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.