Siemens FS140 Whole House Surge Protection Device Rated for 140,000 Amps

Purchased/Installed the FS140 whole house surge suppressor in July 2021. Been working flawlessly since. Just sits there silently doing its job. Whole house protection at the service entrance is great piece of mind. I do note the price is up substantially since 2021 (thanks covid) but still an outstanding value in my opinion. However, not a DIY project if you are afraid of electricity or uncomfortable with working INSIDE a breaker box. Requires the addition of a dedicated two pole (240v) 20A circuit breaker (not included - purchase separately for your brand of panel) to your existing service panel so (1) make sure you have free space and (2) you will have to access the inside of the panel so BE CAREFUL. The instructions recommend the shortest run possible for the wiring from breaker to the device as well as keeping it close to the neutral and ground bars in the panel. Also, although the instructions did not specify distance from the main breaker, I made sure to put mine first in line (my main comes in the bottom of the panel and the breaker for the surge protector is first on the bottom right as circled in photo) as I figured it could not hurt to do so. This location was also close to ground/neutral in the panel and gave me a knockout close by to mount the FS140 device. Had to move some other breakers to accomplish this so again DO NOT ATTEMPT if you don't know what you are doing. If you are at all unsure of your ability to DIY this I recommend you google and read the installation instructions first to make sure you understand what is expected.PROsSmall footprintEasy to MountClear InstructionsImpressive protection specsFeels substantial/well builtVisible LEDs report on protection statusCONsMay (likely) require additional materials to installNot for your average DIYerWould I purchase again? YES - even at its current price it is cheap protection and great piece of mind. Far better than relying on surge suppression strips of dubious origin and quality.

SEARCHING:I went on a search to find whole-house surge protection products that would help protect the electrical appliances and other components and equipment in my home. I live in rural Missouri and our electricity provider is a Co-Op Utility that basically buys and resells electricity to customers outside the City grid. Our experience with this Co-Op has shown us that the power is not nearly as stable as "big-city" electric utilities. We regularly get power fluctuations, and occasional blackouts, brownouts, brown power, and rolling blackouts. The internal relays in my UPS for my computer go nuts (switches back and forth to battery power) about every other day due to power fluctuations. To complicate matters, we live in the mid-west where we get our fair share of lightning storms that are pretty spectacular to watch, but not so friendly on our home electricity.OTHER PRODUCTS TRIED:I tried competing products such as Delta, Intermatic, and a couple others including ones offered by the Co-Op utility, but I can't say that I have been very well protected. In the past year, a lightning storm out here took out my new refrigerator, my clothes washer, and my pressure tank for my well-water supply system. I just purchased a new HVAC heating and cooling system that I don't want to end up being fried, so I started my search.With a lot of products out there, the worst thing is that you get a false-security that you are protected just because you have some box or device connected to your electric panel and so you feel like all your expensive electrical items are safe. And then there are those store-bought surge protection plug strips that have a "joules" rating and an "insurance coverage guarantee." These may start out fine and offer limited protection to whatever is plugged into them, but in less than a year out here where I live, they begin to fail because frequent spikes in the electricity cause a degradation in the surge protection. Plus, I have yet to hear from anyone who has successfully made an insurance claim and collected money for damage to their electrical items that were plugged into those type of surge protectors. I'm not saying that they never provide protection, just that they can wear out fairly quickly and you may not be aware of it unless you have one that has a protection indicator light. Also, the amount of electrical surge protection offered by those plug strips may not work well against an intense surge, even when the plug strip is brand new.SIEMENS FS140:I stumbled across the Siemens FirstSurge FS140 Whole House Surge Protection Device Rated for 140,000 Amps and it impressed me, at least on paper to begin with. It is a UL 1449 listed, Type 2 surge protective device (SPD) with a limited 10-year warranty for the FS140 and connected equipment in your home. It provides a 900-volt protection for line-to-line surges (L-L), and it provides a 600-volt protection for line-to-neutral (L-N), line-to-ground (L-G), and neutral-to-ground (N-G) surges according to UL 1449 3rd Edition, Voltage Protection Ratings. It has a voltage clamp-down response time of less than 1 nanosecond, which is extremely fast and needed for protection of your sensitive electronic equipment.One of the things I like about this product is that it has 3 levels of protection status notification so that you always know whether your protected or not: (1) it has an audible alarm, (2) it has protection status LEDs, and (3) also has a red service LED (to notify you when the electric service or wiring is compromised). The device is well built with quality in mind; not a cheap plastic material that is used in some of the competing products. This device has a NEMA 4X indoor and outdoor rated enclosure. It's a very robust product. Its dimensions are roughly 8-1/4" long, by 3-5/8" wide, by 3" high. It has a threaded conduit connection port on the enclosure for 3/4" threaded conduit or connectors.INSTALLATION:For the installation of this device, a licensed electrician is recommended unless you are completely comfortable and knowledgeable with electrical panels, circuit breakers, and wiring practices for residential applications. A suitable volt meter is also recommended. I decided to call Siemens to ask for their input on the installation, and I was very impressed with the level of knowledge, expertise, friendliness, and willingness to help. The Siemens engineer (Ken) was nothing short of brilliant. His input allowed me to confidently and expertly install the FS140 so that it would perform the way the manufacturer intended.PERFORMANCE:After successfully installing the FS140, feeling very proud of its looks, and seeing the status lights showing correctly protected, I was still a little skeptical about how well the device would perform against surges. Coincidentally less than a week later, a thunder storm rolled thru this area and we had a resulting power failure from a lightning strike that was less than a half-mile away. After about 30 minutes the power returned (surges involved in that too), and the FS140 lit up showing a protected status. More importantly, nothing in our house including our new HVAC system was harmed by the electric fluctuations due to the nearby lightning storm. I not only feel protected, but this device has proven its worth and I am sure it will pay for itself considering the cost of repair bills from electric equipment and appliances that would otherwise be damaged from unprotected electrical surges.Thank you Siemens.EDIT:[...]The above link is a very good article on Whole-House Surge Protection Devices written by a third party reviewer where he evaluates a hand full of products. Although the Siemens product is not included in the review because it is a newer product than when the review was written, the Siemens FS140 outperforms all of those reviewed and would have come in first place. Also, I found in another third-party article that two-tiered protection where you have service panel surge protection and point-of-use surge protection (plug-strip type) is a very effective way to fully protect your electrical items. Most peoeple aren't aware that a fairly large percentage of damage also comes through phone lines and cable/satellite conections as well so anything connected to those (e.g. TVs, cable and satellite receivers, modems, routers, cordless and corded phones) are exposed without additional protection on the coax lines and modular phone lines.