Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been involved with electronics all of my life and I make a living at it. So, here's my take on this Surge Protector; this is actually a tutorial on surge protection for those serious enough to read through it! First of all, some facts: To be considered a "good" surge protector, three things are required:. 1. Appropriate clamping voltage: 330 is excellent and 400 is OK, anything higher is questionable. 2. Sufficient amount of energy absorption (rated in Joules) 2,500 Joules or more to be considered good now days. 3. Good quality, tight gripping outlet sockets. Hard to measure unless you have an outlet "grip" tester. No electronic device with solid state devices or built in CPUs or Logic controllers should be hooked to any outlet without a good surge protector being used. This includes modern refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, dryers, microwave ovens, digital toaster ovens and other digital appliances, as well as your computer, home theater and other home audio equipment.. Line surges and spikes are devious and silent killers. Every time any reactive device is turned on and off, a voltage spike is generated. Motors are the most serious offenders. So, your furnace motor, AC compressor, vacuum cleaner, freezer, and refrigerator motors all create spikes inside your own home and these spikes travel down the power lines exposing the other electrical equipment to these excess voltage levels. Normally, unless the spike is huge, it does not take out appliances on the first shot. However, repetitive spikes cause little pin holes and carbon tracks to develop in transformer windings and capacitors, as well as stressing solid state devices (transistors, diodes and I.C.s) eventually leading to premature failure. Not only should the surge suppressor be protecting your appliances, but it should also be protecting itself by being large enough, joule-wise, to be able to withstand large surges. Remember, surge protectors will clamp off the over-voltage, or die trying. Most surge protectors die quietly and you don't even realize that you are no longer protected. So, be sure to get one rated high enough, in joules, so that it will withstand all but the most catastrophic surges. This is double insurance and better than an extended maintenance agreement. IMHO Also, the joule rating is misleading, as it is the sum of protection given across all 3 electrical leg-pairs. So, in reality, if equally distributed, only 1/3 of the total rating is what is afforded across the hot to neutral, or the hot to ground legs. So, how does the ISOBAR4 ULTRA measure up? First it has a clamping voltage of 330 volts which is excellent. Second, it has a joule rating of 3300 joules which is also excellent. Third, the outlets appear to be of high quality construction. Fourth, the design has built-in EMI/RFI suppression to also reduce the RF hash that sneaks in on your power lines. Fifth, it is all contained inside a fire resistant metal box, in case something flames up. Overall, for $40. this unit is a real bargain and built to last. Highly recommended!