I love technology and so I am always looking out for plugs or extension cables. Recently one of my belkin extension cables tried to burn down the house so when the chance came to review a power supply from All About Electrics, I jumped at the chance. I seem to own so many and yet I always find that I need more of them! Last week All About Electrics sent me their 8 Gang 2 USB Anti surge Extension Lead Power Tower so that I could review it. While I get to keep it this is an honest review of their product.

First impressions
Most power supplies, including all the ones I currently own, lie flat on the ground but this one stands up as a tall tower and taking up very little floor space. At first it seems like a big block of plastic that may seem out of place but then the sense of its design will quickly wash over you when starting to plan out where and how you will use it. I must admit that I am a messy person – I am renowned in my family for it. I love the idea of being choatically organised where to everyone else things look a mess but actually everything is organised. This does mean that freeing up as much desk as possible is really important – and this can be difficult when you need to be changing plugs. The current plug that I have been using has only been some cheap nasty extension cable with 4 plugs – compared to the power tower it takes up so much of my desk space for half the number sockets!

Once you get over the initial look you realise just how useful it will be – it is a really good design for a tech savvy person with the need to have extra plugs handy nearby without taking up too much desk space.

Anti-surge power tower

Design
This in its design is a perfect little desk extension cable as it takes up little desk space, easy to use and has great access to the two top USB sockets! That it so much less space than conventional designs for up to 10 things to be powered all at once.

It is such a clean design with crisp yet soft corners forming a tall white tower with two plug sockets on each side. All of the plugs are twisting around the tower in the same direction which is nice – this makes it really easy to figure out the direction any socket will be even on the opposite side. Once covered in plugs, it really does seem to change from its sleek and clean towering appearance – it almost seems smaller some how.

It is good to see that this design has a power and surge protected light – it will make it so easy to see if it is on and working. As someone who turns off things at the plug, it makes things so much easier when working out what is still on. In the past I have seen the terrible things that can happen when not using any form of extension cable without surge protection – I have saved hundreds of pounds worth of my own technology because of investing in surge protection while others in the same house have lost everything after a lightning storm or surge. This is such an important thing that I won’t buy extension cables without surge protection so it is great to see that this is a feature in this design. Both the lights are only on one side, meaning if you aren’t a fan of having two tones of LEDs shining at you, it is easy to turn it around. This isn’t an option with the flat laying extension cables and often I only use ones with switches for the bedroom – it is not fun trying to sleep with bright little LEDs keeping you up.

With an extra 2 metres from any plug, it is admirable length as often I have found that length often gets cut for the benefit of all the additional plug and USB sockets but not with this one it seems. It is nice to have both a decent length extension cable mixed with all the additional features.

Anti-surge power tower top viewUSB slots
I love how today you can charge phones, tablets and even a DS using a USB cable – the amount of times I have been able to charge my phone on the go with my laptop or using a work computer is ridiculously high! These days though, even with my USB extender, I am still often short of USB sockets when you add all the hardrives, graphic tablets, keyboards and mice for my laptop! As you can imagine it was quite a delightful experience being able to now charge phones or gadgets using these two additional plugs on top of the tower rather than using my precious few USB slots. As they are top, it appears to look scarce until you start to use it and understand the reason it has been designed that way – so your gadgets have plenty of space to rest while they charge.

Overview
The design is simple but it has actually got a lot of very clever aspects to it – the space surrounding the USB cables to the plug all twisting around in the same way. It is a very interesting and yet useful design especially within an office setting. Though it is not conventional I must admit that I like it and already it has replaced the previous extension cable which ate up so much of my desk. While I wish there was a switch, or the life time garentee that comes other extension cables, this is a really good design that will be useful around the house.

Do you like the design? Have you become extension cables obsessed? What do you look for when buying an extension cable?


Annabelle

Annabelle has lived in Exeter, Bournemouth and London but now live in Brighton as a freelancer. With a love of baking, sewing and social media, she is now starting her own blog.

1 Comment

Margot @ Coffee & Vanilla · April 17, 2015 at 10:19 am

I love those two little usb sockets on the top and the whole design is more appealing than traditional anti surge extension!

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.