faykilgore

Never thought about having a surge protector with battery backup. Hmmm. Good idea for the embroidery machine especially. The power goes out frequently in my complex.

Maureen NJ

Mine is also only plugged in when sewing. Had surge protectors on computers which where damaged when lightning struck a neighbor's huge pine tree. It traveled down the roots to a dog guard wire (no longer being used), followed that into our house and did a lot of damage to our electrical panel and several things...so I won't rely on surge protectors for my expensive sewing machine!

cathyre

My son is a Bernina technician and insist I have a surge protector on my machines he has seen to much damage done to machines without them , I see it as insurance for something I value very much and worked hard to have .

Material Witness

Home Depot sells a whole house surge protector for less than $60 that install into your electric panel. The only good ones (according to an electrician) are the ones with curly pig tails. Coupled with a surge protector strip for my machine, I don't worry about storms.

jeanharville

I just learned about this a couple of weeks ago. We need to do this too.

Cactus Stitchin

Absolutely. Arizona (where I live) has frequent thunderstorms and I would be afraid to not have them. If I know a storm is coming or it is particularly close I do unplug them but at least the surge protectors offer some protection if I'm not home when a storm hits. In fact, my husband is considering putting my computerized machine on an actual power manager as it is actually the most expensive electronic item we own.

citruscountyquilter

Absolutely! I live in an area where lightening strikes are real and frequent. Even if I didn't I still would have it plugged into one just in case.

OhCanada

Some good information in this link describing lightening strikes and electronics
http://stormhighway.com/surge_protec...ction_myth.php

but the only guarantee is to UNPLUG during a storm, so I ALWAYS unplug unless I'm using my machine, and I never use it during a storm.

Quiltngolfer

I do plug my machine into a surge protector, but I keep my machines unplugged unless I am using them. Also, I never sew when it is storming or chance of a storm. I do this because I learned the hard way. Lightening ran in on my beautiful sewing embroidery machine and fried the mother board a few years ago. I was so sad!

OhCanada

And this is a great article about surge protectors ...
http://stormhighway.com/surge_protec...ction_myth.php

After reading this I think I'll plug my machine into a good UPS with a built in surge protector, it is not unusual to have the power come off and on 4-5 times in an hour where I currently live. Currently I'm using just a surge protector but I think that may be inadequate because of the frequent power outages. The house has a backup generator and I wonder if it causes a surge when it kicks in?