Major issues with lightning damage...HELP!

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feo

Honorary Master
Joined
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Location
Pretoria, South Africa
Hi guys

Over the past few years lightning has taken out my routers and modems countless times. I think I've probably had to replace them no less than 7 times. Whenever there is a thunderstorm and I'm at home I disconnect everything. Sometimes the lightning travels through the phone lines though even with the electronics disconnected from the mains, it still gets killed.

Latest incident was yesterday where my router and modem were plain dead when I got home.

Now I'm pretty sick of forking out R700 at a time to have these things replaced so I'm looking for solid advice from someone who knows how to prevent it happening.

I know the best way is to disconnect everything but that's not always practical. I've set up a raspberry Pi which needs an Internet connection on a periodic basis so shutting everything off before work everyday isn't an option.

I've bought an 8 way surge multiplug from Builders (comes with some R20,000 warranty value attached) and thought that would at least solve the issue but like I say, it seems like the lightning travels through the actual phone line as well.

What other preventative measures can I take? Is there something I can buy to protect the phone line? Also the multiplug seems like a bit of a Mickey Mouse protection mechanism, I'd like something a bit more robust, maybe something I could use to protect electronics across the house. I've been to Voltex and the guy there said there's something that can be put on the house's DB board, anyone know of that?

Any info on this would help greatly because this is really driving me up the wall and putting me seriously out of pocket.

Thanks
 
That 20k guarantee has some dodgy clauses in them, so don't count on that. Have you had an electrician checkout your earthing on your property?

I have had my modem connected in storms. Lost only a modem and mobo in one single incident. Got a Ellies power surge protector with phone line jack in and out too. Seems to do the trick.
 
This is what I have done:
(1) APC surge protector power strip connects to power
(2) APC UPS connects to APC (1)
(3) Another APC surge protector power strip connects to APC UPS (I had to change the plug so that I could plug it into the UPS)
(4) All hardware plugs into the 2nd APC power strip (the one connected to the UPS)
(5) Phone cable I run through the 1st APC power strip and then into the UPS and from there into the modem

In the last 3 years I only had my Airport Express die (I am not sure if it was "old age" or a surge).
 
LazerFazer said:
I've also had lightning issues, lost 2 modems and WiFi routers in the past 2 years, the latest being a strike through the telephone line. A friend suggested something like http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=198&products_id=20073, and I'm seriously considering getting one. It has ports for your data lines as well, so everything should be well protected.
Click to expand...

Can't go wrong with these, got 3 of them and a slightly different model for the DSTV.

But at the end of the day the best prevention is disconnecting everything.
 
feo said:
Hi guys

Over the past few years lightning has taken out my routers and modems countless times. I think I've probably had to replace them no less than 7 times. Whenever there is a thunderstorm and I'm at home I disconnect everything. Sometimes the lightning travels through the phone lines though even with the electronics disconnected from the mains, it still gets killed.

Latest incident was yesterday where my router and modem were plain dead when I got home.

Now I'm pretty sick of forking out R700 at a time to have these things replaced so I'm looking for solid advice from someone who knows how to prevent it happening.

I know the best way is to disconnect everything but that's not always practical. I've set up a raspberry Pi which needs an Internet connection on a periodic basis so shutting everything off before work everyday isn't an option.

I've bought an 8 way surge multiplug from Builders (comes with some R20,000 warranty value attached) and thought that would at least solve the issue but like I say, it seems like the lightning travels through the actual phone line as well.

What other preventative measures can I take? Is there something I can buy to protect the phone line? Also the multiplug seems like a bit of a Mickey Mouse protection mechanism, I'd like something a bit more robust, maybe something I could use to protect electronics across the house. I've been to Voltex and the guy there said there's something that can be put on the house's DB board, anyone know of that?

Any info on this would help greatly because this is really driving me up the wall and putting me seriously out of pocket.

Thanks
Click to expand...

This is an interesting post by a guy who took things quite seriously.

http://swik.net/GNOME/Planet+GNOME/Jim+Gettys:+Another+en-lightning+experience…/ej2nz

Perhaps it will help you too.
 
Surge protection will not stop a direct lightning strike, nor will a UPS. If its not direct then you've got more options, but for any real protection you'd need a double conversion UPS...so you end up spending a couple of grand to protect a couple of grand equipment. And the UPS will still get fried...

People will tell you they've got XYZ and they never had a problem. The issue is you don't know whether something is working until it doesn't.

Sure add some surge protectors for peace of mind. Pretoria is highveld though...you're going to lose some gear & its best to make peace with that.

feo said:
Sometimes the lightning travels through the phone lines though even with the electronics disconnected from the mains, it still gets killed.
Click to expand...
The phone line is actually more of a danger that the power line. ;)
 
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