Coaxial cable through surge protector

[gorcorps]

A lot of ground rods these days are galvanized copper clad rod. To get a good connection, you have to rub the galvanized off until you hit copper, and then put the ground clamp on. Use a copper acorn clamp instead of a pewter clamp.

Which is it, copper clad or galvanized? Those are two separate products and are not on the same rod. You have galvanized steel rods, or you have copper plate steel for ground rods. They have connectors that are aluminum coated copper, but those are galvalum, not galvanized and those are the connections... NOT the rod itself. The only time I've ever seen copper plated with zinc is with roofing stuff, but that's relatively new and it's a zinc-tin alloy. I don't believe it's a hot dipped galv process either.

http://www.reverecopper.com/freedom1.html

Plus you should never remove the zinc from a steel rod... EVER. You create a galvanic cell and your steel will be corroded in no time at all. Especially in soil. Unless you plan on resealing it that's a horrible decision.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Either way, it confirmed that my decision was right regardless of what happened. Otherwise I would have lost my pc and would have had to deal with my homeowners insurance.

http://www.criticalthinking.org.uk/tigerrepellantrock/

 

[Texashiker]

Which is it, copper clad or galvanized? Those are two separate products and are not on the same rod.

It is on the same rod - its a steel rod, clad in copper, and galvanized.

A simple google search

http://www.galvanelectrical.com/history/ground-rod-company.asp

Galvan manufactures hot dip galvanized, copper clad and stainless steel ground rods.

 

[gorcorps]

It is on the same rod - its a steel rod, clad in copper, and galvanized.

A simple google search

http://www.galvanelectrical.com/history/ground-rod-company.asp

Thanks for the proof? That link shows them separate too. Care to point out where I'm wrong? Commas separate lists... that was a list of 3 different products.

 

[Rubycon]

i don't care how much it cost, don't plug the cable into a surge protector. at best nothing will happen. at worst you are attenuating and distorting signals and creating a ground loop. the cable should already be grounded at the point of demarcation.

If the cable is properly grounded at the demarc then this takes care of 99% of your problems. NEVER use or think a surge arrester is going to help if you don't have a proper ground! Additionally, a surge arrestor must be properly installed and it needs a proper ground too! Often a surge arrestor - even a good one - is blamed when equipment failure does occur because it was not properly installed/used. And sadly enough in most of these cases if the surge arrestor was NOT installed at all damage would NOT have occurred. (sometimes due to improper installation and/or bad wiring damage occurs to another device as well!)

 

[Texashiker]

The only time I've ever seen copper plated with zinc is with roofing stuff, but that's relatively new and it's a zinc-tin alloy. I don't believe it's a hot dipped galv process either.

Plus you should never remove the zinc from a steel rod... EVER. You create a galvanic cell and your steel will be corroded in no time at all. Especially in soil. Unless you plan on resealing it that's a horrible decision.

After looking through google, the ground rods were probably coated in tin, and not zinc galvanized,,, unless something has changed since I was working in the cable field.

As for removing the galvanized or tin - when you use a copper ground clamp, going copper-to-copper creates a better bond, then going copper ground clamp through a tin/galvanized coating and into the copper clad of the rod.

After the ground rod was drove, the service techs were instructed to take our pliers, put the pliers on the ground ground about an inch from the end, then use a twisting motion to remove a small amount of the clad until we can see the copper. Then put the copper acorn clamp directly on the copper clad that had been exposed.

We removed just enough of the tin or galvanized coating to get a copper-on-cooper bond for our clamps.

 

[dyna]

Lightning hit my house and guess what, it spread its havoc by travelling through the ground wires, since everything is connected to the ground(per electrician). Ironically everything that was surge protected didn't fail. Cable lines laid waste to everything connected to it, I didn't have them surge protected. Afterwards, I did put surge protectors on my cable lines but I did my research and found products that appeared to have little/no impact on the signal. If it did impact the signal, I would have removed them.

 

[westom]

A coworker who lives in the same apartment complex had his laptop fried when lightning hit the cable box outside. It went through the cable modem, into his router and into his laptop.

Many use observation while forgetting how electricity works. If the surge was incoming on cable, then where was that same current going to earth? If current enters on the cable and does not also exit on some other conductor, then no damage exists. That current is everywhere in that path simultaneously.

But many assume current incoming on a cable is stopped by a protector. Cannot happen. If that current is incoming on cable, then that same current simultaneously (destructively) outgoing through a Monster or UPS, and into a modem and laptop. Nothing stops a surge.

Damage is most often incoming on AC mains. Every appliance is struck simultaneously. But only some appliances also have an outgoing path. Incoming on AC mains, through a laptop, through a modem, and to earth ground via the properly earthed cable. Surge exists inside all electronics simultaneously. Much later, only devices that futilely try to stop a surge are damage.

He had damage because a surge was all but invited to go hunting for earth via appliances. That surge hunted for and found a best connection destructively to earth. Protection only exists, as Ichinisan notes, when a surge is not even inside the house. Once inside his apartment, then nothing - as in nothing - can stop that surge.

