Electrical Storms: Ever lost electronics?

[GTaudiophile]

I grew up in a family that unplugged everything (at least anything of value) at the sound of thunder. Did anyone else grow up like that? Anyone ever lose electrical items due to a storm? I mean in regards to getting zapped only. Not flooding or fire, etc. If you did, do you now unplug your stuff?

I have never lost anything. *knocks on wood*

Just curious.

 

[Ferzerp]

When I was in my teens (in the 90's) we seemed to lose a modem every year or two to electrical storms. Other than that, no.

 

[trmiv]

A few years ago I lost a cable modem, and a wireless router. Came in right through the cable line, then through the ethernet cable to the router.

Last week a strike right outside took out stuff in the Time Warner junction box and I lost internet for three days.

My parents who live about 8 minutes from me lost their bedroom TV last week in the same storm that took out my internet. It wasn't on a surge protector.

In the spring and summer it storms so frequently here that I don't bother unplugging anything. I'm sure it will bite me at some point, but it's such a pain to do it so often.

 

[Genx87]

I lost one wireless router. It wasn't very good anyways. But that is it. I suspect electronics are better shielded and we have better power systems than decades ago.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, I've lost stuff occasionally. I also saw the transformer or whatever that was on the pole spark up like fireworks during a storm.

Since then I have installed a whole home surge arrestor, and have surge suppressors or UPS units for most of my important electronics. I also have a network surge surpressor on one of my Gigabit Ethernet lines, since that line exits the house to an IP camera.

My neighbour's house was actually hit by lightning though. Burnt the metal railings on the roof, and fried all sorts of electronics in his house, and sent pieces of bricks from his patio flying everywhere in his yard.

His situation was a little different though. His house is an odd design, with a metal structure going from the ground to the roof supporting the centre of the house, with the floors of the rooms hung off that metal structure, plus he has a mini-patio on this roof, with metal railings. So basically his house is a giant lightning rod.

 

[balloonshark]

When I was a kid we were taught that watching lightning was interesting. We were watching a storm out my sisters window and saw a ball of light head right towards us. After the boom we ran down the steps to where my mother was napping. She was awakened by the boom, and said a spark jumped from lamp to lamp on either side of the couch. It turns out it killed our fridge.

I always try to unplug everything when it's going to storm or when I hear a storm. A few years back I didn't make it in time. I think lightning came in through the cable. Somehow it let the modem live and killed my router, vonage device and the nic on my motherboard. Luckily it didn't make it to the ps3 that was connected via ethernet.

I also always unplug the cable and I placed it next to a baseboard heater so if it did get hit it would hopefully ground to the heater instead of something else. Last year there was a close strike and I could here a snap as it grounded against the heater.

Another odd thing I've noticed. There are two battery operated smoke detectors in the hallway. Whenever there is a close strike they will go off for a few seconds.

 

[Dulanic]

Nope, never. Maybe I'm lucky, but even when I worked retail way back when I didn't see too many people saying they were replacing sometime due to a storm etc.. just on occasion.

 

[slag]

When I was a kid we were taught that watching lightning was interesting. We were watching a storm out my sisters window and saw a ball of light head right towards us. After the boom we ran down the steps to where my mother was napping. She was awakened by the boom, and said a spark jumped from lamp to lamp on either side of the couch. It turns out it killed our fridge.

I always try to unplug everything when it's going to storm or when I hear a storm. A few years back I didn't make it in time. I think lightning came in through the cable. Somehow it let the modem live and killed my router, vonage device and the nic on my motherboard. Luckily it didn't make it to the ps3 that was connected via ethernet.

I also always unplug the cable and I placed it next to a baseboard heater so if it did get hit it would hopefully ground to the heater instead of something else. Last year there was a close strike and I could here a snap as it grounded against the heater.

Another odd thing I've noticed. There are two battery operated smoke detectors in the hallway. Whenever there is a close strike they will go off for a few seconds.

I believe the ozone affects them.

 

[nageov3t]

I suspect that I lost my DSL modem/router and my computer's onboard NIC to one.

it's the only explanation I can think of... came home from work one day after it had been storming in the afternoon to discover that my modem/router was totally DOA (wouldn't power on whatsoever) and my desktop's onboard nic was no longer registering.

