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[HyperionAlpha]

I remember the general rule of thumb that wall warts such as cell phone chargers, laptop chargers, game console power supplies, battery backups, and some HDTVs can either be signal suckers, or noise generators.

What about surge protectors? Does the same rule of thumb apply here? Or does it vary?

I was thinking about getting some Belkin surge protectors that have built in USB chargers for my phones, but I don't want to drop the $20 on one if it introduces noise or interferes with the stability I have right now.

[Brian H]

May vary by the exact model surge strip.
Some with simple MOV's across the input power would probably be fine.
Those with power line conditioning could effect X10 and other power line communications signals.
I suspect the Belkin may have line conditioning in it. To at the least keep the USB charger noise from getting back onto the power lines. It may act as a signal sucker and any X10 controller plunged into it would probably not work well.

[bkenobi]

I have some strips that cause problems and others that don't.  The best advice I can give is buy them locally and use the XTBM to see if they cause issues.  If they do, you can either return and try again with a different type or use a filter of some kind.  The problem is, the filter is more expensive than the surge protector so it's only worth it if it's a pretty fancy unit.  I have to use a filter on about half of mine.  The ones that are simply splitters with toggle switch seem to be ok.  The ones with surge protection are the ones I seem to have problems with.

[toasterking]

I've had the same experience as @bkenobi.  I prefer to use the cheap power strips labeled as "Temporary Power Tap" which are just a power switch/circuit breaker in series and a bunch of outlets in parallel because I know they won't cause problems.  In some cases, I've been known to buy power strips with surge protection because of their form factor or other features, find out that they're blocking the X10 signal in some way, and open them up and either remove components or add a jumper to bypass the surge protection, depending on what is inside.  Yes, this voids the UL certification and is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, and yes, it also cures the problem. 

As far as surge protection, I use a whole-house surge suppressor at the breaker panel that is compatible with X10 and I like to tell myself that I don't need additional surge protection because of that.  You may know better than myself, but please, let's just keep it our little secret from myself.