If you’ve read any surge protector reviews on this site or been to any forums geared around surge protection you may have encountered mention of some fairly sophisticated equipment out there to cover all of your surge protection needs. Well, if you’re not quite surge what all the techno jargon means when someone mentions clamping voltage or Joules rating then there is a no nonsense answer for your surge protector needs. The Philips surge protector offers basic solutions for everyday household surge protection needs.
So I want to take a look at some of the devices Philips has to offer so that the consumer can make an informed decision about which one will work best. I’m gong to focus on home theater equipment with this article as it’s become a big issue in our inbox lately. More and more people are purchasing home theater systems and want to know how best to protect them. Well Philips has a couple of great answers to that question. The great thing about Philips surge protectors is the affordability. You just can’t beat the price for the amount of protection each device has. Whether you are looking a simple 1-outlet surge protector for your wall or a home theater surge protector for your home theater equipment, Philips has affordable protection to cover every experience.
First things first, if you visit the Philips website they list power strips under their surge protector series. This can be misleading for people because power strips don’t offer surge protection. If it doesn’t say it protects you from surges on the package, don’t trust that what you are buying is going to protect your electronics. Power strips simply provide more outlets for a standard two-outlet wall input.
I don’t know why there is so much confusion about this. Probably because many surge protectors can look just like power strips. We get questions all the time from folks asking if a power strip loses surge protection if you plug it in with a two-prong adapter. The answer is you are not protected from surges on any level. In addition, if you had a surge protector you shouldn’t use those two prong adapters to plug it in anyway.
If your surge protector requires the ground plug on an outlet, you need to plug it into an outlet with the grounding input. Other lines are not grounded and having surge protection on lines that aren’t grounded will nullify the surge protection. You will have a simple power strip on your hands.
So back to the Philips surge protector, the site shows a few rows of power strips before it gets to the surge protectors and the first thing you will notice is that several of them look like power strips. The title of each item clearly states that they are surge protectors, however.
One device that stands out from the rest is the Philips 10 Outlet Slimline Surge Protector for home theater systems. Not only does it offer 10 outlets spaced for easy use with large transformer adapters, the outlets are child-safe with slides that shut to keep out small objects. It’s called the slimline because it’s rather thin but stands tall with all 10 outlets on one side so you can fit it close to the wall.
One feature that makes this surge protector unique is the power blocker technology. Normal surge protectors keep the circuit open even after they’ve reached their capacity to stop surges. The Philips slimline model shuts down the circuit after it has reached its capacity. It can prevent power flow into your equipment after it is no longer able to protect your equipment from surges. It does this by shutting down the electricity at the outlet side of the device. It also has indicator lights to let you know it’s stopped working so it’s like getting double protection from power surges.
Other modes of protection include phone line security in the for of RJ11 surge protection. This is where you plug your phone modem into the phone jack. The jack is called RJ, short for “Registered Jack”. The eleven represents the wiring setup within the cable. While most surges enter your equipment through the mains electricity, they can sometimes jump lines if they run into a block. All of this is instantaneous and the damage is probable more destructive because a surge will tear through any phone line equipment and move into your other appliances. Even with the two-line splitter that enables two devices to be used simultaneously, your equipment is still vulnerable to cross line surges.
There is also coaxial cable surge protection for cable lines and Ethernet connections. Surges coming in through coax lines are the most damaging. They can destroy modems and work their way on to the equipment the modems connect into to. To get an idea of the widespread damage, think about office networks that share Ethernet connections. Even a home network wired into an Ethernet connection is susceptible to these destructive coax power surges. The gold coated connectors ensure noise reduction in picture and sound data transfers so that your home theater experience never suffers from snow or broken images.
To top it off, this home theater surge protector has a whopping 4000 Joules protection rating. There’s that word: Joules. If you don’t know what it means to have a Joules rating, you want to know that the higher the listing, the more protection the surge protector offers. Joules is how surge protection is measured. It’s a measurement for how much surge energy a surge protector can take before it no longer works. The more Joules, the longer the lifespan of the unit.
Another home theater device that’s a bit more sophisticated than the SlimLine is the Philips SPP4200WA Home Theater Surge Protector. It has a tremendous 85dB EMI/RFI noise filter on it that sends the purest signal possible for you home entertainment setup. It would also work for a computer system as the unit employs over-voltage technology that shuts off the power at the mains electricity when it senses a surge then resets everything once the threat has passed. It has 8 outlets with 2 that always remain on for electronics that need to remain plugged in at all times, like chargers or fax machines.
It comes in a sleek black design that is completely stackable with other electronics and has an amazingly bright blue LED indicator light to let know it’s working. With 4320 Joules of protection this is one incredible device.
Check out the Philips website for more information. There are several surge protectors to choose from no matter the application. You can’t beat the price for basic protection from power surges and Philips makes it hard to go anywhere else.