 

[mmntech]

Never, knock on wood. I've been lucky, but I know people who have.

I do have surge protectors on anything valuable. I'll unplug it though if I know a storm is coming.

 

[minendo]

Back in the 80's before surge protection was popular my dad lost a high end Onkyo receiver and record player. After that high dollar items were unplugged during bad storms until we had surge protectors.

 

[nickbits]

I lost a 33.6k modem. I used to unplug things half of the time. Now, I never do.

 

[ElFenix]

parents lost a cable box, the hdmi board in a tv, and some other stuff to a nearby lightning strike a few years ago

 

[matricks]

I grew up in a family that unplugged everything (at least anything of value) at the sound of thunder. Did anyone else grow up like that?

Sounds just like me. Well, not everything. We unplugged electronics (computer, TV, stereo, modem too if we had one). With fridge, freezers, lamps and such we took the risk. Lightning was most common in the middle of the night, so if we didn't stay awake to plug it back in food might be ruined anyway. I still follow the same discipline, and haven't lost a thing that I can remember.

My girlfriend had a lightning strike very close at her old place, lost every piece of electronics on her desk. Laptop, printer, label printer, modem, router, phone, the works. Lots of shopping to do after that.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Yep!

Lightning hit a tree next to our house which then arced over and fried the cordless phones in the house, fried the NIC in my PC, and fried a few other things as well.

I was lucky that it was only the NIC that went, the cable modem that it was plugged into apparently survived.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Parents lost a Commodore 64 to that - motherboard replacement. So we became the unplugging-people after that.

I don't bother. My housemate unplugs her electric piano, but leaves her computers and stuff plugged in.

 

[Imp]

Nothing yet. Almost everything is on a surge protector though... But we didn't have a ground line until a couple years ago thanks to knob & tube shit. Almost never unplug -- too lazy.

 

[Eug]

Nothing yet. Almost everything is on a surge protector though... But we didn't have a ground line until a couple years ago thanks to knob & tube shit. Almost never unplug -- too lazy.

In Toronto, many insurance companies will refuse to insure you if you have knob and tube, and even if they do insure you, it's often not worth it because the insurance rates can be sky high. On friend was quoted a couple of thousand $ extra per year unless she changed her wiring.

For this reason, and because it's less safe, almost all the people I know who bought knob and tube homes immediately rewired with modern wiring before moving in.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Yeah. Our house was hit by a lightning strike. All elevator electronics were fried and some surge protectors had to be replaced.

 

[Mixolydian]

Never. Everything is on surge protectors anyway (which are insured).

 

[skyking]

I saw a TV die after watching the lightning hit a transformer a hundred yards away, It got very bright and that was that. I was the only one facing to see the strike and everybody else screamed like little girls from the explosion.
I think I lost a router or something to lightning, but the worst event was a server power supply that went rogue on me and fried every board in there. NIC, hard drive controllers, vid card, you name it. I came home to a very sad smell in the house, the smell of lost files.

 

[z1ggy]

Never lost anything, but I made sure to plug the important things into a good surge protector. Not 100% guaranteed to work, but certainly much better than just going right to the outlet.

 

[Imp]

In Toronto, many insurance companies will refuse to insure you if you have knob and tube, and even if they do insure you, it's often not worth it because the insurance rates can be sky high. On friend was quoted a couple of thousand $ extra per year unless she changed her wiring.

For this reason, and because it's less safe, almost all the people I know who bought knob and tube homes immediately rewired with modern wiring before moving in.

Yep, that's why we did it. Torn out walls everywhere, almost $20k pissed away.

P.S. Thanks a lot, assholes. I went and updated my external/disconnected backups over the past two hours because of this thread. Reorganized my primary backup too. I had shit everywhere...

 

[Jeff7]

Once. It nuked a TV and VCR, back when VCRs were expensive enough to warrant the existence of VCR repair shops.
Lightning had scored a direct hit on the pole that fed the house. Yes, it was loud.

For the next 2 years, we'd occasionally find pieces of the transformer while mowing.

 

[bbhaag]

Yeah, I just lost a $2200 cash register and a $1200 printer about a month ago. Before this freak occurrence I've never lost an electronic device due to lightening but it does happen.