Surge protectors work for minor fluctuations in line voltage but are almost useless for lightening hits and trying to get anyone to pay warranty claims is a lost cause.
As a ham radio operator I had one friend take a direct hit on his 70' tower here in Ohio. It took out anything electrical in the house that was plugged in and a surge protector would have done nothing. The current came in through the coax cable. He had to replace everything and his homeowners insurance paid and then canceled him. The strike was so powerful it blew apart one of his antennas and he found parts of it over 100' away. It took over 3 years for him to get the right person from the phone company to get the static out of his phones.
Another friend and his son are both ham operators. Lightening could be heard in the far distance and nothing was close to their house, not even a drop of rain. They took a surge and it went into the room where the son had some expensive test equipment plugged into Tripp-Lite surge strips that were said to have a $25,000 replacement policy in case of loss due to a surge. Well the only equipment in the entire house that was lost was the son's and when he tried to file a claim Tripp-Lite would not pay.
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