So I guess the $70,000 connected equipment replacement warranty is a myth also.
Did you read their fine print? Good luck getting that warranty honored. It has numerous exemptions.
Or read the manufacturer specifications. Where does it claim to protect from each type of surge? It doesn't.
Or read its numbers. Destructive surges are typically hundreds of thousands of joules. How many hundreds of joules does that UPS protect from? Near zero.
APC and Tripplite are newcomers. An industry benchmark is Polyphaser. Other more responsible companies include ABB, General Electric, Siemens, Intermatic, Ditek, Leviton, Syscom, and Square D to name but a few. Homeowners could even obtain a 'whole house' protector from Cutler Hammer for less than $50 in Home Depot or Lowes.
Any protection on a power cord is already inside appliances. After all, what protects dimmer switches, clocks, refrigerator, furnace, and bathroom GFCIs? Your concern is the other and rare surge that actually causes damage. That overwhelms protection already inside appliances. Those protectors are rated to connect direct lightning strikes to earth (rated at least 50,000 amps). And remain functional. Effective protection means nobody even knew a surge existed because effective protectors do not fail or 'wear out'.
A 'sour taste' comes from people who never learned nor designed this stuff. How many direct lightning strikes without damage have you suffered? I did this stuff decades ago.
Michele - claims are hearsay. He provided no numbers. He never says why a UPS or power strip works. Ineffective and grossly overpriced products get promoted by a majority who are only trained in advertising. Anyone can search the internet for the so many victims who discovered what, for example, Newsman in 2002 posted:
Eventually it boiled down to a line in the warranty that said "Belkin at it's sole discretion can reject any claim for any reason".
Or Luke_Wilbur who saw what APC really does once he had that rare and destructive surge in 2009. Where was the protection?:
APC Battery Backup does not protect from power surge. - Consumer Complaints - DC Message Boards
Fire is another problem with these adjacent protector when not protected by one 'whole house' protector. Adjacent protectors need protection from the rare and actually destructive surge. A fire marshal describes why these undersized protectors cause fires:
http://www.esdjournal.com/techpapr/Pharr/INVESTIGATING SURGE SUPPRESSOR FIRES.doc
Or Norma describes in 2008 in "The Power Outage" what happens when an adjacent protector is unprotected:
Today, the cable company came to replace a wire. Well the cable man pulled a wire and somehow yanked loose their "ground" wire. The granddaughter on the computer yelled and ran because sparks and smoke were coming from the power surge strip.
We know an adjacent protector or UPS provides some protection. And then we include numbers. 99.5% of the protection is provided by earthing one 'whole house' protector. That is protection for everything for about $1 per appliance. Then we locate adjacent protectors on each appliance at maybe $25 or $80 per appliance. For an additional 0.2% protection.
So yes, that strip or UPS does protection. From a typically 'not destructive' surge. Those adjacent devices also need protection provided by earthing one 'whole house' protector. The word 'earthing' is critical. We also investigated and repaired damaged electronics by tracing the surge. By literally replacing individual semiconductors to make electronics functional for years. We learned this stuff the hard way - by designing protection systems and by traced surge damage directly traceable to human mistakes and ineffective protectors.
The superior solution protects everything for about $1 per appliance. Even the APC and Tripplite devices need protection provided by one properly earthed 'whole house' protector - provided by companies with superior reputations.