Features:

  • 1080 Joules surge protection energy rating
  • 6 wall outlet surge protector wall mount
  • Side-Facing wall outlet for clean look
  • Lifetime warranty and $50,000 connected-equipment protection policy
  • Designed to fit a 2-outlet configuration. Center screw firmly mounts unit on the wall, or can be removed by gently lifting off the red washer on the back of the unit
These APC units have great quality and a very reasonable price which adds up to excellent value

For the non-techies, buying a surge suppressor is a very confusing process. The marketing departments want you to focus on the huge print telling you that their device is so good that they include a $100,000 !!! insurance protection for any device damaged by a surge. But don't be surprised when you find out that there are so many strings attached, you'd be lucky to end up with a refund on their surge suppressor. Instead, focus on a few basic technical specs and you will save yourself a lot of up front money and, therefore, be able to buy more surge suppressors to protect more of your equipment. By the way, I do not work for nor have I ever worked for or been associated with APC, I've just worked with computers for my entire career :-) First, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT BUYING A SIMPLE POWER STRIP WITH A CIRCUIT BREAKER !! Many manufacturers carefully word-craft their descriptions to make it appear that you are getting surge protection. In fact, you are getting nothing more than a very expensive extension cord with a cheap circuit breaker that won't protect anything other than starting a fire and that's not guaranteed either. Three technical specifications to watch when buying a surge suppressor: joules, response time and UL certification. Joules isn't a rating on protection from a single surge, it is a rating on how many surges the suppressor can handle. It's sort of a life expectancy rating. The experts recommend looking for at least 600 Joules. This APC suppressor gives you almost double that amount at 1,080 Joules. Response time is also important. This determines how long your equipment will be exposed to the surge before the suppressor kicks in and clamps the voltage down. For this APC suppressor, the response time is a very respectable 1 nanosecond. That's tech speak for 1 billionth of a second. Surges take a few thousands of a second to reach their peak, so this response time should be more than adequate. The UL certification standard for surge suppressors is UL 1449. UL provides safety related certifications, not performance related certifications. A UL certification basically means that the surge suppressor itself and the equipment connected to it are extremely unlikely to blow up and start a fire when it's hit with a surge. Ignore "clamping voltage". For technical reasons, you really want to watch the "Let-Through Voltage". UL certification does include the specification for Let-Through Voltage with levels of 300, 400 and 500. This APC unit has a UL certification with a maximum Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor (TVSS) Let-Through Voltage of 300 volts, which is the best rating that UL provides for surge suppressors. Other manufacturers often make a big deal out of clamping voltage but avoid mentioning that their UL Let-Through Voltage is 400 or 500 volts. Finally, a huge feature in a surge suppressor is a "Fail Safe" function. When a surge suppressor reaches it's maximum Joules rating it quits providing surge suppression. The question is, how do you know that has happened? Most surge suppressors have an green idiot light (LED) that shows that the unit is still providing surge suppression. If you happen to notice that this LED has gone dark then you're in luck. Most people don't. A Fail Safe feature shuts the surge suppressor down so it no longer passes current through to your equipment. So, if your fail safe unit quits providing surge suppression, your equipment shuts down and you know the instant the surge suppressor has reached its life span. Very few manufacturers include a fail safe protection, so you continue merrily on your way until your $1,000 television or laptop suddenly melts down during a thunderstorm. APC provides fail safe protection on all of their surge suppressors including this unit. Remember, these are surge suppressors NOT lighting arresting devices. A lightning strike on the power line feeding your home can literally blow wall sockets out of the wall. No surge suppressor is going protect you from all lightning strikes. For that kind of protection, you will need an electrician and some sophisticated protection installed at the point where your electric lines enter your home. That's an entirely different level of protection and, as you can imagine, far more expensive than a surge suppressor. I own a half-dozen of these APC units and I live in Florida (lighting capital of America :-) For the price, I don't think you can beat this particular unit for everyday protection. These units have great quality and a very reasonable price which adds up to excellent value.

Excellent design! Great for those bulky AC adapters.

So glad I found this. I needed more outlets behind my wine fridge and kegerator and also was tight on space between them and the wall. This does the job perfectly since the outlets are spaced far apart and two of the plugs I have are AC adapters. I also like the fact that I didn't have to install screws into the drywall to mount it (like most surge protectors). Simply remove the existing wall plate and screw this one right in. Lastly, the price is very reasonable and as an IT professional, I've been using APC products at home and at work since the early 90's.

Very nice unit, well worth the money

The APC 6-outlet wall surge protector worked out perfect for me. In most cases, I can find design shortcomings, but not on this item. Its very well thought out and I like that the 6 outlets are at the sides so that the plugs don't protrude out in front. And they are spaced far enough apart that you can plug in transformer brick type of cords. I did have to use a longer screw than the one that came with the unit in order to keep the wall plate in place and still reach the receptacle screw hole. In my case, the screw hole was set rather deep on an older receptacle. This item would be a nice outlet adaptor even without the surge protection. The surge protection is quite nice for its size. The USB recharge ports are a nice touch as well, very practical.

