Belkin SurgeMaster® (BE11223008) (BE112230-08) Surge Suppressor

BELKIN SURGEMASTER PROFESSIONAL 12 OUTLET SURGE PROTECTOR BE11223008

          If you have any electrical devices that you truly value, such as your flat screen TV, computer equipment, high end stereo equipment, or other precious gear, before you plug any of these devices directly into your electrical wall outlet, you must consider protecting them from electrical surges.  This can be accomplished for the most part by plugging your equipment into a high quality surge protector, and then plugging the surge protector into the wall. Today I am going to be reviewing a very good surge protector, specifically the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector, Model Number BE112230-08.  This surge suppressor has several very nice features, as well as rather impressive specifications.  Read on and see if this surge suppressor has some of the features that you might be interested in the next time you are in the market for a surge suppressor.

            One of the most important considerations to keep in mind before making any purchase is cost.  The Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector has a list price of $49.99, but it can easily be found selling for as little as $14.63 from a number of Internet retailers.  Watch out for shipping and handling costs, because this can easily add another $7.00 to $10.00 to your costs, so shop carefully.

            O.K., so why do you need a surge suppressor anyway?  Delicate electric equipment is very sensitive to fluctuations in voltage or electrical current, and unfortunately the current in your home or apartment is apt to fluctuate regularly.  Any surge in voltage that is over standard current is called a transient, and bigger voltage fluctuations are known as surges or spikes.  Some transients, surges, or spikes, may be so slight that you will not notice them, but they take a toll on your sensitive electronic devices, and over time, they will cause cumulative damage to build up, and eventually your delicate electronic devices might fail to operate correctly, or possibly completely cease to operate at all. 

           I am sure that most people who are reading this review are already aware of the potential damaging effects that nearby lightning strikes can have on delicate electrical equipment, such as computers, printers, phones, fax machines, etc.  Lightning strikes to nearby power lines can send out millions of volts of electricity surging through power lines.  There is little one can do to protect against these massive surges, but one can take steps to protect their electrical equipment from the insidious cumulative effects of damaging transients by using a surge protector.  A surge protector works by diverting extra voltage into the grounding system of your house or apartment, and away from your electrical equipment.  Keep in mind that the biggest offenders, which typically cause damaging transients, are the big electrical devices in your own home, such as the compressor in your refrigerator, dehumidifier, washing machine, and so on.  When these devices turn on, they can cause transient voltage fluctuations, which over time, wear down the integrity of your delectate electrical equipment, such as computer and stereo equipment, as well as other electrical devices, and eventually the equipment fails.  I learned this the hard way.  I had my treadmill plugged into the same outlet as my extra refrigerator/freezer in the basement, and eventually the treadmill's electronic circuitry burnt out, and the repairman attributed it directly to keeping the treadmill plugged into the same line as the refrigerator/freezer.  Had my treadmill been plugged into a good surge protector I would not have had an expensive repair bill for my treadmill.   Plugging your delicate equipment into a good surge protector will safeguard your equipment from the damaging effects of most transient power surges that originate in the home.

            The Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector has a lot of features which make it desirable for use to protect your delicate electrical devices.  One of the best features of this surge protector is that it is relatively compact, and does not take up that much room.  Thus it can be more readily hidden behind a T.V., furniture, stereo equipment, and/or stored behind a computer and related electronic peripherals.  The dimensions of the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector are 13.5 inches in length, 5.4 inches in width, and 1.8 inches in height, which when all things are considered, actually makes it a relatively low profile piece of equipment.  Its compact size means that it can be stored unobtrusively, and this makes it a very good choice for protecting just about any of your precious electronic equipment.

          One of the things that I very much like about the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector is that it has an 8 foot heavy duty power cord.  This is a very important feature as many surge suppressors have a short cord which might be in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 feet.  As some of you may already know, in order for a surge protector to operate correctly, it must be properly grounded, and that means that it must be plugged directly into the wall outlet, and other objects or electrical equipment must be plugged into the surge suppressor.  Unfortunately, many pieces of electronic equipment also have a short power cord.  That means that one has to strategically place equipment within 3 or 4 feet of the wall out let that the surge protector is plugged into, and this may not always be where one wants to place it.  However, the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector has an 8 foot cord, and that really increases one's options as to where one can position their equipment, and still plug it into the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector.  If you do not need the full 8 feet of cord, there is a power cord manager, which basically lets you store the extra length of cord in a convenient and tidy manner.  Another nice feature of the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector is that it has several mounting holes built-in which permits one to securely mount the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector to the wall or the floor.

