Voltage Surge Suppressor - A fast acting circuit or device containing MOVs, Silicon Avalanche Diodes, Gas Discharge Tubes, or other components which suppresses voltage surges and spikes to a safe level. The energy in the surge or spike is either dissipated as heat in the protection components or is diverted to earth ground by the circuitry. Voltage Stabilizer - A switching device which selects appropriate windings of a transformer to maintain normal output voltage levels despite wide swings in the input voltage. Switching occurs after the power is non-normal for a few seconds. This device is commonly confused with a voltage regulating transformer but they differ greatly in response time.
Stabilizers are generally too slow to protect solid-state devices.
Power Line Conditioner - A PLC is a combination of a voltage regulating transformer with a super isolation transformer which provides smooth, regulated, noise free, AC voltage with no ohmic connection between input and output. A PLC will solve most problems other than complete power failure. Because of the numerous failures of otherwise well designed electronic equipment there has been quite a bit of research done on this subject. Much of it is not available to the general public or even to many engineers. Not until, that is, a problem develops and nobody can find out the cause.