Do you unplug your kit during a thunderstorm???

[Overlord69]

As title...

[Abu]

nope i sit there using it .

[barijohn]

No I don't unplug it but I do switch everything of at the wall but leave the plug connected.

[shahedz]

no i dont , i dont even switch anything off, i have surge protectors but doubt that would do anything

[ash]

LOL! What does electrical equipment go wrong????

I just keep on watching!

[unique]

i've never in my life had anything damaged or even fuses blow during a thunder/lightning storm. there was one last weekend that was reasonably heavy, but there wasn't even any flicker watching freeview

in the states it's completely different tho, i've known a few people that have lost plenty of items due to storms, wiping out all the phones and things like that. they do unplug thier computers during storms. you get severe weather warnings coming on the tv during storm season in summer. one minute everything looks fine and sunny and hot outside, and then suddenly a huge storm starts up and it looks really bad, and then half an hour later its sunny and hot outside again and the rain has dried up and you wouldn'tve known it had been raining. oh, they also tell you during the bad storms to go to inner rooms in your house and keep away from windows, so if your not scared of the lightning, they try and pysche you up with scary words

[Knyght_byte]

had a lightening strike on our house a few years back, hit the aerial, took out the TV, Video and amp downstairs in my parents lounge, it also flashed across to the phone line and took out my PC via the modem...while i was sitting using it...heh..never heard such a bang up close...lol

so now i use surge protectors on all the equipment...lol..still use it tho, my phone line, Cat5 cable and telecoax all go through the surge protector as well as plugs....so should be ok...

if not i'm not bothered, anything important on my PC is backed up.....when i lost the last one (P3 500mhz, 384Mb Ram, Voodoo 3 3000 16Mb AGP, 9Gb HDD) it was replaced in the insurance (with a P3 1Ghz, 512Mb RAM, nVidia 64Mb Ultra and 40Gb HDD....sweeeet..heh).......so i dont mind even if the lightening does take it out...lol....

my parents kit was replaced with like for like via currys (or comets whichever it was) vouchers......except the amp which was mine, a Cambridge Audio A5, i told the insurance company it was specialist kit so i wanted to replace that properly, they said sure, asked if i could bung a bit extra cash on for something better, they said no problem....w00t!...love our policy..lol

[IronGiant]

Everything important is on a UPS or surge protector so hopefully Mr Belkin will pay up in case of any damage. I know we get surges in thunderstorms because it has a habit of tripping the main RCD and shutting the house down.

[barn]

I have heard some bad stories about Mr Belkin so don't depend on it.
Just make sure that you have a good insurance policy and don't worry about lightning storms as the current will jump most surge protectors etc.

[chachi]

Originally Posted by unique

they also tell you during the bad storms to go to inner rooms in your house and keep away from windows, so if your not scared of the lightning, they try and pysche you up with scary words

This was about 20 mins away from where I grew up.
One gets a healthy appreciation for wind and tornado warnings and whatnot ...