           Another clever feature of the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector is that it has 12 surge protected electrical outlets, 1 in and 2 out RJII Telephone or Fax Surge Protection to safeguard data transmission and reception, as well as Coaxial Cable line protection to safeguard cable and satellite T.V. connections.  Regarding the outlets, I am sure many of you out there who have used a surge protector in the past may have been frustrated by the fact that the inputs on the surge protector were close together.  This might be fine if your were plugging in a toaster, but as you may have found out, many of the electrical devices that you may have wanted to plug in to the surge protector had very large adaptor plugs, and because of the close spacing of the outlets on the surge protector, every device took up the space of two outlets even though it may have been plugged into only one, thus in effect reducing the number of items you could plug into the surge protector.  That is not the case with the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector.  The manner in which the inputs are laid out permits one to have the ability to utilize all the inputs on the surge protector, even if some of the items you are plugging in have large electrical adaptors.  This is a very desirable feature for a surge protector to have, and it indicates that the designers at Belkin recognize that we are living in an imperfect world.  While we are on the subject of the outlets on the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector, I should also mention that there are sliding safety covers that slide to cover the outlets that are not being used.  This feature both protects little children from accidental injury, and also keeps dust and dirt from getting into the open outlets.

           As I mentioned earlier in this review, the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector also has connections for coaxial cables, phone, and fax modem cables, and it also offers electromagnetic and radio frequency filtration, which can cut down on noise, if you choose to plug your flat panel T.V. into this surge protector.  There is a built-in EMI (Electromechanical Interference) and RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) Noise Filter from 150 K Hz to 100M Hz.  O.K. so what does this mean?  Electromechanical Interference or EMI is caused by motors (like in your refrigerator or air conditioner) switching on or off, and Radio Frequency Interference or RFI is caused by radio waves being absorbed or transmitted by the electrical line.  EMI/RMI can cause unwanted noise, a distorted picture or sound, to be emitted from your electrical devices, such as from your Flat Panel T.V., and the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector offers a built in EMI/RMI filtration to remove or reduce the unwanted and annoying effects types of interference, and supply clean and reliable power.

            The Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector offers 4000 "Joules" of surge protection.  O.K., so what that does mean?  A Joule is a measure of electrical energy.  A Joule rating of 4000 means that this surge protector can absorb 4000 Joules of electrical energy without failure.  The higher the Joule rating the better the surge protector is able to do its job of protecting your valuable equipment.  In general, good surge protectors start at a handling capacity of 1000 Joules, and as you can see the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector about 4 times that level of protection.  For less delicate electrical equipment, such as power tools, some people feel that a rating of between 200 and 300 Joules is adequate, but personally, I feel that a rating of 600 Joules is the bare minimum, and I would always prefer a rating of 1000 Joules even for more less expensive and more rugged electrical devices.  The protection of 4000 Joules is one of the big reasons why I like the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector.

           The Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector offers a 500V Volt "clamping voltage."  O.K, so what does this term mean.  Clamping voltage is often referred to as "let through voltage," and it indicates at what voltage a surge protector will send excess voltage into a ground line.  A lower clamping voltage indicates better protection, and 330V Volts is the lowest of the three levels of protection in a UL rating, which by the way are 330V, 400V, and 500V.  If there is anything that I am disappointed about with regard to the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector it is that the Clamping Voltage is 500V. Although some people feel that a clamping voltage of 400 V is sufficient, I would personally only prefer to use a surge protector with a 330 V clamping voltage on my delicate expensive electrical equipment, such as my stereo, computer, or large screen T.V.  I must admit that to my mind, this is a drawback to using the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector, but some other people may not agree.  The decision as to what is an acceptable Clamping Voltage rating is up to the consumer. 

           Of course all the surge protection capability that the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector offers would be useless if it were not plugged in to a properly grounded outlet.  A clever feature that the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector offers is that there is a "Not-Grounded Indicator" that lets you know if the outlet that you have plugged the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector is properly grounded.  This is very important, as the way a surge protector operates is that it diverts power surges or extra electrical current into the outlet's ground wire.  It the electrical outlet that you plug the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector into is not properly grounded, the surge protector "Not-Grounded Indicator" will let you know this.  A Surge Protection Indicator also lets you know that your equipment is protected and that the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector is functioning correctly.

            Finally, the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector comes with a lifetime product warranty, as well as a $300,000 connected equipment warranty.  This means that if the unthinkable should happen, namely that the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector should fail to protect your equipment, which has been properly connected to the unit from damage, Belkin warranties to replace or repair the damaged equipment.  I must say that I have never encountered my equipment being damaged while it was plugged into a different Belkin surge protector and I have never had to put in a claim for any damage.  I would venture to guess that if Belkin is willing to offer this much protection, that they must either be very confident in the ability of their product to do its job, or they must have some very good lawyers on staff to free them of any actual liability to pay claims.  I don't know which may be the case, but I can say I have never encountered a problem with the other Belkin surge protectors that I have personally used over the years.

           In conclusion the Belkin SurgeMaster Professional 12-Outlet Surge Protector is a good product that offers a very reasonable level of protection, for a reasonable price.  There are better surge protectors on the market, but it would be hard to find one that offers this much protection and value for the money.

            Well I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my review, but now if you will excuse me, I must get back to practicing my guitar.