other computer equipment. I probably should get another one for the sewing machine. We do have a lot of storms here in FL.

We have surge protectors on eveything and we still unplug too.

Surge suppressors AND unplug. It's been a few years, but we lost a tv, stereo and answering machine.

I don't always pay attention to what the weather is doing outside....especially if I'm sewing! :wink:

Yes, I use them on everything, and now if there is a bad storm, I unplug also. Lighting ran in on our bedroom ceiling light and fan and blew up our TV, also burnt a hole in a brand new bedspread, lucky the house didn't catch fire. So now I am extra careful.

I use surge protectors on both of my sewing machines as well as my computer. If there is to a terrible lightening storm, I'll also unplug. No use taking any chances :D

Surge protectors on all of the important stuff here, too :D :D :D

Wow! Thanks for the input! I hadn't thought of unplugging the sewing machine and I generally rely on the surge protector for my computer. I've left tvs on when we've had storms, too! I'm from an area of hardly EVER getting lightening storms and moved to this area 4 yrs ago....we get lightening storms every summer here. In fact, a young child (about 11) ran out of his school room and onto the parking lot a coupla months ago...during a storm and and struck by lightening!!!! :shock: I'll be more careful from now on! :wink:

Surge protectors on everything!
My sewing machine gets unplugged when I'm not using it.
If we leave for the weekend, EVERYTHING gets unplugged.

As a little side note. How many of you turn off the water to your washer when you leave on vacation? Our daughter came home from a 3 week vacation to several inches of water in the whole house.

While we do have surge protectors, I always unplug my sewing machine. I do unplug the TVs, if we are having a storm. I have heard of people turning off the water to the washer, but we never have. We do, generally, unplug the water softener. Guess these are all the more reasons to just not go away! LOL

I unplug everything and turn off everything except the water to one toilet when we go away. I always have someone come in for the cats, so they might need to use the potty. Gotta have water in there.

Oh yes I sure do. I think it is a small investment to make to protect my electronics and appliances. But I do unplug my sewing machine every time I use it. Habit really.

I have a computerized sewing machine. I use a surge protector on it. I have met a woman who's Bernina 730 got fried because she did not use one, that convinced me!!!
We don't get lightening storms around here.
there are protectors on all the computers but not on the television. DH wouldn't mind so much if our television blew up, then he could finally get a flat screen!!!

I have a computerized quilting system on my longarm and I have two surge protector attached to it. Both in line with each other. If the first fails, then the secoud will catch the surge of bad juice. Zeke..........

I use protectors, but unplug my LA anyway.

Even with surge protectors, the only sure protection is to unplug. My hubby sold home and car electronics for years and has heard every story there is (tho' I'm sure there are more sensational stories).

I too unplug, not only for safety, but for a small measure of conservation. Why pay for the electricity when it's plugged in but not being used?

I have surge protectors on everything. Both PC's, he TV, the air conditioners, and MOST importantly - the fridge. My circuit breaker box was hit by lightning a few years ago. Fortunately, all it did was turn off all the breakers. I didn't lose anything.

However, my daughter's house lost electricity, not through a strike, but because of a power outage during a thunderstorm and when the power came back on, the surge burned up her fridge. That's when I added another one.

I use surge protectors on machine & computer - I am partially disabled, and couldn't get down and unplug every time, though I realise that I probably should. Drives me potty. I even wish I had an iron that had an on/off switch, instead of having to unplug the thing each time. We don't get that many storms, and I do have good insurance.

Yep, here, too. AND if I leave for a week or more I turn off the breaker to the hot water tank. It just continues to reheat the same water unless you turn off the breaker.

Sharon

I, too, have problems crawling around on the floor and unplugging machines. My Bernina lady told me to just unplug directly at the machine...well, duh! Why didn't I think of that????? :lol: :lol: :lol:

I have the surge protectors, but the responses here from the people who have been hit have made me think I need to unplug. There are a lot of you just on this Board! We have LOTS of storms here in South Lousiana. Right now it's the monsoon season and there is a storm nearly every afternoon and almost always with lots of lightning. I would be devastated to have my machine fried. I think I'll be unplugging a lot more often.

I have one on my computer, but I never thought to put a surge protector on my sewing machine, Thanks!!!

I have one on the computer, but just a power strip for the sewing machine.

DH does turn the breaker off to the well pump when we go on vacation.

