Tributaries PWRS-T8/T1 Power Strip Review

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For the second time in 10 years our cabin in the Pennsylvania mountains was struck by lightning. And for the second time in 10 years walls had to be opened and the house rewired before it could be usable once again.  Not fun at all. (And that is WITH a lightning box installed!)

This time, unfortunately, it wasn’t just the wiring that suffered. The casualties were numerous.
The stove has cooked its last omelet.  The dishwasher has seen its last dirty dish.The washer and dryer have seen their last load of laundry.  In all, the damage was both extensive and expensive.

The one bit of good news in all of this is that I had the smarts to put a heavy duty power surge strip in the media cabinet and, as a result, the TV, stereo, and a WiFi router survived.

A few weeks ago Tributaries sent me two of their power strips to review. My mountain-top experience has made me truly appreciate these unsexy devices and I am impressed by the company’s ability to take such a boring item and come up with a significant innovation. So many of today’s electronics have such massive adapters that they often block a significant portion of the available plugs on any given power strip. What good is a ten outlet strip if only 6 of them are actually usable?


Tributaries has come up with the best solution I’ve seen yet by allowing six of the eight outlets on their T8 power strip to rotate up to 180°. This allows each of individual device’s power adapters to swing out of the way of the next. In that way all eight outlets are always fully functional with even the most massive power adapters.

Add to that the fact that The T8 includes DSS/Cable protection and 2160 Joules of protection and you definitely have a “better mousetrap”.


Tributaries also sent along the company’s T1 Rotating outlet. The T1 is a single plug that rotates a full 360 degrees. A 12A, 1875 Watts device, it provides 202 Joules of surge protection for a single device. Quite handy for those who travel frequently and definitely something I’ll be bringing along on vacation next week.

In all I am very impressed with the power protection system from Tributaries. While far from the sexiest of gadgetry, as my mountain experience shows, it might just be one of the most important.
The Tributaries T1 has suggested price of $20.

The T8 has a suggested retail price of $50.

Details and information can be found here.

What I like-
Priced right
High level of protection
Unique design that solves silly power-adapter problem

What I don’t-
Nothing

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About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.