[Amps] MOVs

[Ken Brown]

>
>   A similar thing happened with garden variety  130 v rated MOV's....
> too many house fires.  Modern MOV's  for 120/240 v use, will  have a 3rd lead sticking out [offset to one side]
> and an internal fuse built into em. 
>
>   
 I don't understand how this can be a useful device. I thought that MOVs 
were supposed to draw lots of current, instead of letting it got 
elsewhere causing damage to more expensive and sensitive electronics. I 
had always thought of MOVs as sort of "sacrificial" devices, intended to 
blow up under the worst power surges, and mounted  inside a metal 
cabinet so that when they do blow up nothing else is damaged. I would 
never mount an MOV where it could set fire to something else.

DE N6KB