Whole House Surge Arrester

I have an Eaton, which was well reviewed at the time I bought it. It has two LEDs-which purport to show running state (I don’t know if they accurately reflect that). I have enough occasions to have an electrician here to do other stuff that it isn’t a huge outlay, considering the hi-fi system. I also have a surge panel in the big iso-transformer (10kVa) which feeds the main hi-fi system panel, rather than point of use, and had all connections, breakers, etc. gone over when the system was installed several years ago.

I don’t remember what the warranty is on the fancy $500+ plus whole house surge.

Given the limitations that @jea48  posted above, even if it is a longer warranty, the exclusions may leave you in the same place.

We get the fringes of some crazy storms here in Austin- usually stuff that wipes out towns with flooding, tornados, hail, etc. and wrath of God bolts from the sky. And we are in a fairly protected area, nowhere near the epicenter of these storms. I’ll pull power if it is a really bad one, but so far, have had little reason to do that.

@whart , I also installed an Eaton SPD. I installed the Eaton CHSPT2ULTRA.

CHSPT2ULTRA | Eaton CHSPT2 surge protection device

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Whole House Surge Protector - The Home Depot

Note the reviews.

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Note: I don’t believe Amazon.com is an Eaton authorized dealer. Warranty may/would be void.

EATON CHSPT2ULTRA Ultimate Surge Protection 3rd ...

Note the reviews.

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Eaton Video:

Surge Protection - Power Quality - Experience centers showcase

I want to point out something that is often overlooked.

Whole-house surge protectors do protect everything from surges outside and inside, BUT, they have typically have high let-through voltages of 600V. They may list 150V MOV’s but the listed let through is what’s important.

You get great protection for major appliances, fire alarms, home automation, etc. but not really very good protection for delicate equipment with semiconductors that can die with an extra 20 V across their terminals.

Read the recommendations and instructions carefully and read the equipment warranties with this in mind.

With a new house build our electrician installed in our Eaton panel whole house  surge protectors which occupied two slots and would last as long as they were not "invoked".  Once they trap a surge, they need to be replaced.

In our former home, I had a Leviton 52000 series whole house surge protector, which was much more expensive and much more sophisticated, with two replaceable "modules", when one would trap a surge, it would need to be replaced.  If my memory serves me, I think we paid something like $1200 for the Leviton unit about 20 years ago, plus labor.

To clarify what @ejr1953 is saying, WHSPs wear out. That's the joules rating. They can wear out from one big surge or a bunch of little one's over time that add up.

Unlike biological entities, WHSPs don't heal.  Once the MOV takes a surge, even a small one, it has begun to degrade.  The Leviton units with replaceable MOV modules are pretty cool in that they are meant to be replaced by your average homeowner, but are they even available in the US?