Dan.H Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 On Sunday August 9th my house got struck by lightning. Well not actually the house but it hit in my side yard travelled up my cable line burned a hole in the heat pump refrigerant line and took out 3 computers, a rounter, a modem and 2 xboxs. Luckily all was covered by insurance as none of the surge protectors worked. Lesson learned and as I get my stuff up and running I now have spent a little extra this time for better electrical protection. You live and learn. Good to be back I was goin nuts without a computer at home and lost two weeks of work on my site and possible business. Just thought I would put something out as a warning. Spend the extra money on good protection for your electronics. My LCD TV's had top of the line surge protection and didnt get a scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted August 20, 2009 Report Share Posted August 20, 2009 On Sunday August 9th my house got struck by lightning. Well not actually the house but it hit in my side yard travelled up my cable line burned a hole in the heat pump refrigerant line and took out 3 computers, a rounter, a modem and 2 xboxs. Luckily all was covered by insurance as none of the surge protectors worked. Lesson learned and as I get my stuff up and running I now have spent a little extra this time for better electrical protection. You live and learn. Good to be back I was goin nuts without a computer at home and lost two weeks of work on my site and possible business. Just thought I would put something out as a warning. Spend the extra money on good protection for your electronics. My LCD TV's had top of the line surge protection and didnt get a scratch.Yeah, I just tend to unplug anything valuable when it storms real bad whether I have a good surge protector or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan.H Posted August 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2009 Yeah, I just tend to unplug anything valuable when it storms real bad whether I have a good surge protector or not I didnt even know it was storming till the shock came through my mouse and had me jump out of my seat. I didnt even hear the strike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted August 22, 2009 Report Share Posted August 22, 2009 I didnt even know it was storming till the shock came through my mouse and had me jump out of my seat. I didnt even hear the strike.Ouch!!! Never had that happen *knocks on wood* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan.H Posted August 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 Ouch!!! Never had that happen *knocks on wood* LOL yeah hurt like a you know what. Learned my lesson though. Like you do I am unplugging stuff in a lightning storm. Im getting Fios this week who knows what lightning will do with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted August 24, 2009 Report Share Posted August 24, 2009 LOL yeah hurt like a you know what. Learned my lesson though. Like you do I am unplugging stuff in a lightning storm. Im getting Fios this week who knows what lightning will do with that?Fiber lines shouldn't conduct electricity but I would still unplug it either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sremick Posted August 27, 2009 Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 Used to work in a retail computer shop. My standard line was: "surge suppressors are like armor. You get what you pay for. Price the surge based upon the value of what you're protecting... that $10 surge might be good for your VCR, but not your computer. And nothing will protect you against a close-enough strike... think about what lightning is: millions of volts of electricity passing through open air. You really think any amount of electronics confined into 1 foot is going to block that?" Sucks about your situation though. What kind of surges failed? Just for my mental notes. But yes: when in-doubt, unplug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan.H Posted August 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 Used to work in a retail computer shop. My standard line was: "surge suppressors are like armor. You get what you pay for. Price the surge based upon the value of what you're protecting... that $10 surge might be good for your VCR, but not your computer. And nothing will protect you against a close-enough strike... think about what lightning is: millions of volts of electricity passing through open air. You really think any amount of electronics confined into 1 foot is going to block that?" Sucks about your situation though. What kind of surges failed? Just for my mental notes. But yes: when in-doubt, unplug. Not one surge protector even clicked off. The lightning came in through the cable line. Every person from my friend who fixed the heatpump, the insurance adjuster to the fios guy who just installed my fios (WOOHOO what a difference) not one of them ever heard of that happeneing. All my computer stuff fried. When I went through trying to get the cable to work I had to put in all new splitters cause the backs blew off and the internal stuff was just gone. Thankfully insurance payed for it all and now im even saving money with verizon fios. No one was hurt well other than my right hand. LOL Just remember unplug or protect your cable lines too. Electricity arced from cable line across a refrigerant line to my heat pump and melted a hole in the line. Thank god cause after investigating the refrigerant more than likely put out the fire in the blackened insulation. Thanks for your responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael D. Posted August 28, 2009 Report Share Posted August 28, 2009 I have always unplugged phone lines and cable lines (dsl and cable respectively) when I unplugged the power. I once had lightning come in through a phone line and destroy my DSL modem, two ports on my router, and every NIC port on every system plugged into that router. Thankfully I had 3 more ports on the router and an extra NIC port on each PC Recently the first strike of lightning (didn't even know storms were coming) took out my raid array in my computer - lost a Raid5 3x500gb drives unfortunately - the controllers on-board for the drives were fried but strangely enough nothing else was damaged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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