HDTV Forum

Surge and lightning suppression products are full of snake oil. To protect yourself you must understand the fundamental requirements for these products to actually work. First off you want lightning protection and if this is done correctly then surge protection comes with it.

1. It MUST say lightning on the box or in the warranty. If it does not move on.

2. It MUST come with insurance. If it does not move on.

3. Even if it has the above it MUST also have all the connections necessary to actually perform what is claimed. To protect the equipment from lightning you must create a barrier between the outside world and your stuff. This means if you have cable, dish, and an outside antenna you will need 3 antenna in/out connections for all three sources. Most dish receivers also use the phone line so you will need a phone in/out jack also. All equipment AC must be connected through the suppressor. Do not bypass the suppressor. If you have more AC plugs than the suppressor supports get another one or plug an AC strip into it. Do not bypass the suppressor.

One connection that must be utilized is the round ground pin of the AC plug on your surge suppressor. If you defeat the ground pin of the AC plug or if the ground circuit of your house is faulty the suppressor WILL NOT WORK!

Check the following post for other possible problems with grounding...
viewtopic.php?t=4470

Problem Examples:
I have many customers who have such a product hooked up correctly. They buy a DVD player and connect the AC directly to the wall. You just bypassed the suppressor and it will not work correctly.

I had another customer that purchased a suppressor and hooked everything up correctly except for one thing. On the antenna out from the suppressor they hooked up a 2 way splitter. One end went to the TV. The other end went to a cable that went outside and around the house to another room to a TV that was plugged directly into the wall. They bypassed the suppressor and it will not work correctly. I simply moved the splitter to the input side of the suppressor.

I have a few customers who have such a product hooked up correctly but find on the back of the TV a cable from the TV audio out that goes to another area of the room where the stereo system is that is plugged directly to the wall. They bypassed the suppressor and it will not work correctly.

Be careful of whole house protection and read the fine print. The last one I looked at for a customer did not cover damage due to lightning, cable or telephone. It had to be a power surge.

If you are having problems with lightning your best solution is whole house protection AND suppressors.

4. If you should suffer a hit there are typically only 2 results. Either the suppressor will absorb the energy or it will sacrifice itself. If you are having problems with your stuff then bypass the suppressor, If everything works again then it did it

I was stunned to see so much good advice without mention of the most important aspect of any suppression system...grounding. We see many systems in which antenna, satellite, or cable lines into the home are not grounded properly (a violation of electrical codes) and systems with loose or corroded ground connections. Without good grounding, no surge suppressor can work properly.

Also, it is important for surge suppressors to have protection across all three combinations of the ac lines, hot-gnd, hot-neutral, and neutral-gnd. If the grounding is faulty or becomes damaged, some protection may be found in the other pathways.

Thanks Leonard!

Nice article!!

I would like to add that even though a "Ground" light or "Fault Protection" light indicates the unit is connected to a grounded plug, that may not be the case. A grounded satellite system which is powered by that surge unit may give a false indication that the unit is plugged into a grounded outlet. This article explains further. http://www.dbsinstall.com/diy/Grounding-8.asp

I've found alot of telephone line surge suppressors prevent the caller id signal from getting thru to the intended decoding device. Any suggestions ?

Carlsdad, great addition and huge point. I carry an outlet checker with me!

Hi -

I've read these 'posts' and now am curious about one item.....no one seems to have mentioned a specific #6
copper ground (literally) from the metal mast to a copper-clad steel rod in the earth, using the appropiate connectors. This was the case....has it been altered?
And, of course, it would have to be a residence, NOT a commercial building, etc.. eli whitney

That has to with installing an antenna and is not directly related to the topic of this thread. Bear in mind that if each topic or article were to cover every little parameter it would quickly become a book.

Richard...

Gotcha!! understood. eli whitney

I read your article re the surge protector. I bought a thirty-eight dollar one from Costco and plugged all my perpherials into it. The only problem is is that I get better reception/clarity of vision via the wall socket than I do when using the surge protector. I was befuddled for when purchasing it I thought it would be the very opposite of what I am experiencing. All the other products seem to work fine and they are plugged into the surge protector.

jtmj