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Question from Della: I just bought my son a new laptop at our local big box store.
As we were walking up to the register to pay, I asked the salesman if he could recommend a good surge protector for it.
He said laptops don’t need surge protectors because they aren’t connected to the power grid while you’re using them and the chargers that come with them have surge protection built into them.
That just didn’t sound right to me. Was he right or do I need to go ahead and buy a surge protector for my son’s new laptop?
Rick’s answer: Della, I’m sure that salesman only meant to help but the chargers that typically come with laptops don’t contain any surge protection devices at all. A strong surge or lightning strike can easily take out the charger and the laptop along with it.
As a general rule, anything that plugs into a wall outlet can be destroyed by a power surge or lightning strike. And that even includes surge protectors themselves.
Bottom line: I strongly recommend that you purchase a quality surge protector for your son’s laptop, especially now that we are into the summer thunderstorm season.
If you take your chances without one your son could end up with a fried power brick, or even worse, a fried laptop.
When you go to pick one out, I recommend getting a surge protector that’s rated for at least 2,000 joules.
That should be plenty strong enough to protect your son’s laptop from all but the most powerful surges or lightning strikes (the more joules the better of course).
Update from Della: That’s what I thought Rick. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
Bonus tip: Did you know you can protect every device in your home with one surge protection device? It’s called a whole house surge suppressor and they work extremely well.