Review on 🔌 APC P6WU2 Wall Outlet Plug Extender: Surge Protector with USB Ports, 6 AC Multi Plug Outlet, 1080 Joule Surge Protection - White by Jason Paige

For the layperson, buying a surge protector can be very confusing. The marketing departments want you to pay attention to the huge writing that tells you their device is so good they include $100,000! Insurance coverage for any device damaged by surge voltage. But don't be surprised if you find that there are so many conditions that you'll be lucky if you get a refund for your surge protector. Instead, focus on a few basic specs and you'll save a lot of initial money, allowing you to buy more surge protectors to protect more of your gear. BTW, I don't work and have never worked with or been affiliated with APC, I've just worked with computers my whole career :-) First of all, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT BUYING A PLAIN PUSH MARKER WITH A BREAKER CHAIN! Many manufacturers carefully word their descriptions to give the impression that you are getting a surge protector. Basically you get nothing more than a very expensive power strip with a cheap circuit breaker that does nothing but protect against fire, and that's not guaranteed either. time and UL certification. Joule is not a single burst rating, it is a rating of how many pulses a suppressor can handle. That's kind of a life expectancy value. Experts recommend looking for at least 600J. This APC suppressor gives you almost twice the power at 1080J. Response time is also important. This determines how long your device is subjected to an overvoltage before the suppressor kicks in and limits the voltage. For this APC suppressor, the response time is a very respectable 1 nanosecond. That's the technical term for 1 billionth of a second. Peak spikes peak in a few thousand seconds, so this response time should be more than adequate. The UL certification standard for surge arresters is UL 1449. UL offers safety-related certifications, not performance-related certifications. UL certification basically means that the surge arrester itself and the devices connected to it are extremely unlikely to explode and cause a fire if subjected to a surge voltage. Ignore "hold tension". For technical reasons I really want to see "transmitted voltage". UL certification includes a forward voltage specification with levels of 300, 400, and 500. This APC device is UL listed with a maximum Transient Suppressor Forward Voltage (TVSS) rating of 300 volts, which is the best rating. that UL provides surge arresters. Other manufacturers often put a lot of emphasis on clamping voltage but don't mention that their UL forward voltage rating is 400 or 500 volts. Finally, an important feature of the surge limiter is the "fail-safe" function. When a surge protector reaches its maximum joule rating, it no longer provides surge suppression. The question is how do you know it happened? Most surge protectors have a green indicator (LED) to show that the device is still providing surge protection. If you notice this LED is off, then you're in luck. Most people don't. The fail-safe feature disables surge protection so it no longer sends power to your devices. This way, if your fail-safe unit does not have surge protection, your device will shut down and you will know when the surge protection has reached its useful life. Very few manufacturers offer failsafe protection, so you can keep going until your $1,000 TV or laptop suddenly melts during a thunderstorm. APC offers fault-tolerant protection for all of its surge protection devices, including this device. Remember these are surge suppressors, NOT lightning arrestors. A lightning strike to your home's electrical wiring can literally blast outlets out of the wall. No surge protector protects you from all lightning strikes. For such protection, you need an electrician and sophisticated protection installed at the point where your electrical wiring enters your home. This is a completely different level of protection and, as you can imagine, much more expensive than a surge protector. Don't think you can beat that special block for daily defense. These devices are of excellent quality and very competitively priced, resulting in excellent value for money.