If a refrigerator, dishwasher, or washer suddenly stopped working around the time of a storm, a power flicker, or an outage, a power surge is very likely the cause — even if you never noticed anything dramatic happen at the time.

Signs of Power Surge Damage

Why Fort Myers Sees So Much Surge Damage

Florida has one of the highest lightning-strike rates in the country, and Fort Myers sees frequent afternoon thunderstorms throughout the summer on top of a full hurricane season running June through November. But most surge-related appliance damage is not actually a dramatic lightning strike. It is small, repeated surges — from storms, from grid switching, from the power coming back on after an outage — that quietly wear down a control board over months. An appliance can keep functioning after a surge, sometimes for weeks, before finally failing completely, which is exactly why the connection to a specific storm is not always obvious to the homeowner.

Protecting Your Appliances From Future Surges

A basic power strip with surge protection offers limited protection to whatever is plugged directly into it, and does nothing for hardwired appliances. A whole-home surge protector installed at the electrical panel by a licensed electrician protects every circuit in your home, including major appliances, and is generally a modest investment relative to the cost of repeatedly repairing or replacing storm-damaged appliances over the years.

Get Same Day Appliance Repair If You Suspect Surge Damage

If an appliance stopped working, started behaving erratically, or lost its display around the time of a storm, that context matters — tell us about it when you call. It often points us straight to a damaged control board or relay, which speeds up the diagnostic and gets you an accurate answer faster. This is especially common with refrigerators and ovens and ranges, since their electronic control boards are the most sensitive to surges. See our full hurricane season checklist to prepare before the next storm.