(quoted from post at 13:56:06 07/22/16) I have the largest surge protector I could find on my dishwasher, located under the sink. It saved my dishwasher then I had issues with power line. Had to replace it, nothing left of it.
Never thought of it, but might be a good idea to put a surge protector on generator to remove spikes.
Surge protectors are tiny joule devices for transients that are rare - maybe one every seven years. If a protector is needed on a generator, then it will expire in maybe hours or days. Best protection at a generator is already inside that generator. Best and many times less expensive. The informed spend less for that internal protection from products such as Honda.
That protector at a dishwasher would be grossly undersized - as you observed. Both dishwasher and protector suffered same current simultaneously. That current (both incoming and outgoing at the same time from that protector) easily destroyed a near zero protector. And did not overwhelm robust protection already inside a dishwasher.
How many other appliances were also destroyed - LED bulbs, refrigerator, GFCIs, clocks, TV, FIOS or cable boxes, air conditioner, smoke detectors. If a surge that destroyed the dishwasher was so large, then everything else was also damaged. Why not? Because a surge was so tiny as to only destroy a near zero protector.
Grossly undersizing a protector gets consumers to wildly speculate, "My protector sacrificed itself to save my dishwasher." Reality, that near zero surge was too tiny to damage a dishwasher and all other appliances.
Protection is always done by an item that harmlessly absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules. Earth ground. Protectors do not do protection. Protectors are connecting device to what absorbs energy. If a protector does not make a low impedance (ie less than 10 foot) connection to single point earth ground, then it does not even claim to protect from destructive transients.
Plug-in protectors either 'block' or 'absorb' that energy. How does its 2 cm part block what three miles of sky could not? It doesn't. How does its hundreds or thousand joules absorb a surge that is hundreds of thousands of joules? It will not even discuss that other and typically destructive surge. Do everything to avoid and ignore relevant numbers.
Best protection is one 'whole house' protector, for about $1 per protected appliance, connected low impedance (ie hardwire has no sharp bends or splices) so that even near zero plug-in protectors are protected. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.
What is critical for making that 'whole house' protector effective - even if installed by the utility? A low impedance (ie hardwire not inside any metallic conduit) connection to what does protection - single point earth ground. Only the homeowner is responsible for installing and inspecting that.