There are whole house surge protectors available that install before the main breaker in the panel. Talk to your electrician. When we put ours on a few years ago it only cost $125 plus installation. Still use individual protectors on the TV, Bernie and my cordless phones. Like to turn everything off when not in use to keep the demand meter under control. Also unplug everything during a thunderstorm, learned the hard way a few years back.

I have my desktop on a surge protector but my machines stay unplugged when not in use.

When the weather is bad I unplug my desktop too.

I have surge protectors on many things, but mostly so I can put a couple plugs into one thing, then when I go to the wall to pull the plug, I get many appliances taken care of at once. Near the sewing machine, I have one so I don't have to climb under the table to unplug anything. I try to remember to unplug, but don't always. My friend just lost the board in her big fancy clothes dryer (which of course went off warranty 2 month ago). I guess a whole house protector would be the way to go, I sure can't move the fridge or washer to unplug for every storm :shock:

Too much $ invested in appliances (sewing related and not). I use surge suppressors on everything and I also unless sewing and embroidery machines when not using.
Do like the idea of installing a house s/p. Thanks.

I live in an old, rented house, although the type of breaker you mentioned would be the best thing, I'll have to live with my network of surge protectors. They are working for me.

I have always used surge protectors in my house. I sent my DD to collage with a surge protector for her computer and a number of power strips for her other things. We had a storm over Christmas vacation and when she went back her computer was fried. I went over to check it out and found her computer plugged into a power strip and her curling iron plugged into the surge protector. Silly girl didn't know the difference. Oh well, the computer was still under warranty and she learned something. I just had to laugh.

After all this the weirdest thing happened last night. I have a surge protector strip plugged in behind my little nightstand, with two lights, my home phone and cell charger. As I was reaching behind me to get my glasses, I knocked a pack of gum behind the stand. Next thing, there's a big blue and orange spark and all the power goes out.

Hubby reset the breaker, the power strip was good, but the outlet was scorched and blackened. I don't have a clue what happened.

yikes, that's scary. I wonder what happened.

i use a surge protecter on my la, but nothing else. don't scare me. as for water, my dh is paranoid about things like that. when i had cats, i was always sure to put the lids on the toilets down. they both drank from there and i had bad visions.

what brand surge protecter should i be looking for?

We have surge protectors for computer and everything in my sewing room - and I turn off the computer every night.
I should probably unplug my sewing machine every day, too.

Thanks for the reminder - just did it!

We have surge protectors on computer, printer, entertainment system, and of course my sewing machine especially since it is computerized.
I no longer plug my iron into the same protector as machine. I don't want to take any chances.
When not in use, I flip switch on surge protector to off and if we are leaving all day, pull the plug. We had lightening storm here two weeks ago that hit our breaker on top of pole. Had most everything unplugged because I knew storm was coming, but when I went into pantry/closet and turned the light on the lightening hit and the switch crackled and everything went out. Didn't know it was our pole and so 8 hours later, (thank God for generators), here comes the power man. My DD had to call him from town as we had no phone service going out.
As far as a brand, you really need to stand and read each package. All surge protectors are not alike and some don't even have a turn off switch. This is one item you cannot go cheap on. I think we paid $30.00 fro the entertainment system one and about $20 for the sewing machine. Some come with guarantees and replacements. My sewing machine one has special openings that have to be opened to place plug into so little hands can't get shocked. I also have my two lamps plugged into this one and instead of turning the switches on and off, I just turn switch off on surge. Hope this helps.

thank you. i'm convinced. it sounds like the thing to do is to plug my two machines and their lights into one s.p.. the blindstitcher and lamp into a different s.p. and the la and lams in another. my iron gets unplugged each time i'm done because i broke the 'off' dial. that leaves hanging ceiling fixtures, but i guess that's another story. so, i guess 3 s.p. will do it? our circuit box will pop the circuit if there's an overload elsewhere. if dh wants to protect anything else, we'll have to decide what needs it. oh, of course the computer and the entertainment center. 2 more. there's a business i should go into, right? anywhere else?

I use surge protectors on everything electronic.. and if a storm is coming, everything gets unplugged from the surge protector... and also the telephone line/ethernet cable from the computers..

if the intent of the s.p. is to protect your electronics, then why do you have to unplug everything anyway?

I unplug because I was told if there was a direct hit by my home more than likely the surge protector would not protect my computer. Surge protectors are more for the occasional surges of power you get during a normal day. My DD computer was not plugged into a surge protector and it was wiped out by one of those lesser surges. Her's would have been protected if it was plugged into a surge protector.