Question about power surge protection


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One of my customers at my job just told me that just about all of his appliances were destroyed a couple weeks ago from a major power surge. Items such as his TVs and refrigerators were all destroyed and there was not even a storm. He lives a few miles away from me in the next town. We never heard of this problem and it is rare for our area. His wife is devastated at this huge loss since they are having problems with their insurance company. He even plugged them into power surge protection strips too.

This made me alarmed because I use the generic power strips that offer little protection and now I want to buy the high end power surge protectors like the Brickwall surge protector or the Panamax 5300 power box. My question is, do I have to leave them on at all times for maximum power protection or can I turn the power box off when not using my stereo system and still be protected?
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spareribs
Frankly, I never heard of this type of surge occurring without the presence of a severe storm. This is what happens when lightning strikes on or close to your property. Anyway, to answer your question, the gear must be plugged into the surge protector and the surge protector must be on at all times, otherwise there is no protection and it is merely acting as an extension cord from your wall outlet. When the surge protector is on, it is always offering maximum protection, when it is off, there is no protection. Until you buy a surge protector, just keep your gear unplugged when not in use and do not play it when a storm is in the area.
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as far as I know the best (sound-wise) and actually easiest thing would be to install a magnetic circuit breaker.
This is incorrect information. ZeroSurge, BrickWall, and Torus Power are SurgeX licensees and use old mid-nineties 2-wire SurgeX technology. Only SurgeX has gone beyond the original patents and developed 3-wire zero let-through technology that its 3 licensees are not permitted to use without infringing on SurgeX renewable patents.
fuelie ...
From the ZeroSurge site:

Then in 2006, in answer to two specific application requirements (one military, one audio), Mr. Harford developed and patented Total Surge Cancellation (TSC) Technology®. TSC first filters off the most dangerous surge frequencies and then cancels the remaining residual surge voltage, totally eliminating damaging surge energy from protected equipment. TSC is recommended for ultra-sensitive electronics and where total surge cancellation is required.

So SurgeX's "Advanced Series Mode with zero let-through technology" is better protection than ZeroSurge's TSC technology?

I am very confused. When I spoke with ZeroSurge they claimed to be the manufacturer from which other companies such as BrickWall licensed the product. Now I find out instead that it is SurgeX who is the parent of this technology?