Metal oxide varistors are widely used in many power electronics circuits to protect against transient overvoltages. Certain applications are very demanding on the energy handling capability of the varistors. This paper gives an overview of the failure modes of ZnO varistors and investigates their characteristics when subjected to repetitive current pulses. It describes the puncture failure mode caused by melting of a region in the varistor of local current concentration. Experimental tests are performed to evaluate the puncture energy using an infrared imaging camera. A relationship between the energy absorption and the varistor maximum surface temperature is obtained. It is shown that the destructive energy depends strongly on the uniformity of the varistor; the more uniform, the higher the energy handling capability. The paper also presents the results of nondestructive tests using a scanning acoustic microscope to evaluate the uniformity of the varistor. (5 pages)