Hi, I'm back again,this discussion has been too tempting to stay away.A few more things I learned that are relevant to the different posts here. Life of surge suppressor:somewhere on sutton designs website(www.suttondesigns.com) it was mentioned that they could last 10 years.I think they're referring to a very good one that has multiple stages of suppression and an adequate number of MOV's.For instance, a low rated one may only have one MOV across each line(L-N,L-G,N-G)whereas a good one may have 3 or 4 so the surge gets shared among 3 MOV's and they last longer.And the fact that they deteriorate and could posibly start clamping and heating up at normal line voltage is the reason that thermal fuses are incorporated .Don't get a suppressor without at least one thermal fuse.It's there to prevent the thing from catching fire,especially with plastic housings.You'll notice the more expensive one's have a metal housing. "coils of wire": Yep,that's one reason I got the APC PRO7T,it's got 2 what appear to be ferrite rod core inductors in addition to 8 or 9 MOV's plus thermal fuse and silicon avalanche diodes plus line noise filter capacitor's.(I have no affiliation with APC- it just is alot of bang for the buck) unplug during storm: self evident,no suppressor is immune to a very close or direct hit.I take the phone line out of the wall if there's alot of lightning.People talking on the phone have received bodily damage(loss of hearing is one)due to lightning strikes. surge suppressor response time:you'll probably see this on the package.It's stated in nanoseconds(billionths of a second).This is relevant because light and electricity travel about 1 foot in one nanosecond.In a conductor the speed of electricity may only be 50-70% of that but using one foot per nanosecond means that a surge suppressor with a 5 nanosecond response time will let the surge about 5 FEET PAST the suppressor up the cord to whatever your'e trying to protect.So get one with 0-2 ns response time. build quality: 2 general indications are:the case is held together with screws and the unit has some heft to it.The cheap ones are glued together and don't weigh much for their size which means little inside and meager protection.The better one's list alot of components and UL/IEEE/ANSI approvals and are UL listed as a TVSS(transient voltage surge suppressor)right on the UL label onthe unit.Take it out of the box fer chrissakes and look atand feel it.Just like anything else,you generally get what you pay for but you have to know what you're looking for. helikon.