Thor Technologies
Power Surge Protection

A leader in home and enterprise consumer power surge protection.

Conclusion:

Thor Technologies is the only manufacturer that I have found so far that meets the three important criteria for sufficient power surge protection. Power surge protection is definitely one of those things where you pay for what you get.

Findings:

There is one purpose to power surge protection, and that is to receive the damage caused by power surges, spikes and fluctuations, instead of letting them damage your valueable appliances, thereby protecting your appliances and maximising their lifespan. In other words, the power surge protection will sacrifice itself for your valuable appliances. Everyone should invest in the purchase of top quality power surge protection to preserve and therefore maximise the life span of the hardware and electronics in their appliances, such as their computers and laptops, televisions, DVD players and recorders, projectors, VCRs, consoles (PS3, XBOX, Wii, etc), home theatre setups, washing machines, dryers, refrigerators and so on. The end result is meant to save you money in the long run.

Most power surges and spikes originate from within the home or workplace rather than from outside. Most of these hits go unnoticed because they are not powerful enough to cause a noticable disruption to the flow of electricity. Consequently a room's lights won't dim or flicker as you may have seen happen when a more powerful disruption occurs. The power surges and spikes that go unnoticed are still powerful enough to cause latent damage to electronic components in our appliances, which simply wearsout the electronics faster thereby shortening the appliance's lifespan. The right choice in power surge protection will preserve and maximise the appliance's lifespan.

Power surges and spikes typically occur when an appliance is turned on or off. When this happens, the stable flow of elctricity is slightly interrupted in order to adjust for the appliance you have turned on or off. The more highly powered the appliance the greater the interruption. Although the interruption lasts for a fraction of a second, it's still enough to cause a sudden surge or spike of electricity which, in turn, may hit any appliance plugged into your home or workplace power circuit.

Many years ago electronic components were much bigger and could take a more powerful surge or spike of power before it could affect the electronics. But these days electronics are so microscopic, they have become very sensitive to slight disturbances in the stable flow of electricity. Hence, this is why it's so important to have adequate power surge protection protecting your valuable appliances.

When choosing power surge protection, there are four things you must look for:

• The number of joules (or the joules rating) the power surge protection device can absorb or dissipate before it fails and requires replacement. The more expensive the model you purchase, the higher the joules rating will be. Which model you purchase usually depends on its application. There is more information below on selecting the correct model. The higher the joules rating, the more power surges and spikes it can handle before it reaches its own end of life.
• The clamping voltage should be less than 400 volts, but less than 300 volts is much better. The clamping voltage defines what level of voltage will cause the excess electricity to go to ground instead of into your connected appliances causing them damage. Where relevant, all Thor Technologies products have a clamping voltage of 275 volts.
• The response time must be less than one nano second. To understand this concept of time, note that one second is longer than one micro second, and one micro second is longer than one nano second. The response time defines how quickly the power surge protection will activate. A power surge is a rapid rise in electricity which lasts for about 3 to 4 nano seconds (which is far less time than one micro second), and a power spike is a rapid rise in electricity which lasts for about 2 nano seconds. Therefore you can see how useless a power surge product would be if it has a response time of anything longer than one nano second. All Thor Technologies products have a response time of less than one nano second.
• The power surge protection must meet the UL 1449 certification, which is awarded when the product meets a performance standard for surge protection. All Thor Technologies products have the UL 1449 certification.

Information on this page has been sourced from How Stuff Works. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/surge-protector7.htm

Many brands / manufacturers don't meet the criteria above and so may not label all of them on their product's packaging. Thor Technologies is the only brand / manufacturer that I have come across so far that meet all the criteria. From what I have seen, most products by APC, Belkin and Crest (the popular brands), don't meet all the criteria, and therefore I cannot recommend them.

Thor Technologies' products come with 6 years warranty, and 3 years connected equipment warranty. The "6 years warranty" means you can have the product replaced free of charge if it fails to function as designed within the 6 year period*. The "3 years connected equipment warranty" means you can claim through Thor Technologies on any damage to your connected appliances if the Thor product fails to protect your appliances in the event of a power surge or spike*.

* Please refer to the Thor Technologies website or documents within each product's packaging for terms and conditions.

Use the table below, as a guide only, to help you choose the most suitable Thor product for your needs. Bear in mind you may want to plug different appliances into the same Thor product, in which case you should select a model that is suitable amongst each appliance. Also note, you must not plug a high powered appliance (those that contain a motor such as drills, fridges, vaccuums, etc) into the same Thor power board as other appliances unless the power board has an isolated bank, in which case you can plug the high powered appliance into that. The reason for this is high powered appliances can easily generate power surges and spikes. This is why most power surges and spikes originate from within the home or workplace. This is the main reason for the need of Thor Technologies power surge protection. Some Thor models have two or three isolated circuits / banks for this scenario. Take the A12 Smart Board for example, it has 3 seperate circuits i.e. bank 1 has 1 outlet, bank 2 has 3 outlets and bank 3 has 4 outlets. You should plug the high powered appliance, or audio system, into bank 1 to seperate it from the other appliances.