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Debate with a commercial installer about grounding blocks
He said bonding the ground to the water pipe is old school and coax surge protectors do it better, but after seeing a lightning hit take out his whole rack last spring I started wondering if the old ways actually had more layers of protection, what do you guys think?
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rileyprice6d ago
Oh man, I feel for that guy. It's rough when you put faith in new gear and it just doesn't hold up when it counts. I've seen that exact thing happen before, a whole rack fried because the "better" approach was maybe a little too clever for its own good. The old grounding to the water pipe might look basic but it's about covering your bases, not just playing favorites with one gadget. Sometimes the old school methods stick around because they actually work in real messy situations like lightning.
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@rileyprice nailed it lol. The water pipe ground is a low impedance path straight to earth, and that's hard to beat when lightning sends 20k amps looking for a ride. Those coax protectors are great for surges but they can't handle a direct hit's energy dump like a solid bond can. Seen too many "modern" setups turn into expensive charcoal briquettes because they skipped the basics.
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