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Geoffrey Morrison Contributor
Geoffrey Morrison is a writer/photographer about tech and travel for CNET, The New York Times, and other web and print publications. He's also the Editor-at-Large for The Wirecutter. He has written for Sound&Vision magazine, Home Theater magazine, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Home Entertainment magazine. He is NIST and ISF trained, and has a degree in Television/Radio from Ithaca College. His bestselling novel, Undersea, and its sequel, Undersea Atrophia, are available in paperback and digitally on Amazon. He spends most of the year as a digital nomad, living and working while traveling around the world. You can follow his travels at BaldNomad.com and on his YouTube channel.
Best surge protector for TV/Home Theater
Belkin Conserve Switch F7C01008q
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Surge protectors are a critical piece of hardware for your home or office, so if you ever thought it's just a surge protector, we recommend you reconsider. The best surge protectors are affordable and help protect against electrical fires and system crashes. They can also extend the life of your tech. The difference between a power strip and a surge protector is that a power strip is just additional outlets, while a surge protector has additional circuitry to help protect your TV, soundbar or really anything that's plugged in. So while the terms are used interchangeably, there’s a big difference.
Our favorite surge protectors have a high joule rating (aka the amount of protection or surge protection rating), lots of outlets that are arranged in a way you can use them all, and aren’t so big and bulky that they’re hard to hide. We found a few that match that criteria, as well as some others that have more specialized but handy uses. Here are our picks for best surge protectors in 2024.
What is the best surge protector overall?
We ran rigorous testing on 16 of the top surge protectors available for under $100, and the standout performer against all of our requirements was the APC P11U2. Its impressive number of outlets -- 11 -- is noteworthy, and six of them have a generously wide design to provide spacing that can accommodate larger power adapters. It also comes with USB ports that allow you to directly charge your devices, a high joule rating (more on that below) and a conveniently long power cord. It even comes with a lifetime $250,000 equipment protection policy.
For those seeking surge protection with specific features or smaller sizes, we have more recommendations below worth checking out.
Best surge protectors of 2024
The APC P11U2 checks all the boxes for what I was looking for in a surge protector. It has six widely spaced plugs, plus five more that are closer together and two USB ports. It has 2,880 joules of protection, well above my test's average. Coincidentally, editor Ty Pendlebury has one in his testing lab. APC offers a lifetime $250,000 equipment protection policy.
Overall build quality is quite solid, even though the protective covers for each outlet are superfluous and come off easily. The cord to connect the power strip to the wall is quite long at 8 feet, which is convenient. The P11U2 is fairly bulky, but if you want something smaller and don't need 11 outlets, the $33 APC P8U2 loses one row of the wide-spaced outlets for a much smaller footprint overall, though the joule rating and protection policy are also lower.
It's not flashy and doesn't have some of the features of some of my other picks, but for a basic, solid, surge protector, it's the one to get.
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If the APC above isn't available or you're looking for something a little different, the Tripp Lite TLP1208TELTV offers most of the features we like about the APC. It has only four wide-set outlets but eight close-spaced ones. There's no USB, but instead you get three RJ11 for telephone (one in, two out) and two coax for cable or satellite. It has a claimed 2,880 joule rating. I have one in my testing lab.
It has an 8-foot cord, and comes with $150,000 "Ultimate Lifetime Insurance" coverage and a limited lifetime warranty.
It's usually a little more expensive than the APC, but if you want something to protect landlines or cable/satellite, it's ideal.
The Belkin F7C01008q has a handy feature: It comes with a wireless switch. Six of the eight wide-spaced outlets are controlled by this switch, which you can mount somewhere nearby via its included wall mount and sticky-tape. This allows you to stick the actual surge protector behind a large TV or console and you won't have to worry about reaching it to power on and off. The protector itself is flat, with far less bulk than the APC or Tripp Lite.
The fancy remote control comes at a cost, however. The surge protector has a claimed 1,000-joule rating, which is lower than my top picks. It has a shorter cord too, though at four feet it should be long enough for most situations. The Conserve Switch has a one-year warranty on itself, and $100,000 for connected equipment.
If you like the look of this design but don't need the switch, check out the Belkin BE112230, listed in the Others We Tested section below.
