Surge protector saved my rig, then nearly killed it 3 weeks later

Set up my new 4090 build in my Denver apartment, plugged everything into a cheap $12 power strip thinking I was safe. A thunderstorm last Tuesday hit and the strip caught fire while my PC was idling, melted the damn casing and fried my monitor's power brick. Anyone else had a budget protector fail like that, or is it just bad luck on my end?

2 comments

2 Comments

haydenburns1mo ago

The "basically just extension cords with a light switch" thing is spot on, that's exactly what those cheap ones are. But what I really wanna know is did you have the strip plugged directly into the wall or daisy chained off another one? Cause I've seen way too many people stack those things and that's when the melting starts. Also, when it caught fire, did the breaker on the wall actually trip or did it just burn until you noticed? That's the part that scares me, if the strip itself is the weakest link and it fails by burning instead of breaking the circuit, then you got no real protection at all.

skyler_baker1mo ago

Read a thing last week saying those cheap strips are basically just extension cords with a light switch, no real protection inside. The fact it caught fire instead of just tripping is honestly terrifying, glad your whole place didnt go up.