KaOTiK has it wrong. UPS/Surge did not do anything useful. if a surge current was incoming destructivley through the UPS, then the exact same current was also outgoing into the PC. Protection inside the PC is often superior to any protection inside the UPS. Nothing stops a surge. That current was everywhere, simultaneously in a destructive path to earth. Only devices with inferior internal protection failed - the UPS. Grossly undersizing gets the most naive to recommend it.

The cable guy is 100% correct about not putting protectors on cable. It subverts signals even when those signals do not appear bad today. And makes electronics damage easier. Too many here only recommend a protector because the word 'protector' sounds like protection. Monster, et al do not even claim to protect from typically destructive surges. Read the numeric specs. No protection claims.

Protection means earthing a surge before entering a building. Best protection on cable means no protector. A wire from cable to earth does far more than any protector might do. Protectors too far from earth ground and too close to electronics have even earthed surges destructively through electronics. In some rare causes, a grossly undersized and ineffective protector has even created house fires. A problem that exists when surges are not earthed BEFORE entering a building.

Protection always means a surge current is earthed before entering. A protector on cable only does many bad things. A superior solution costs tens or 100 times less money. Effective protectors always have a low impedance (ie 'less than 10 foot') connection to single point earth ground. Best protector on the cable is a wire short (ie 'less than 10 foot') to earth. Either a surge finds earth before entering a building. Or it finds earth destructively via household appliances. Cable would be the outgoing – not incoming – surge path through a laptop and modem.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I know that running my cable through a surge protector was messing up my signal with some HD channels. As soon as I ran it direct to my cable box, everything was fine.

 

[Texashiker]

OP, here is a story for you.

After a thunderstorm moves through the area, maybe 90% of the service calls I went on the house was not grounded at the ground rod.

One house I went to, just about everything in the house was fried - central air unit, cable modem, router, all of the computers (3 or 4), garage door opener,,,,.

I went to the backyard to check the cable and see if it was grounded, and the main ground wire going from the breaker box to the ground rod was hanging loose.

The owner of the house speculated someone may have hit the ground wire with the edge of a lawnmower, and pulled the ground wire loose from the ground rod.

Having the house grounded is good, but there is no way to protect from a full blown lightening strike. One house, lightening hit the roof, blew a hole in the roof and caught the house on fire.

 

[Ichinisan]

Having the house grounded is good, but there is no way to protect from a full-blown lightning strike.

Would a lightning rod help? Maybe it will just attract lightning! Still safe, right?

 

[Ichinisan]

[snip]

This guy has made many knowledgeable posts on the issue of electrical protection. OP might want to look up some of the other threads you've posted in.

 

[westom]

Having the house grounded is good, but there is no way to protect from a full blown lightening strike. One house, lightening hit the roof, blew a hole in the roof and caught the house on fire.

Other reason for earthing (besides human safety) is lightning protection. A lightning strike to AC wires down the street is a direct lightning strike to all household appliances. Proper earthing and a 'whole house' protector make direct lightning strikes irrelevant. A direct lightning strike is typically 20,000 amps. So a minimal 'whole house' protector is 50,000 amps. Direct lightning strikes (and lesser transients) are the purpose of surge protection. A protector without that low impedance (ie 'less than 10 foot') connection to earth does not protect from typically destructive surges. If properly earthed, that protection should only make 99.5% of destructive surges irrelevant.

That was protection of appliances. Structure protection means lightning rods. Like a protector, lightning rods do not provide protection. Protection is defined by the quality and short connection to earth. Where energy dissipates. If an earthing connection does not exist, then no protection exists.

A surge that obtains earth via a wood building or via appliances is destructive. Protection is always about connecting lightning to earth on a path that is not destructive. That remains outside the building.

Anything that might stop surges is money wasted. Protection is installed to divert (not stop) every direct lightning strike (that threatens appliances or a structure) harmlessly to earth.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

remember kids, don't bond to hot water pipes because the water heater doesn't provide a continuous path. and don't bond to cold water pipes because there might be pvc. and don't bond to a gas pipe no matter what.

 

[XxPUBxX]

Some techs know what they’re talking about. Like the majority of sales reps at retail stores, a lot don’t. Could be something they’re told to say so they don’t get a bunch of people calling CS complaining about poor picture quality. If people would learn not to skimp on a product that is meant to protect their investments then that wouldn’t happen to them tho. If you bought APC for your surge protection then you should be fine as long as the cable was mad in a reputable Asian warehouse and not an underground sweat shop warehouse. (Jk ) And yes, not only can your ethernet be a route to your equipment capable of letting a surge thru, it’s actually more probable to get hit from a surge cause damage by lightning than your outlets are. For whatever reason, cable lines get hit a lot more. I lost a brand new PC I hadn’t had a week yet because a surge went thru my modem. Thankfully this was payout 15 years ago and CS actually meant something to places like Best Buy so a little bitching and I was able to get it replaced. That’ll teach me to buy a pre-built system like an idiot anyway lol. They do sell total home surge protectors that are easy to install on Amazon for like 200 bucks. Trust me it’s worth it. I forget the company but they will sell the coaxial line protection with it as a bundle and they’re fantastic as far as quality and CS goes. Hope the book helped. Take care