The Accell D080B-051B looks like a squid or maybe a six-legged octopus. (Hexapus?) I feel like this is enough reason to buy it, but it may not be for everyone. Its main benefit is that, instead of rigid outlets on a flat frame like most surge protectors, it has five short cables with the outlets at the end. Most people probably won't need this specific type of functionality, but I'm sure some of you are looking at it and know exactly how it will fit in your home. Also, you know, the squid thing.
The Accell is rated at a claimed 1,080 joules. Unlike most surge protectors, which continue to pass power when they've passed their joule rating, the D080B-051B fails safe, cutting power so your gear is protected against further surges. You will need to buy a new one if this should happen, but the whole point is to protect your more expensive gear. It's surprising that more surge protectors aren't built like this.
Unlike the others on my list, though, there's no device warranty. While this is disappointing, it's not a total deal-breaker, as I discuss below.
Unlike most surge protectors, the Belkin BP108000 is tubular instead of box-shaped. Long and thin, it can sit behind or under furniture better than most other designs. Seven of its nine outlets rotate almost 180 degrees, so you can fit big charger wall warts on all of them. The other two outlets are widely spaced from each other but are close to the bottom of the protector. This won't be an issue if you're plugging in cables, but grounded wall warts might not fit correctly.
It has a claimed 1,800 joule rating and comes with a $150,000 Connected Equipment Warranty. In addition to the power outlets, there are also in and out RJ11 telephone connections. The cable to the wall is 6 feet long.
The Amazon S9P658O300A00 plugs directly into your wall outlet, adding four more places for plugs. All six outlets on this Amazon Basics protector turn 90 degrees, so you can accommodate up to six wall warts if you turn the top and bottom plugs in the opposite direction of the middle ones.
It's rated for a claimed 1,080 joules. It doesn't have a connected equipment warranty.
The small PowerPort Strip PD 2 Mini is perfect for placement on a desk or table where you often connect devices via USB to charge and occasionally additional wall warts. It has a surge rating of 440 joules. The USB-A ports max out at 2.4 amps each, while the USB-C port is capable of 3 amps at 5 volts or 2 amps at 9 volts.
The PowerPort Strip PD 2 Mini is also good for travel, thanks to its small size and 5-foot cord, though the Accell (mentioned below) is better for those who prefer to travel light.
If you want to connect big, or wide wall warts, the PowerPort Strip PD 2 Mini isn't ideal. As you can see from the photo, it doesn't have much space on either side of its outlets. If you're regularly connecting bigger warts, check out the Belkin SRA006p3tt5 mentioned in the "Other good surge protectors" section below.
When I tested these surge protectors there were three things I looked for: well-spaced sockets, a high joule rating (preferably 1,000 or more) and whether it came with a "connected device" warranty. Firstly, one of the most important things was having enough outlets to fit the wall wart power adapters that come with most products. These bulky connectors usually take up two or more spaces on normal outlets and power strips. So I physically checked each power strip to see if its outlets were sufficiently spaced to fit multiple warts.
Secondly, a joule rating was required, and all my picks had joule ratings comparable to or higher than their competitors. It'd be great to have a minimum or recommended joule rating but such a thing doesn't exist for these kinds of products.
I also gave preference to products that come with a guarantee in case your gear gets destroyed by a power surge. Nearly all of my picks have this kind of warranty, often in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are you likely to get your money back if your gear gets zapped? Hard to say. Insurance like this is hard to collect on, as some companies will only replace connected gear "at their option." Having this sort of guarantee does give you some peace of mind, however, more than you have without it, and perhaps it will cover you in a way your homeowners or renters insurance doesn't.
With all of this in mind, I compiled a list of nearly 50 surge protectors and then chose the top 16 to test. My last bit of testing was hands-on. Specs can tell you a lot, but very quickly I found some of these to be better than others. Some had features that seemed useful but weren't. Others were larger or smaller than they seemed in pictures, which in some cases was a good thing or in the case of the travel surge protectors, not so much. Our top picks were the ones that had the best combination of features, specs and felt the most practical in normal use.
