Surge suppressors...

[Hi Ho]

They are worth it! This may sound funny to some of you that live in lighting country but where I live we don't get many thunder storms. In fact, the last time I remember seeing lighting anywhere remotely close to my house was probably eight years ago and that was 40+ miles away.

Anyway, last night I had my closest encounter ever with lightning. Never in my life had I saw the flash and heard the BOOM at exactly the same time! I had been seeing flashes but hadn't been hearing any thunder all evening. Then, at about 10 PM, I was just getting ready to play a game online when a blinding flash and deafening boom erupted right next to my house. I just about hit the ceiling! My first reaction was to unplug my PCs and then my theater equipment. I still had power and they were still working but I didn't want to take the chance. Several more deafening booms went off and the storm moved on. I just went to bed with everything unplugged. The next morning we still had power so I plugged everything in. All was fine except the phone. The cordless phone was silent and the one corded phone in the house made an awful noise. It turns out that the surge suppressor under my PC had done it's job. According to the owner of the local phone/cable company (a friend) a massive surge went through the phones. The surge suppressor was causing the noise in the phone and when I bypassed it all was well.

In other words, use surge protection! Also, thunder storms are scary when they're that close!

[juppy]

Yeah, those close lightning strikes will jump you out of your chair every time. I hate those! We use surge suppressors on all our tv's, computer's, stereos, etc....but I still unplug 'em when a storm comes up. Mainly because several years ago we got a bunch of stuff fried, even WITH the surge strips on them. TV/big satellite dish system, stereo, vcr, cordless phone, and like 4 wall plugs all went poof with one big lightning strike. My computer was fine though, because I've always kept it unplugged when I'm not using it. My ears were ringing for several minutes after that one.

[tigstah]

i'll cast my vote for surge supressors also. had a storm about 2 weeks ago, cordless phone still not working right. the answering machine still hasnt worked since then. puters, tvs, and all other electronics work fine. we only had tstorms here in the summer time when its really humid out. they roll up quickly.

[HAL9000]

Heck, I even have a UPS on my DLP TV.. when the power goes out... I can shut down and let the fan cool the bulb properly instead of no flow at all.

[David M]

Although not bullet proof, having something is better than having nothing. They certainly are cheap enough. The next step up in protection would be spend a couple hundred for a good UPS. Still, they are not bullet proof but do provide more protection than a power strip type surge protector. There is nothing that will provide 100% protection. Lightning will take the path of least resistance. Hopefully there are things around you that are well grounded.

[edfair]

You lucked out with nothing more fried. And even with surge suppressors you can have major damage.
Phone lines are a major source of problems. And the connectors are prone to carbonizing from arc-over.

[nocturnx]

If the surge killed the phones then it went through the phone lines and not through the electrical lines, so surge protector or not you would likely have been fine, especially if the power didn't go out. We have plenty of storms here and it happens often, we have had phones and unprotected fax machines blow as well as damage to multi-function copiers. We use phone jack surge processors often now.

[XenaWP]

Originally Posted by Hi Ho ...Never in my life had I saw the flash and heard the BOOM at exactly the same time! ...

If you're close enough (and you really DON'T want to be) you can hear a hisssss just before the strike, as the lightning bolt burns the rain right out of the sky. Skeery.

Anyone who owns their house, and plans to stay there several years, and has invested more than a couple of thousand dollars in computer, home theater, stereo, and other electronic equipment would do well to consider having an electrician (or the G&E company) install whole house surge suppression. It's simply the best protection you can have.

[David M]

Originally Posted by nocturnx If the surge killed the phones then it went through the phone lines and not through the electrical lines, so surge protector or not you would likely have been fine, especially if the power didn't go out. We have plenty of storms here and it happens often, we have had phones and unprotected fax machines blow as well as damage to multi-function copiers. We use phone jack surge processors often now.

I would imagine that a phone, like a typical answering machine, powered by a wall power supply could also be knocked out by lightening.

[nocturnx]

Originally Posted by David M I would imagine that a phone, like a typical answering machine, powered by a wall power supply could also be knocked out by lightening.

For sure, but most regular phones are provided their power through the phone line alone. And he said the power never went out and only phones were damaged. Seems to me it was a phone line surge, I've seen this happen a few times. But I agree, if its a cordless with a dock-station for example or a network phone with a power injector and uses a wall power supply its definitely a possibility.

[Hi Ho]

The surge protector I had was one with built in phone protection and that is what fried. The phone itself is fine. I have a Panamax power conditioner on my theater equipment and I am going to buy an APC UPS for my PCs because I can get those at a discount through work like Panamax.