# Lost lots of gear to lightning today



## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

Living in the jungle, or more specifically the state of Florida, Ive come to accept certain things; Hurricanes and their associated tornadoes, serious flash-flooding from severe summer storms, and lightning strikes that are more numerous here in Florida than in any other region on the planet. 

Gosh, I was proud of the fact that my house had always bristled with electronics, dual theaters, 11 speakers, three zones, and a half dozen displays all interconnected and yet I had _never_ lost a piece of gear to lightning in over ten years of living in Florida! Even posted this two weeks ago in another thread:



TypeA said:


> Only loss Ive ever had in a decade of living in this very serious lightning state is a phone modem in a computer, diligence pays.


:foottap: Jinks anyone?

One lightning strike today cost me everything wire-connected to my wireless router. This included an xbox 360 elite, a samsung BDP1600 blu ray player, and my integrated NIC in the desktop. Also fried was my cable box. Whats interesting is that the cable company's modem itself and the _directly-involved router_, that every damaged component was connected to, survived unaffected from the lightning strike, go figure eh?

Ill put a usb wireless adapter in the desktop, and buy a used 360 console as most likely my hard drive and all accessories survived. A used BDP1600 blu ray player is about $100 on amazon and a used xbox can be had on craigslist for about $100. I figure Im out about $300.

Far as I can tell thus far, all big-ticket items like the projectors, avr and amp and the subs are fine. Havent been able to do a full check, but it appears the slingbox (which was also connected to the router) seems fine, strange when everything else connected to that router is toast.

My lightning-record has been tarnished! If it werent for your 250 sun-shiney days per year I would so curse you Florida!:spend:


----------



## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Man that is a disaster i'm not sure how i would handle that. Hopefully you have some kind of coverage that will help out. Sorry to hear about that.:crying:


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

What a way to lose some gear!..It sounds like your big ticket gear might have escaped..
How close was the lightning strike?


----------



## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

Dont know where it hit but I figure it was less than 15', scared the girlfriend really bad, tears and all. 

My tears didnt begin till I started checking gear.


----------



## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

TypeA said:


> Dont know where it hit but I figure it was less than 15', scared the girlfriend really bad, tears and all.


I'm not surprised..One hit in my back yard years ago..scared the living daylghts out of me and just about deafened me as well..Being that close, you get to feel how powerful they really are! :yikes:


----------



## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Sorry to hear of your trouble but in all actuality you got off lucky. A good friend I work with has been hit 4 times in the last 10 years. He has replaced most of his electronics and major appliances in his house. After the third time he installed whole home lightning protection. 2 months later he got hit again.


----------



## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

Mike P. said:


> Sorry to hear of your trouble but in all actuality you got off lucky.


Totally agree.


----------



## jinjuku (Mar 23, 2007)

Try getting struck twice in 7 years. With one of those times picking you up as you sat in front of your computer hands on keyboard and depositing you 6 feet away from where you sat...

Lets see:

Business Phone system (3COM NBX) Toast
Two servers Toast
Security / Alarm system Toast
Security Cameras Toast
Desktop computers Toast\
DLP TV Toast
Plasma TV Toast
Battery backups Toast 
The list goes on...

Stuff that was fine:
$20 MP3 player serving up music on hold
$50 DVD Player
$50 Cell phone (plugged in charging

$37K worth of equipment fried.

The neighbors saw the lighting start in the backyard and finsh in the front.


----------



## jinjuku (Mar 23, 2007)

Mike P. said:


> Sorry to hear of your trouble but in all actuality you got off lucky. A good friend I work with has been hit 4 times in the last 10 years. He has replaced most of his electronics and major appliances in his house. After the third time he installed whole home lightning protection. 2 months later he got hit again.


How did the whole house protection work out? Curious.


----------



## Mike P. (Apr 6, 2007)

Excellent. He said he didn't lose anything the forth time it hit.


