Surge protectors and power conditioners - Good idea or bad?

@lwin ,
+1, 
If you own a home or have a good landlord, installing a whole house surge protector is money well spent.
Bob

In the Northeast where the power grid is antiquated, uneven and unreliable having a dedicated AC line/breaker going to conditioner/surge protector is needed insurance for very little investment. Advisable. 

Of course there was the time we had a close strike which blew out every LED display in our house, including some wireless thermometers that were battery powered. Blew out everything connected to a phone line too, but not the TV, or other electrical appliances.

Which was also around the time my sailboat got hit by lighting too, and blew holes in the boat as well as the flashlight bulbs. Somehow the my kids thought I was attracting lighting so when ever a storm blew in they'd try not to be near me.

Whole house surge protection is a good idea. I also use isolation transformers for expensive electronics. Trouble is that IT can hum when doing their job, so it's best to have them in a utility room.

The only real surge suppression is putting a transformer between the gear and the wall.  Transformer's breaker blows up in a massive overload, gear doesn't.