EMP: Everyday Items You Didn’t Think Would Be Destroyed

An EMP generates a powerful electromagnetic pulse so intense that it can destroy a wide range of electronic devices and everyday items. Some of these might surprise you and need to be accounted for in your preparedness strategy.

An electromagnetic pulse can be generated by the strategic high-altitude detonation of a nuclear device. An EMP effect can also occur if a solar storm hits the Earth just right, like what happened during the Carrington Event of August 1859.

Now, you’re probably aware of how intense electromagnetic energy can affect sensitive electronics like your smartphone, and other solid-state electronics. However, some everyday items could also be destroyed by an EMP that you might not expect!

Refrigerators and Freezers

The sensitive electronics that control your domestic refrigerator and freezer’s compressor are highly vulnerable to the effects of an EMP. If the electromagnetic pulse’s source is nearby or extremely intense it can affect an everyday refrigerator/freezer’s compressor directly.

However, what’s more likely to happen is the EMP will propagate through the electrical grid. Once it enters your house, a powerful electrical arc can potentially bypass the 20-amp kitchen breaker in your circuit panel, making it to the refrigerator.

Possible Prevention Tip

Plugging a high-quality surge protector into the outlet, and plugging your refrigerator into it, might provide enough of a buffer to protect it from an EMP grid event. The flood of current will likely destroy the surge protector, but if the refrigerator survives, you might be able to run it off a generator!

Electrical Well Pump

If you have a rural property with an electrical well pump an EMP could destroy it and the critical components like the internal pressure switches. A well pump with a solenoid built into it is especially vulnerable.

Again, the worry here is two-fold, in that a powerful EMP can directly affect the well pump. Then it can also suffer a double whammy if there’s an electrical grid surge, as any surging current will likely be drawn to the powerful grounding effect the pump offers.

Possible Prevention Tip

One way to help protect your well pump from being destroyed by an EMP is to connect it to a lightning arrester. This is a separate arrester from the one your home should be connected to.

Should a grid surge of current make it to the pump or the EMP directly affect the pump, the lightning arrester then takes the brunt of it. This could leave you with the ability to then draw water post-EMP with a generator.

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Landline Phone

Not only can an EMP destroy a modern smartphone, but it can also destroy a landline phone. The intense electromagnetic energy will travel through the landlines even more easily than through standard power cables.

When it reaches your landline home phone, the EMP’s energy will then wreak havoc on the internal circuitry. It can even spark and hurt you if you happen to be holding the phone to your face at the time!

Possible Prevention Tip

Depending on the power and proximity of the EMP that destroys your landline phone, the local overhead phone lines might still be operable. It’s just that the charge grounds itself out at the device.

In a situation like this, you might be able to connect a backup phone or a rotary phone to the home jack. There’s a chance that you might be able to get phone service again, which could be handy in an EMP emergency of this magnitude.

Shield What Matters When Everything Else Burns

shield what matters most You’ve just seen how fragile your appliances, medical gear, cars, and smart devices are in an EMP event.

All those careful plans vanish the moment one surge wipes out your essentials—unless you take steps now to defend them.

That’s why you need the EMP Cloth.

This isn’t a gimmick—it’s military-grade shielding material that’s been tested, refined, and proven in high-stress scenarios.

Here’s exactly why it belongs in your prepper gear:

Full-spectrum protection: EMP Cloth blocks E1, E2, and E3 waves, shielding everything from radios to freezers.
Designed to cover generators: At 15 ft long × 3.5 ft wide, one strip can fully wrap most home generators—diesel, solar, or propane.
Signal isolation: Blocks RF, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and EMP waves. Wrap your phone or cards to block external signals.
Future-proof fallback: Use it to protect ham radios, backup drives, medical devices, or entire off-grid systems.

Without a protective barrier like EMP Cloth, even the most rugged generator or backup appliance is a sitting duck.

What You Do Next Matters

Order your EMP Cloth while it’s still in stock (they sell out fast).
Wrap your most vital electronics first—generator, inverter, radio, medical kit.
Keep a spare roll ready for later expansion or unexpected devices.

Don’t leave your survival systems exposed!

Click here to get your EMP Cloth now before it sells out!

