SIEMENSBoltshield FSPD140 Level 2 Whole House Surge Protection Device Rated for 140,000 Amps, 120/240V

Easy to install and hopefully will work when times comes. Excellent brand reputation. This is well built. I installed it without the need for an electrician, but you need to assess your comfort level before doing so.

This is a pretty robust surge protector, had my electrician install it on main service panel to protect whole house. My electrician does primarily commercial work, and he was impressed with the quality and rating. Has visible LED’s to show status at a glance. Small price to pay for this protection here on the storm and lightning prone Gulf Coast!

Installation instructions are easy to follow. Was able to locate breaker for device on space 1 and 3 (instructions recommend 20-30 amp 2 pole breaker, by relocating existing 2 pole circuit to an empty slot elsewhere. The wire leads were all 36”-37” (plenty for my application and longer than some other reviews have stated). Recommend using a 1” diameter washer (id) over the conduit nipple as a spacer. The locknut provided was very snug and wouldn’t tighten unit to the electrical panel without a spacer washer, the washer (I actually made one using some nylon stock on hand) solved this problem. I cannot comment on the effectiveness of this device yet, the jury is out on that until lightning and surge season set in here in SW Florida.

For a long time now the electrical utility supply has been full of brownouts and surges. And with most people today, we all have a multitude of equipment and appliances with sensitive electronics that can be irreparably damaged by both brownouts and surges. On the receiving side, we can’t do much about brownouts, at this point in time we are stuck depending on the utility providing good quality power. Perhaps in the future the industry will come up with something we could use. But for power surges there are a lot of options. Recently, we had an extended power outage, then when power was restored we had a massive surge that destroyed our solar inverters. I already had lightning & surge protectors at each string of solar panels, and on the main electrical panel. But based on this event, I decided we needed a much better surge protection system. So at several stages of the power inlet system I installed multiple levels of surge protection devices including this Seimans surge protector. Seimans is a well respected electrical component manufacturer, so along with the several other levels of surge protection we now have, I am hopeful that we never experience the kind of power surge event that we suffered from then. I now feel that we are pretty well protected.

Got this after my street suffered a failed transformer causing a power outage that blew every house’s appliances when power came back, causing ~$30K damage to every house. Lucky I was on a different transformer. That happened because it was a super hot day and every house has air con running. That caused a major surge when power came back on. I have read reviews where people with 80K amp protectors still had the protector blow up causing a file. Hopefully this high amp model will survive all surges to come. Installation was fairly straight forward, requiring 2 additional trip switches to be added to the power panel. I could have done that easily myself. But my power panel was embedded into my stucco wall. So I hired a company to do the install for 3X the price of this protector. They had to add a junction box for this protector to screw into and mount that box on the surface of the stucco next to the panel, and dig hole in the drywall to pass the wire. It was worth the price.

I did a lot of research on Surge Suppressors, and the Siemens FS140 seemed to always came out on top. But it apparently is no longer available, replaced by the less expensive Siemens FSPD140, which we bought. The installation was straight forward, done by a licensed electrician. The documentation leaves a lot to be desired. First, it claims there are three green LED lights, but only two are evident. They are labelled "A" and "C" but nowhere are the labels explained so they might as well just be one.Warranty? Doesn't come with the unit. You can find one on-line; it's for just 2 years & $20K max (vice 10 years & $100K for the above FS140) and comes with the following caveat: "The Circuit Breaker and Surge Protective Device warranty does NOT cover these types of appliances (including but not limited to): computers, VCRs, televisions, fax machines, scanners and copiers, audio/video components, and telecommunications systems." Gee, those are the some of the key things we want a surge suppressor for!We have yet to experience our first noticeable surge since installation, so we don't know how well it will function in our setting. Fingers crossed.The more expensive Leviton B2120-B looks identical, has a better warranty, and three green LEDs evident.

Solid ratings. Audible alarm. Led’s. Easy to install. Multiple installation options.