How long does your Surge Protector LAST???

CA Traveler wrote:
Good luck on that and getting forum members to use anything other than "surge" for any related device.

Many experts are created by advertising, hearsay, and sales brochures. Many will not learn. Others can.

For example, an RV protector is for anomalies often found at a pole such as reverse polarity, high voltage, low voltage, floating neutral, or missing safety ground. These are easily averted by disconnecting - obviously without damage even to a protector. None are really surges. But that word makes people feel better. So a protector is promoted as if protecting from a 'surge'.

Something completely different is about where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate. No box can 'block' or 'absorb' that transient - also called a surge.

That transient is done in microseconds. Disconnecting devices require milliseconds or seconds - obviously long after damage has occurred. Protectors rated at thousands of joules (near zero) do nothing for this typically destructive transient. Protectors that might protect from this anomaly must be as close as possible to a pole and separated from appliances. But again, that is a surge protector completely different and unrelated to other surge protectors.

Near zero surges (ie thousand joules) are made irrelevant by protection inside all appliances. Low voltage (ie brownouts, sags) are made irrelevant by what exists in all electronics. But those voltage variations put motorized appliances at risk. This typical anomaly is why protectors, that take milliseconds or seconds to disconnect, are useful in these venues. But again, each anomaly is defined and addressed separately.

Thousands of joules inside a protector are ineffective if not connected low impedance to earth (located at or on the pole). Made obvious once that anomaly (called a surge) is defined quantitatively.