This paper presents some inherent characteristics of a semi-active variable damper featuring electro-rheological (ER) fluid. The damping force of the damper can be selectively adjusted or controlled by employing electric field to the ER fluid domain. This is possible owing to the pressure drop across the piston occured by field-dependent variable yield stress of the ER fluid. This is fundamentally different than the performance of a conventional adjustable viscous damper. To demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority over the conventional one, the proposed damper is incorporated with a suspension system. A quarter car model with the suspension system is formulated and represented by a state equation. By choosing numerical values based on realistic package size, power requirements and suitable ER properties, the performance characteristics of the suspension system are obtained and evaluated in both frequency and time domains. The effects of constant electric field and on-off controlled electric field which relates to the damping force are also examined.