felix said:X and Y caps fail safe i.e open circuit - they have to, to get the rating.
Varistors usually fail short-circut, unless hit with enough energy in a spike. Then they explode in a quite spectacular manner![]()

This is what I suspected.
There are couple of parallel filter + varistor designs on the net by two people well known for their DIY projects. Neither of them incorporate a fuse or circuit breaker.
