Good or Best Surge Protector

No surge protector is going to protect from a direct strike. I looked into this deeply some time ago. My recollection is that the “Brickwalk” brand provides good protection with minimal drawbacks. That said, protecting at the panel is the best way to go. Check out Environmental Potentials. I’m using an EP-2050 (I believe) which reduces noise throughout your electrical service at all points and provides protection from surges and lightning. They have several models and provide great customer service. You will need an electrician to install. I’ve had mine for 15 years, moving three times in the process. It always came along for the journey. EP products are designed for industrial applications where surges, hash, and noise can result in costly production errors on high tolerance products that are precision machined. They aren’t playing around and you won’t be disappointed in the performance and peace of mind. Good luck!

+1 to Erik wrt whole home protector plus a Furman or equivalent. Watch out for brutally overpriced toys called power conditioners but are just parts in a box.

gash,

https://bigearstereo.com/product-category/products/ac-power/power-conditioners/environmental-potentials-power-conditioners/

Tom Rothermel reps this product here. He lived in Belize where

power surges were a way of life. He swears by this.

Please let me know what you decide to buy.

Not professing expertise in this area.  Like and trust Mike Holmes who tells of losing $25,000 CA of home appliances from a strike, so afterwards installed a whole house surge protector.  His show always includes installation of a protector.  He endorses the EATON.  His face is on the box, so it must be good.  I have that one installed at the box.....professionally.  Plus a myriad of surge protectors.

I did give a decent 8 outlet Furman power conditioner/surge strip to a friend for his stereo and TV.  His house was struck and the only things that survived were, you guessed it, plugged into the strip.  All wiring and appliances blown.  It's kind of individual event dependent.

Something is probably better than nothing and there are no guarantees.

I have not used the latest crop of power conditioners but in the time period I was playing with them you could hear their effect; I don’t know if, given the state of dirty power in a particular locality, it is worth the trade-off.

I’m currently using whole house surge, and a surge board on the secondary side of the big (10kVa) isolation transformer. No other black boxes.

On less critical stuff, I have, in addition to the whole house, point of use. I probably have at least 3 units or more offline, including a 240 v. step down, a big power conditioner from Richard Gray that ran the video system (not sure it is sonically up for high end audio) and Furman, etc.

I think the value of these things is dependent both on the quality of incoming power as well as the system in which it is utilized.

In terms of protection, to me (thankfully have not experienced it) but a direct strike, all bets are off (unless unplugged).