Are surge protectors worth it?
A year ago, an old tree on my street fell and took out the power lines. It zapped just about everything on the street – homeowner’s appliances, and stuff like tv’s/dvd players/etc from us renters. I had cheap $10 surge protectors – they got black with soot and my equipment got fried. I lost my tv, dvd player, and the ac adapters for all my video game systems. Renters insurance saved me there (with my $250 deductible). After this happened, I immediately upgraded to expensive surge protectors. I was very lucky that my laptop didn’t get fried. I will never again have expensive equipment hooked up to crappy surge protectors. Basically, if something like that happens, your good surge protector should take the heat – not your equipment. It’s so worth it. If I were you, I’d get the surge protector. 🙂 I hope my story helped shed light on why.
