Belkin 12-Outlet Home/Office Surge Protector with Phone/Ethernet/Coaxial Protection and Extended Cord

As many of you already know, it is difficult to find a surge protector with more than 8 outlets that doesn't cost $80+.

Being in the IT industry for over 15 years I know quality when I see it, and this is it.

Why would I need 12 outlets? Well I'm sure everyone would agree that utilizing 12 outlets in a technology driven world is not a difficult task to complete.

I have the following hooked up to it.
1. 40" Sony 1080p KDL 40-V2500 LCD HDTV
2. Sony (not sure model#) 600 watt surround sound system
3. Sony Playstation 3
4. Sony Playstation 2
5. Alarm clock
6. AT&T Uverse DVR
7. Plantronics 220 Bluetooth headset charger (power brick)
8. Motorola 700 Bluetooth headset charger. (power brick)
9. 8 port 10/100 network switch (power brick)
10. Powered Amplifier type Antenna (power brick)
... and still have 2 outlets to spare, FANTASTIC!!

This right here is as some would call Da Shizzle (AKA really cool).

Anyways, to a more serious point lets review the Pros shall we?
1. 12 outlets!!
2. Affordable
3. Great quality (Belkin is known for high quality at affordable prices)
4. Wire management clips (I didn't find any use for them but it's a great feature to have.)
5. FLAT solid wall connector (not the swivel connector)
6. Generous length on power cord
7. Space Saving (1" tall)
8. The power ON/OFF switch is on the SIDE of the unit, not the top
This is great since it avoids accidental kicking/etc.
9. Lifetime warranty and $300,000 equipment protection
10. If someone says that they only got use out of 8 outlets, well.. they have some serious issues, there is PLENTY of wiggle room on this surge protector.

Cons:
1. Didn't come out sooner.
2. I couldn't get it fast enough, yes Amazon just doesn't ship as fast as they used to, oh well.
3. I didn't order 2, now I have to include something else in an additional order to qualify for free shipping :) darn the luck!!


Now here is something that has always fascinated me. When you take it out of the box, you will notice 3 different kinds of plugs that are not electrical plugs.
1. RJ-11 (Phone)
2. RJ-45 (Ethernet)
3. Coax (regular cable fitting)
It seems that people just CAN'T help themselves to hook their phone/ethernet and cable/antennea into units such as this. But here is the thing.. for the most part THEY ARE COMPELETEY USELESS!!

By now you are undoubtably confused. But why would they include these on it if they are worthless you may ask yourself?
That my friend is a great question. Allow me to explain.

First off let me explain the physics of electricity. Electricity always looks for the shortest route to ground. So keeping that in mind, we move forward.

The cable/phone company is REQUIRED BY LAW to ground their signal BEFORE entering a residence or commercial structure. So grounding your signal again using this surge protector is a waste of your time.

Now as for the ethernet connection. Ethernet or Cat5/Cat5e/etc are LOW voltage by design. Now the voltage that a cat5 or ethernet cable is carring is VERY small. It gets this voltage from a router or network switch/hub. Now as long as the router/switch/hub is hooked to a surge protector, hooking your ethernet cables through this surge protector is again a waste of time.

Also keep in mind that if your external antenna is not grounded BEFORE entering the house you have a lightning rod and NOT an antenna. Therefore hooking your antenna wire to this will undoubtably cause interference, since it is grounding the connection to the electrical circuit that is providing power to it. Make sense? Good I knew you were smart!!

People see these "extras" and think wow, thats great, and are more likely to justify their purchase decision on these "extra" features. So it is more of a marketing scam than anything else.

Now you are an educated consumer and know that these extra connectors are only intended for protection for KNOWN faulty installs, to sell product, or people that just don't know any better, and are basically just pretty to look at.

I hope this review was helpful, and I wish you luck on your future endeavors.

Ran out of outlets on the other surge protector i was using. This is a great product for the price.

If the 4000+ Joule rating is what is actually claimed by the manufacturer, this is a great buy, great product, and is exactly what I needed.

Received this product and as soon as I started to use it some little parts began to come off. Some plugs did not work ... tried to look inside and it was built in such a way to make impossible to repair it.

A REAL PIECE OF JUNK ... threw it away !!!!!!

Purchased this product online to provide surge protection for a new Sansung LN32A550 1080P HDTV. When I hooked up the coaxial cable coming from our outdoor antenna, the unit grossly distorted the image coming from the local NBC HD-DTV channel. It also interfered with the local Fox station's DTV signal.

I'd like to find a good surge protector that doesn't have this
"anti-interference feature," since I don't think our house current needs it and I believe that this feature is the cause of the interference with our local NBC HD-DTV and Fox DTV signals. Because this particular surge protector is apparently not a good fit for our new Samsung HDTV, I'm returning it to Amazon.com for a refund.

Note: Without the antenna cable hooked up, the surge protector doesn't seem to cause any over the air antenna signal interference problems. However, with the outdoor antennae cable connected through the surge protector (which is required for the warranty protection), the signal's really awful from the local NBC HD-DTV station and not much better from the local Fox station affiliate. Otherwise, without the antennae cable hooked up to this surge protector, we get a strong DTV signal from CBS, Fox (CW) and NBC (ABC here doesn't yet have a strong DTV signal, but indicate they will have one by Feb 19, 2009).