Read more: 10 Shocking Facts About Power Strips
The Belkin SRA007p12tt6 is a classy-looking 12-outlet surge protector with a matte-white finish that would work better on a desk or otherwise visible spot than most of the other large protectors. Six of its outlets are widely spaced, and there are two 2.4-amp USB-A and one 3-amp USB-C outlet (4.5 amps combined max output). The wall plug is conveniently angled at 90 degrees at the end of the 6-foot cable.
The APC P6WU2 (currently unavailable) is a chunky wall-mount design with six side-mounted outlets and two USBs on the front. Depending on what you're plugging into it, they might bunch up or not fit against the wall. The Amazon S9P658O300A00 can fit more plugs for a somewhat similar footprint. However, the APC has a connected device warranty ($50,000), while the Amazon doesn't. For something similar but smaller, check out the Belkin BSV300ttCW mentioned below.
The Belkin BE112230 shares the flat design of the switched Belkin F7C01008q, just without the switch. It has six wide-spaced outlets, a claimed 3,940 joules of protection and a connected equipment warranty.
The Belkin BST300bg (currently unavailable) is a decent travel alternative to the Accell. It has three outlets on the front and two USBs on the top. The plug swivels so you can orient it in multiple ways. The Accell is a little smaller, but this is a good runner-up.
The wall-mounted Belkin BSV300ttCW has three outlets and two USBs, all on the front. Its most interesting design feature is a lipped top surface where you can lean your phone while it's charging.
The cube-shaped Belkin SRA006p3tt5 is similar to the Anker, in that it's a small protector at the end of a long cord. The Anker's smaller size and dedicated USB-C connection are more convenient, but if you're connecting larger wall warts they'll likely fit better on this.
A surge protector controls and diverts excess power to keep your electronics safe, while a power strip simply offers more outlets to plug stuff in.
Raimund Koch/Getty ImagesPower strips and surge protectors might look similar, but only a surge protector will protect the appliances plugged into it from a surge. Plug-in surge protectors work by absorbing and diverting a surge. The extra power is sent to the outlet's ground wire -- the third prong in modern electrical sockets -- and prevented from reaching any devices that are plugged into that socket. A power strip will simply give you more outlets to plug in electronics.
The easiest way to tell the difference between a basic strip and a surge protector is by checking if it has a joule rating. All surge protectors will have one, and it's essentially how much of a power surge it can protect against.
Get more outlets than you think you need. Generally, the next size up from what you’re considering will give you room to grow if you need to add new gear or devices down the road.
Two might be better than one. If you’re connecting enough devices to fill a surge protector, it’s worth considering getting two smaller ones (say, two eights instead of one 12). Spreading out the electrical load could be safer. Even more practical, it also might allow you to connect to two different outlets. This is especially important if you’re connecting a lot of high-power devices. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but it’s worth considering.
Make sure it's within reach. An easily reachable power switch, or even a wireless remote, can seem like a simple thing but one that can improve usability significantly.
A surge protector isn't aways enough. If your location is prone to lightning strikes, you’ll want more protection than just a surge protector. Using a surge protector to protect against lightning is like using a baby gate to stop an elephant.
Yes, though depending on what you're trying to connect, it might not matter. The outlets in most American homes are either 15 or 20 amps. This equals approximately 1,800 to 2,400 watts. Can you connect your TV, soundbar and game consoles to one surge protector? Generally, yes. Can you connect your fridge, air conditioner, electric stove and clothes dryer to one? No. Check the wattage rating on your gear. You're better off using more surge protectors, plugged into their own separate outlets, than fewer.
Need? No, but it doesn't hurt to protect your gear. More important when traveling is having enough outlets to connect all your electronics. You'd be surprised at how few accessible outlets many hotels have.
No. If lightning strikes your house, a surge protector will unlikely do anything to save your gear. There’s just too much power to handle. Some surge protectors have warranties that might cover some of the cost of your gear in the case of a lightning strike, but not all. It's best to read the fine print. Lighting protection has to involve re-direction, for example with a lightning rod, which is well beyond the scope of this guide.
To an extent. Generally more expensive surge protectors have higher joule ratings (more protection) and better equipment protection policies if something happens. Stepping up in price starts including options like uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) which are essentially a surge protector with a built-in battery, and whole-home surge protection.
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