APC is a trusted name

I'd trust APC over some no-name brand. The fact APC was the least expensive is just icing on the cake. They say basic protection. Actually, basic protection in it's simplest form would include ONE MOV between Hot and Neutral. The next level up, and most common, use three MOV's to also cover Hot and Neutral to ground. The next level up includes EMI/RFI filtering, which this includes. Beyond this level, you get beefier components that can take a bigger hit. Isolated outlets, where each outlet has its own protection. Protection for Coax, Telephone, and/or Ethernet cables. There are certainly better models out there, but this is a little better than basic protection. Would I use this for a computer? No. But for stereo, television, basic electronics, absolutely. Is this sufficient protection for basic electronics? No. In fact, plug-in surge protectors are level 3 protection, and your last chance to stop a surge. Level 2 protection is a whole house surge protector that installs at the breaker panel. This should be code and required for every home but it's not. I can't stress enough how important these are. They protect every device including your appliances, air conditioner, etc. They help stop surges from entering your home, and they reduce them to a level your plug-in surge protectors can handle, so they don't burn out. Another thing to consider is cumulative damage. Simply switching appliances on and off causes small sags and spikes. These eat away at electronics little by little, until they eventually fail. They will eat away at your plug-in surge protectors too. A whole home surge protector has extremely heavy duty components that can take a massive hit and/or many many little hits without damage. This is absolutely essential, and yes, you do need both!

Loses programming upon power outage

Works okay as a timer but the internal power backup doesn't work properly on mine. According to the documentation it's supposed to retain programming during a power outage but as soon as I unplug it from the wall the screen goes blank and the unit won't work until the reset is pushed. Made in China. I've got four of the "power strip" versions of this device that work great. ***Update Jan 2013*** Normally I don't take the time and trouble to obtain warrantee service on a product in this price range, but since the package had an internet address I thought I'd give it a try. I sent an email to Snyder Electric, apparently the owner of APC, and their response was same day. They agreed to send a replacement timer with no hassle at all and it arrived in less than one week. The timer has worked fine for the last two weeks. So, for customer service the way it should be I am raising my rating to five stars. I will purchase APC again in the future too.

great for mounted TV and system

Product arrived as expected. The apc 6 outlet was more than enough for my flat screen, cable box and other technology I mounted on the wall. THe side outlets really help so that your TV can be really flat. I used it for a client and install a 60" TV. Great accessories for TV and IT professionals. They were very easy to install. If you want to take advantage of the screw option, remove the screw from your current outlet cover, keep the outlet cover in place, then screw it in. However, you can also choose to just plug in. The fault notification is awesome

APC Wall Mount 6 Outlet SurgeArrest

The thinnest multiple side plug-in surge protector I could find (measures about 1.5 inches off the wall). EMI/RFI noise filtering, 400V clamping voltage, Fail Safe Mode and a surge energy rating of 1080 Joules make the APC P6W a great value for basic surge protection.

Great customer service

This is my second purchase of this item. I bought my first one over 10 yrs ago, and about a year ago I noticed the red fault light was on. I assumed it was way out of warranty, but went online anyway to the APC site. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me they would send me a new one, and all I had to do was send them the broken one, which they also paid for. I use one behind a flat screen tv. It makes it easy to plug in the tv because the receptacles are facing the sides. It's impossible to plug in the tv into other types of surge protectors and still fit behind the tv. I use the other for a movie projector. Works fine and looks very low-key.

These are slowly spreading all over my house

I've trusted the APC brand for years and this is no exception. They look cool, are ingeniously designed with plenty of space between the side mounted plugs, and can be put on over the existing plate. They even come with the special length threaded cylinder to attach it through the plate to the wall (some words are oddly not allowed on here). We now have four of these, but they're slowly spreading all over my house.

Have several, all excellent, a few points to keep in mind...

We selected this unit because of its simple neutral white color, and the fact that the plugs on the end face outward. Some wall surge protectors have the ground plug (the third round one) facing the wall, which makes the unit useless for any three prong power adapters. This unit is done right, looks clean, has easy to see lights that won't annoy you in a dark room, and is very easy to install. The included screw was long enough for all but one of our outlets, so we picked up a few longer machine screws at our local hardware store. After much research, we found these to be one of the top two or three best rated units out there. They are used in a lightning prone area, and since installing them, we have seen no damaged to our connected electronics. KEEP IN MIND, that this unit has only ONE plug (on the back) that goes into the wall, and it goes into the top plug of the wall receptacle. Therefore, if you use this in a receptacle where the top plug is switched (meaning a receptacle connected to a light switch), that particular light switch will turn the entire surge protector on and off. Also, if your receptacle is upside down, then you will need to install this unit upside down as well, which is not as attractive as right side up.

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