Siemens FS100 Whole House Surge Protection Device Rated for 100,000 Amps by SIEMENS

I did a lot of research on surge protection before settling on this particular model. I chose this one for 4 different reasons: (1) It is made to be mounted indoors or outdoors and my main panel with circuit breakers is outside on the back of the house with a sub panel inside. (2) Siemens reputation for quality, excellence and innovation. (3) It has 4 wires for hookup so it covers surges from both both line phases, neutral and ground. Not all surge protectors do. Look for L-N, L-G, N-G and L-L. (4) LED indicators let you know when surge protection has been exhausted due to an event or if your grounding has been compromised.

This particular models protects against surge spikes up to 100,000 amps. That is enough amps for 500 homes like mine! (for an extremely short time anyway). Before I go any further, I should emphasize that if you do not know exactly what you are doing, you should not attempt to install this device. Your life is worth the $100 or so dollars that an electrician would charge you to install it. Not to mention, if you ever have to make a claim on the guarantee from Siemens, you will need to provide a receipt from a licensed electrician having completed the installation. That being said, installation is not difficult if you know what you are doing and plan ahead.

The 4 wires come through a 3/4″ female threaded conduit inlet. I had limited options for where to attach the protector. I had 1/2″ knockouts available on the bottom of the box, but because of other conduits I had to use a 1/2″ offset nipple with a 3/4″ x 1/2″ reducing bushing. You can see this in the pictures. I used some silicone sealant and a rubber washer to make sure the connection was weatherproof as required in the instructions. Because of this offset nipple, the wires are a little longer to reach the required connections, but still shorter than the supplied length. The shorter the better, but keep the wire bends smooth and untangled. I was careful not to damage the wire insulation when running it through the nipple and rotating it until tight. Do not attach the wires to an energized breaker. Make sure it is off and verify with a circuit tester. The black wires attach to a 2 pole breaker which covers both phases coming from the utility pole. Since I installed the protector on the main breaker panel, the neutral (white wire) bonding strip is connected to the (green wire) grounding strip. If the panel were inside the house, the ground and neutral would travel separately until coming together outside to go to ground. After triple checking my work, I turned on the breaker and was greeted by 2 green LEDs verifying both phases are protected and ready for use.

I am very pleased with the product and the installation went smoothly. I only wish the directions were more detailed, but I believe this is probably to discourage unqualified persons from thinking they can do this themselves. I would not have attempted this installation without doing my research and making absolutely sure I knew what I was doing. I hope I never have to find out how well it really works, but if I do, I will write an update. Just a little side note: This thing is pretty bright at night. Looks like I have an alien power source.

Good: Installation was reasonably easy. The line wires connect to dedicated breakers, one on each bus, which I picked up from Lowe’s along with a conduit nipple and nuts for a few $s. Positioning of the surge protector and the breakers it connects to are important: these things operate so quickly that the position of the breakers and the length of the wires running to them make a significant difference in the unit’s response time. The shorter the path from the main to the surge unit, the better. I rearranged the existing breakers so the new ones would be the first ones downstream of the main, and positioned the surge protector next to them outside the box so the wire run is only a few inches. Wiring from there was straightforward: black wires to the breakers, white to neutral, green to ground; put everything back together, power up the mains, make sure everything’s in order, and turn on the surge unit’s breakers. Elapsed time, start to finish, was about an hour. There are status lights on the unit that tell you that it’s wired and functioning correctly, and lights and an alarm that tell you when something’s wrong – nice touches, and one of the reasons I went with this Siemens unit.

Bad: The only real problem I had was that the conduit stands out rather far from the unit’s base; I had to elongate the knock-out hole on the box about 1/4″ with a Dremel tool to get the unit to lie flat against the wall. I don’t know whether the issue was with the unit or the box.

Ugly: The installation instructions are NOT detailed, clearly written for professionals. (Although, the instructions do advise you “do not install this device during a lightning storm.” I’d think a pro would know that.) This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as mucking about inside a breaker box is a very bad idea unless you know *exactly* what you’re doing. If you don’t understand the instructions, or you’re not experienced and comfortable working with line power equipment, get an electrician to install it. It shouldn’t cost a lot.

Bottom line: I was motivated to buy this by the realization that I have a LOT of electronics in my home. The obvious stuff is surge protected, but the vast majority is not – who thinks to plug their washing machine or alarm clock into a surge protector? Yet, one big lightning strike on the pole outside could kill all of it. This Siemens unit isn’t cheap, but it IS cheap insurance. Unfortunately, there is only one way to find out just how well it works, and I’d rather avoid that. For now, however, so far so good. Five stars.

Surge protectors are one of those things that you don’t really know if they are working until they get fried. I was experiencing lots of electrical issues with my appliances, particularly my electric stoves. I replaced three stoves due to blown electrical control boards in 5 years. Since I installed a few surge protectors (one per panel plus a few at the HVAC equipment), I have not had any problems. Not sure if this made the difference, but it is cheap insurance.

It took me several months to try and buy this on Amazon. The supplier kept running out probably because it was the best price around. Just installed it as I had to move a few things around to get it to fit. This does need a 20 Amp 2 Pole breaker so if you do not have one make sure you find one. Installation was pretty easy once I made room in my panel for it. It appears to be high quality and hopefully I will never have to worry about that Big spike. If I do get one at least I know that all the electronics in my house from my furnace to my fridge should be safe. Lets face it homes noe adays have so many circuit boards that one Big Spike could cause a lot of grief

Just recently installed and has not been put to the test yet since we have not had a power outage yet…Electrician did mention it was a very reliable and effective surge protector since he has installed many of them and even has one in his own home which has saved a few major appliances in his case….Phew!!!