3-Sided Wall Surge Protector (5 Outlets, 4 USB Charging Ports)

I am not going to comment on the USB plug features nor the two plug to 5 plug expansion ability-these features may work fine as I never got around to checking this. This item was advertised as a ".....3 level complementary Surge Protector Circuit which composed of TVS, MOV (metal oxide varistor), GDT (gas discharge tube), with minimum 1680J energy absorbing capacity,...." Which attracted me to purchase this item. It even showed a picture of the circuit board with these components. The one I received looked the same on the outside as the description/photos. On the inside there were only three small 10mm Metal Oxide Varistors (they were on the thicker side for a 10mm MOV) with one 1 Amp thermal fuse. Each single MOV bridged the N-L, N-G, and L-G leads. The Brand Name Surge Protectors use 20mm diameter MOV's and stack them in parallel-at least on the L-N, to get the high rated joules .... that this one advertises with the 10mm MOV's. There were no Gas Discharge Tubes or Transient Voltage Diodes anywhere to be found on this board, nor the large 20mm MOVs as shown in the picture of the circuit. I suspect the 1680 joule rating as well due to the small size of the MOV's (10mm are usually in the 300 joule or less range) and not stacking them to increase the joule rating, with just one MOV on each leg pair. The MOV's were scrubbed of any manufacturer markings so I could not confirm their rating other than they looked like MOV's. I should have been suspicious of the low low price and that most of the very similar/same item with a different unknown distributor with random letters assembled name not advertising this feature (a few did though).... but hey.... this is Amazon, so it has to have these features since it is advertised it does. Maybe this product had these components/designs in the past but to be competitive on pricing they were removed and the description was never updated for the changed product. I promptly returned for refund since it was not as advertised. If you are buying for the expansion of wall outlets or the USB plugs or both and only looking for the basic minimal three small MOV surge protection (i.e. much lower joule rating than advertised) then this product maybe for you. I was seeking the extra/redundant surge protection as advertised but not provided so one star for this product. Remove that from the description and photo of 3 level complementary Surge Protector Circuit then maybe with the low low price this can be five stars. NOTE: there are allot of one star reviews related to short circuiting of this device causing magical black smoke that provides the energy to keep these running to escape and blackening the device and surrounding area and no longer having any magical smoke to keep it running properly. From what I saw I would suspect that the surge design was inadequate and overall not protected by the thermal fuse for when the MOV's clamped the voltage. The MOV's were scrubbed and maybe low quality having high failure rates-combined with a suspect no name thermal fuse or a mismatched thermal fuse for the MOV joule rating to open when fails and instead just short circuits. I did not experience this failure but commenting as I see how such would happen looking at the design and components used. I will add I saw two reviews with photos of the blackened area at the USB board area-I did not examine that board carefully so will not add additional comment about this. I will also add that these expansion plugs are dangerous as it allows you to plug in several high amp devices-and most folks that buy these types of things have no clue what that means. Many of the photos of the fires shown on Amazon originated from the plug. Combine an old loose receptable plug with one of these and several high amp devices you will get that magical black smoke coming out of your plug. It is clear from the photos that several of these photos are of this type of failure.