Originally Posted by MacThayer
I have my sewing machine, iron and a nearby lamp on a surge protector, and I automatically shut it off when I'm not using them. Is that enough?
In fact, practically everything in this house is on a surge protector. We were hit by lightening a few years back, and even though the house was properly grounded, the lightening was so close, it blackened an outside and inside wall, blew a wall lamp off the wall, and fried every electronic we had plugged in, even if it wasn't on, except for a couple things like the fridge and range which had built in surge protectors. And I mean every electronic! My husband had a home office, and that meant his fax, copier, scanner, and 2 computer were history. We lost every TV in the house, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Even the blow dryer for my hair blew up. You can see why we use surge protectors now!
I remember when it hit. This shock of electricity hit me, knocked me down, and my hair stood on end. Scared the heck out of the dog. It wasn't funny. And I never leave the house with anything running: dryer, dishwasher, TV, nothing.
If anyone knows if turning off a surge protector would prevent a fire, I'd love to know.
When a pole outside out house was struck, we lost out phone, fax, fridge, answering machine, some were plugged in to cheapie surge protectors but they didn't help. The electric company said if the strike is close enough surge protector will not help. They are mostly to protect against power surges. We took our expensive business phone in to see about repair and they called and said all the electronics inside the phone were melted and it was a good thing no one was talking on the phone at the time. I always thought mom was just being a scaredy cat telling us to get off the phone during a storm, but now I never talk on the phone during a storm! The electric company said safest thing to do in a storm is to unplug everything and stay off the phone and out of the shower! :!: