A good TV costs a lot of money, and it’s for good reason. Grabbing yourself a high-end Mini-LED or OLED panel might cost a few thousand dollars in some cases, but once you get it all set up, you’ll be blown away by how good it can look. It’s no surprise that a TV is often among the most expensive electronics people own.

With that information, it might shock you to know how little people take care of their TVs. I’m not talking about cleaning the screen off or anything like that, but I’m talking about where it’s plugged in. Electronics need to be next to an outlet to work, and for your TV, that typically means a wall outlet. If you don’t need any additional electronics plugged in nearby, there’s no reason to bring over an entire power strip, and that’s what a lot of people do. Relying on just your wall outlet, however, is a big no-no, and it could result in you having to get an entirely new TV well before you’re ready to.

Brand

LG

Display Size

42, 48, 55, 65, 77, or 83 inches

Operating System

webOS

Display Type

OLED

Display Resolution

4K

Refresh rate

165Hz (with VRR)

Be wary of power surges

A surge protector stops this

To be clear, I wasn’t always a believer in the power strip. A few years ago, I had my TV and an Xbox One S plugged into a wall outlet with no power strip, and it worked perfectly fine. There’s no performance boost to using a power strip, and since my wall provided all the power I needed for these two devices, I didn’t think anything of it. However, during a storm, my power went out. Luckily, my TV turned back on without an issue, but my Xbox One S didn’t fare as well. This was one of the Xbox One revisions that ditched the power brick, so I didn’t even have the buffer of the brick tanking a hit. What happened was my One S was fried, and if I had used a surge protector power strip, this wouldn’t have been a problem.

I have since moved into a house built in the 1950s, and as a result, I have many wall outlets that don’t have that third prong for grounding. Not only is this annoying for devices that have three prongs, but it actually gives me even less protection against power surges. I have a surge protector installed in my breaker box, but that’s more for my house’s safety than it is for my electronics. The answer to my problems is to either change out all of my outlets in favor of GFCI outlets (ground fault circuit interrupter) or get a surge protector strip. I did change out many of my outlets, but only the ones where I’d be plugging in expensive electronics.

My TV is now plugged into a surge protector that is in turn plugged into a GFCI outlet, so I don’t worry about power surges or anything of the sort as much as I did before. Surges aren’t as common as you’d think, and it took years for it to finally bite me. However, much in the way of people installing security cameras after experiencing a break-in, I bought something to protect my electronics after one was destroyed.

The nice thing is that a surge protector isn’t very expensive, and getting one brings a lot of benefits. Aside from the obvious protection of devices, you get more room to plug things in. All of my wall outlets only have space for two electronics at a time, but a surge protector strip can quadruple that. I don’t have that many things plugged in at once, but my living room strip has my TV, Apple TV 4K, receiver, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch 2, and 4K Blu-ray player all plugged in.

Protect your investment

You’ll thank yourself

If you look at it practically, a surge protector pays for itself almost immediately. My Xbox One S’s MSRP was $300, which is just a sad number to look at compared to today’s console prices, and it was wiped away with a single power surge. Meanwhile, Wirecutter’s top pick for best surge protector costs about $54 from Amazon at the time of this writing. If this one-time purchase can save your TV or game console from an untimely death, I’d say it’s well worth it.

It’s a much easier pill to swallow if your surge protector bites the dust and needs a replacement compared to your $1,000 TV. You don’t even have to spend this much on a surge protector if you don’t want to. Just know that it’s better to have something, even if it costs a couple of bucks, than nothing at all. If I could go back in time and plug my Xbox into one, I definitely would. These surge protectors are just too cheap for me to justify gambling on my expensive electronics anymore. If you’re still relying on your wall outlet for your TV, I beg you to get a surge protector.