Dean:
I switched to cyberpower 1500's also about 6 months ago. I am glad to see you survived the strike. I had a similar one last August, same type hit a tree about 20 yards from the house and fried one of the 2 loops in my house, pretty much everything "on" at that time was damaged or destroyed.
Paul Caldwell
Thanks, Paul. You obviously survived too, but it's a scary experience. I don't think a UPS is a guarantee of lightening protection but it certainly saved me a lot of trouble. Our insurance replaces destroyed items with new ones if they are inexpensive (TV sets, cable modems, UPS-es, etc). They do the same for expensive items but only if they are not repairable or worth repairing. To determine that they pay to have you get a repair estimate. Doing that for the printer and computer, sorting it out with insurance, replacing or repairing the devices, restoring my computer files, etc., would have had me unproductive for a very much longer time. Instead I was up and running again as soon as electrical repairs were done and the mess was cleaned up. I should also mention that my wife's computer, which had its power supply and network connections protected by a 1500 VA APC UPS was also spared, while little else survived. The UPS units actually smelled burned, but everything connected was undamaged. I'm now a real believer in these things!