Smart Thermostats & Similar Smart Home Devices

The sensitive circuitry in so-called “Smart” thermostats and similar smart home devices can be easily destroyed by an EMP. At the same time, your in-home Wi-Fi hub, routers, and modems are equally at risk.

So, even if your furnace, air conditioner of other home convenience features are still operable, the tech needed to control them properly would be destroyed. Modern efficiency essentially kills them.

Possible Prevention Tip

While you can’t save your smart thermostat from being destroyed by an EMP, it’s relatively easy to install a replacement thermostat in its place. For $20, you can keep one in your stocks just in case you need it to regain control of your home HVAC system.

Your Car’s PCM, ECU & TCM

Computer components like PCM, ECU, and TCM in cars built after the 1980s can be damaged or destroyed by the effects of a powerful EMP event. The level of vulnerability can vary depending on how the car is configured, the distance from the electromagnetic pulse, and the intensity of the EMP.

A car with a single PCM (Powertrain Control Module) has a more robust natural resistance to an EMP, but if affected, it will cripple the synchronized performance of the engine and transmission. A car with an ECU (Engine Control Module) and a separate TCM (Transmission Control Module) is more likely to have one or both affected by an EMP. However, if one of them survives you might be able to still limp the car to safety!

Possible Prevention Tip

Automakers have performed some basic tests on the effects of massive electrical surges on vehicles. While it’s not 100% clear, the research suggests that if the vehicle isn’t running the EMP is far less likely to affect the internal computer components.

So, your car sitting in the garage when an EMP strikes could be safe. Still, it might be wise to have less sophisticated means of backup transportation available. Even if it’s something as simple as a simple moped or dirt bike.

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Power Tools with Smart Chargers

While most modern power tools like reciprocating saws and screwdrivers are reasonably safe, the smart chargers that recharge their lithium-ion batteries can be destroyed by an EMP. This is even more likely to be an issue if the smart charger is plugged in an actively recharging a battery. It could even damage the battery that’s on it at the same time.

Possible Prevention Tip

If possible, try to prioritize power tools that use standard “Old-Fashioned” battery chargers. Then simply remove the battery when it reaches 100% to prevent damage from overcharging.

If you do have a power tool smart charger, you should always unplug it, and remove the battery it was just charging. This will reduce the risk of a surge making it through the lines to damage the charger. It will only be fully vulnerable when it’s plugged in and actively charging a battery.

Home Medical Devices, CPAP & Pacemaker

Home medical devices like CPAPS and insulin pumps are some of the more concerning things that can be destroyed by an EMP. Many of these devices can be interrupted or their performance arrested by electromagnetic interference, and an EMP is the ultimate form of high-intensity electromagnetic interference.

Older pacemakers in particular are highly susceptible to damage or severe service interruption by electromagnetic interference. If your heart function is largely dependent on one, an EMP could be a potentially fatal blow.

Possible Prevention Tip

Newer pacemakers are specially shielded to make them more resistant to electromagnetic interference than in the past. If you have one, and you have a replacement scheduled in the foreseeable future, don’t procrastinate the procedure.

If you’re modestly dependent on a CPAP device, insulin pump or other vulnerable home medical devices, you should strongly consider keeping a replacement in your preparedness stocks. As long as they’re kept unpowered, and preferably stored underground, they should be safe from being directly destroyed by an EMP.

Final Thoughts

Refrigerators, smart home devices, home medical equipment, landline phones, and smart chargers, are just some of the everyday items that an EMP can destroy. However, there are a few ways to protect yourself from totally losing their function.

This starts with keeping backups of things like landline phones, medical devices and even a simple replacement thermostat in your prepper stocks. Building a Faraday cage to keep these replacement items in, will give you a lot of added peace of mind.

Adding a lightning arrester to your house, and well-pump might also help reduce the risk of an EMP electrical grid surge destroying your home’s electrical infrastructure. Placing high-quality surge protectors near vulnerable devices like refrigerators, microwaves, and smart chargers might also save them from destruction.

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Diversify into hard assets that retain value when money fails
Structure cascading fallback systems for home, transport, and barter
Recognize early warning signals and shift resources before collapse hits

Don’t wait until the system fractures. Secure your copy of Dollar Apocalypse now and ensure you’re positioned to survive the financial storm as well as the electromagnetic one.