Surge protector for my house

[thebolt]

Does anyone have knowledge on a surge protector for residential electrical. We have a lot of power surges here and I just found out my clothes washer circut board is fried and a probable cause is a power surge.

Is this something I can do myself or do I need an electician to do this? Any thoughts on the cost and/or what to use?

Thanks for your help!

[gnihcraes]

Home Depot has a poster advertising these, and I asked, nobody working there could tell me anything. They suggested calling home depot for a professional install. WTF?

Also, the suggested it could be ordered off the website. I'm not sure about the install, looks straight forward on their "poster" haha.

We'll see if one of the professionals replies, I'd like one too.

[gnihcraes]

I just looked at the Depot website, several items on there from $31 - 297. I printed out one that is supposedly in stock and will go take a look sometime in the next day or two.

[JohnnyEgo]

Surge protectors only kick on at a certain level of line voltage, such as 140V instead of 120V. Good enough to protect a lot of things, not good enough to protect everything, probably more than sufficient to protect your washer and dryer.

What is more beneficial for sensitive electronics is a line conditioner behind the surge protector. For when your local utility company decides to give you a little bonus voltage.

http://www.amazon.com/APC-LE600-Auto..._rhf_dp_s_cp_3

[00tec]

probably more than sufficient to protect your washer and dryer.

That really depends, a lot of the stuff out there now its just as sensitive as any computer. Hell, my washer and dryer can transmit trouble codes like a fax machine if I'm on speakerphone with tech support.

Best option would probably be a conditioned whole home UPS... Not cheap

[rockhound]

I am looking for a whole house FARADAY CAGE

[BushMasterBoy]

First off, make sure you have a good ground. If the house is grounded to the foundation, it is wrong. I don't care what Code is! Get a good round rod installed. 8ft long copper plated steel rod pounded into the ground near the breaker box outside. Connect the ground bar in the box to the ground rod with a large solid wire.
Then make sure the outlet to the appliance is properly grounded. Check the outlet box and see if the wire is corroded. Corroded wire can act as a semiconductor, sometimes it conducts and sometimes it doesn't. If the ground wire is green, it is corroded. A little piece of sandpaper is used to remove the corrosion and bring back the copper color. Once you have checked and/or corrected the ground, you will probably have no more problems. You could install a surge suppressor,but with a faulty ground it is worthless.