----------



## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Grounding, grounding, grounding, and protection on every line that connects to the system...while it is very difficult to protect completely against a close hit, I have seen many systems with no damage when they are protected properly, right next to melt-downs that were not.

MOVs, diodes, and ground wire are cheap and effective...when applied properly.


----------



## Theresa (Aug 23, 2010)

My cable modem went out a few weeks ago after a close lightning strike. Nothing else was affected. As you say, go figure.


----------



## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Mike P. said:


> Excellent. He said he didn't lose anything the forth time it hit.


Thats a good testament, I may look into one of those for my place.

Its literally shocking how scary a close lightning strike is. I was outside at a friends acreage when a lightning bolt hit a pumphouse just across the road, WOW it was like the entire world blew up in my face, I still get shivers up and down my body when I think about it.


----------



## 1hagop (Apr 13, 2010)

I have a whole house surge protector in my GE breaker panel. No use for it yet but I figure $75.00 was not that much to pay. Do not know if it would protect from network line surge. I guess depends how the surge came into the network. like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Intermatic-IG1240RC3-Type-2-Protection-Device/dp/B003NVLWN2/ref=pd_cp_hi_2

for cable lines:
http://www.amazon.com/TII-Broadband-Cable-Lightning-Protector/dp/B0016AIYU6/ref=pd_cp_hi_1


----------



## TypeA (Aug 14, 2010)

Thanks for all the input and condolences folks. 

Spent $140 today on a very lightly used (manufactured 2010) complete Xbox elite with 1 controller, headset and chatpad. Also came with Bioshock 2, Guitar Hero 3 and 2 Guitars. Killer deal, gotta love craigslist 

Also spent $30 at Best Buy last night on a usb wifi adapter for the desktop, works like a champ. 

Good news and bad news. Blu ray player wasnt working because the power cord was plugged into the outlet on the back of the fried cable box. Plugging the blu ray player direct into the wall revealed its fine. Very cool, its also my pandora and netflix machine, glad its ok. However it looks like the Onkyo 3007 was damaged, which means this surge traveled through the coax, into the cable box, and out through the cable box hdmi (that was the only way the receiver was connected). Bad news, thats for sure.


----------



## RTS100x5 (Sep 12, 2009)

I guess youll be looking seriously at some AC FILTRATION / SURGE protection. I've been using PANAMAX for years and its save my equipment (paid for itself) more than once. IMO power fluctuation kills just as many electronics as lightning strikes, making AC/SURGE the most underrated / important piece of gear we can own. One of our customers (Texas) was struck and the house burnt to the ground before the fire dept could put it out. This was there new home they had lived in for less than 3 months. Needless to say the rebuild has whole house lightning ground protection. Not that it would have saved their house, but because of that horror story we wont sell a AV system without a sufficient protection unit which must be registered with all attached equipment lddude:


----------



## Moonfly (Aug 1, 2008)

Not read the whole thread, but would fitting a lightning rod not help prevent this in the future as well. If it struck again at least it would hit that rather than the power lines?

Just thinking out loud.


----------



## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

It does not take lightning rods nor expensive equipment to protect from lightning. EVERYTHING that enters the home should be grounded to the electrical service ground with as short a run as possible. EVERY signal line needs to have protection on it which grounds to that same ground rod. Every device should have a surge protector on the a.c. line. These can be relatively inexpensive devices. Whole house suppressor are also a good idea, but not the whole solution.

I have seen homes take direct hits to a tree or to a section of the house and not have damage to protected equipment when everything was properly grounded with MOV based protection on the ac lines and eitehr MOV arc gap, or diode protection on all of the signal lines.

Single point grounding and all lines protected is essential IMO. Which specific devices you use is less important.


----------



## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

My house took a direct hit about 10 years ago. All I lost, electronic-wise, was a couple of TVs and all the smoke detectors in the house. It ripped off the aluminum fascia on one end of the house and then every aluminum nail on the next section of fascia popped. And there was a small burn hole (about the size of a quarter) where the eave meets the house.


----------

