Belkin SurgeMaster F9H620-CW 6-Outlet Wall-Mount Surge Protector

Please click the "Video review" tab (just above this) to view my video.

I am a degreed Electrical Engineer. I design and work with electrical and electronic devices every day. So when my Belkin SurgeMaster unit became intermittent, it was a natural response for me to pop the case and fix whatever was wrong inside. It was to my great surprise that the unit, not only was defective, but appeared to be defective by design. Not only did it appear defective by design, but in a way that the degree of defectiveness could be controlled. As you will see in my video, the degree of defectiveness can be adjusted with just a turn of a screw. Turn it tight, and you have a great product, but as the factory settings get looser and looser, the product time to failure will get shorter and shorter.

Details:
Having popped off the case of the device, I noticed right away that one of the outlet prongs was loose. Furthermore, the wire attached to the loose prong was not soldered as was all the other connections. Had the prong been soldered to the wire, the loose screw would not have posed a problem. Also, since the distance from the prong to the screw is very short, any twisting of the prong would have a greater impact on the looseness of the screw. Once the screw works itself loose, you begin to have intermittent failure of the device. If the screw is torqued properly in the factory, you will likely never have a problem. If you secure the unit with the set screw provided, you will likely not have a problem. If you plug the unit in once and never touch it, you will likely never have a problem. This is a design flaw that only affects a few people and only after the product has been used for some time. It could have easily been prevented if the wire was soldered to the prong in the same fashion as all other wires in the design.

Bottom line:
1. Make sure you have a three prong outlet.
2. If you have the old fashioned outlet with the screw in the middle, remove the screw and secure the unit on top of the outlet cover with the screw provided.
3. If you have a newer outlet which does not have the center screw:
a. Plug in the unit, plug in your devices and never touch it again. You should be fine.
b. If you think you will be plugging and unplugging devices, do not buy this unit. Better units have two sets of prongs, top and bottom, which offer redundancy for the connection, and offer better mechanical connection without the need to attach the center screw.

My model number is F9H600aCW. Belkin may have newer models with different issues. I can only speak for the unit I have. Since all units have the same name (Belkin SurgeMaster) it may be difficult for you to determine which particular model you have.

I just recently purchased this for my TV and 1 week later a mixup caused 220V to surge throughout the house for about 10 seconds. What happened? Some lights went out, the fridge completely burned out and I need a new one, I could smell smoke from something, but....my TV is perfectly OK.

The surge protector no longer works and now I need another one, but at least it's cheaper than a new TV. Oh yeah, I'm now buying units for EVERYTHING in the house, and even if it fails, Belkin has a warranty to replace the equipment, what else could someone ask?

An adequate surge protector but i had one unexpected design flaw. To secure it to the wall outlet you need to use the center screw. The problem is that all my outlets (and some more modern outlets) don't have a hole for center screws. Why is this important? The protector is bulky and if you just pull on a cord attached to it, it can pull out the entire protector. Simple enough to hold the wall outlet against the wall and then pull out a power cord.