[JerryRigged]

So my house is not properly grounded according to my TWC guy which is effecting my modem causing it to fry out monthly I live in an apartment and my landlord has given me the option to do it my self so I said ok and she will reimburse me for any thing used problem is I work on computers I have a wire stripper the biggest tool I have is a socket set I bought from harbor freight.... Any way I need help I know I need an 8 ft grounding rod I have plenty of wire the guy from TWC gave me a whole spool of solid core (along with 1000ft of cat6 I love this guy) since it was his last day and the clamps to ground it as well just not sure how the hell I am going to do this the landlord takes months if not longer if I have her hire someone to do it. I have to hound her daily and most of the time it still never gets done so it is up to me! What do I need to rent what do I need to buy and how do I do it? Please help I am utterly lost and this is my 4th modem in 3 months they said if it keeps happening they will not supply cable to my home any more. I do not have the money to hire a professional unfortunately and I don't want to shame my father who was a master electrician he passed away years ago and I figure maybe pick up on his trade Again Any Help Thank you so MUCH

 

[AllanJ]

deleted .....................................

 

[AllanJ]

A proper house ground (grounding electrode system) will help prove that the frying of modems and cable equipment is not your fault but is not mandatory for proper operation of the modem etc.

You do need a proper neutral starting with the incoming (usually) combination ground and neutral and support wire from the utility pole to your home.

What you need to do now is disconnect the modem and verify that hot to neutral voltages are the correct and unchanging approx. 120 when you apply varying loads (use a hair dryer) to different circuits. This is to possibly reveal a neutral problem in your system.

Also you need to measure voltage between the incominb cable company coax cable shield (plug), hanging loose, and your neutral. Do several measurements here, too, with the hair dryer plugged in in different places about the house. You should not connect the cable plug if you measure voltage between it and the jack (stud) you are about to connect it to.

Is the main water line for your home made of metal? If so do you have a ground wire (grounding electrode conductor) from your panel neutral bus bar to near where that pipe exits the house underground? This is required in addition to ground rods.

 

[JerryRigged]

A proper house ground (grounding electrode system) will help prove that the frying of modems and cable equipment is not your fault but is not mandatory for proper operation of the modem etc.

You do need a proper neutral starting with the incoming (usually) combination ground and neutral and support wire from the utility pole to your home.

What you need to do now is disconnect the modem and verify that hot to neutral voltages are correct when you apply varying loads (use a hair dryer) to different circuits. This is to possibly reveal a neutral problem in your system.

Also you need to measure voltage between the incominb cable company coax cable shield (plug) and your neutral..

Frying it I guess is the wrong wording it is causing a it to be very slow and they just replace it saying it is fried. Until today they said it is grounded wrong not sure just in case they gave me another modem.

 

[JerryRigged]

A proper house ground (grounding electrode system) will help prove that the frying of modems and cable equipment is not your fault but is not mandatory for proper operation of the modem etc.

You do need a proper neutral starting with the incoming (usually) combination ground and neutral and support wire from the utility pole to your home.

What you need to do now is disconnect the modem and verify that hot to neutral voltages are correct when you apply varying loads (use a hair dryer) to different circuits. This is to possibly reveal a neutral problem in your system.

Also you need to measure voltage between the incominb cable company coax cable shield (plug), hanging loose, and your neutral. Do several measurements here, too, with the hair dryer plugged in in different places about the house. You should not connect the cable plug if you measure voltage between it and the jack (stud) you are about to connect it to.

Is the main water line for your home made of metal? If so do you have a ground wire (grounding electrode conductor) from your panel neutral bus bar to near where that pipe exits the house underground? This is required in addition to ground rods.

It is all PVC or plastic I think even though that is where it is currently "grounded"

 

[brric]

IMO you had better hook up somehow with someone who knows what they are doing.

 

[JerryRigged]

IMO you had better hook up somehow with someone who knows what they are doing.

Need to find someone in San Antonio Texas

 

[AllanJ]

For starters, you need to rent equipment to pound the ground rod in all 8 feet. It can go down at up to a 45 degree angle with vertical if you are unable to pound it straight down.

You need two of these ground rods, at least 6 feet apart.

Put the ground rods outside near where the first master breaker or switch is (n an electrical box or breaker panel enclosure) for the building. Use 6 gauge copper wire to connect the ground rods to the neutral connection inside the box.

 

[JerryRigged]

Hmmmm what kind of tool can I used to pound it in?? And is the Master Breaker the Box with the Meter on it? or near there?

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Do a 1 call before driving the rod, then check with a local rental for the availability of a T-Iron post driver. By the time you have the first 6 ft. in the dirt you'll have determined how to put the last 2 ft. in.

 

[jbfan]

Being an apartment, Im sure you are not allowed, even with permission from the LL, to do the work.

I would never take the word of a cable company about grounding.
That is the base comment when they have no clue why their stuff isn't working.


When were the apartments built? Any other people having problems?

This is a job you need to step away from.

 

[JerryRigged]

Being an apartment, Im sure you are not allowed, even with permission from the LL, to do the work.

I would never take the word of a cable company about grounding.
That is the base comment when they have no clue why their stuff isn't working.


When were the apartments built? Any other people having problems?

This is a job you need to step away from.

it is a fairly older Duplex the cable guy showed me on the meter that there was voltage going in to the cable line from the ground wire but I looked all around and we don't have a ground the closest thing I found was a tent stake with a wire going to my electric meter.

 

[Yodaman]

If the building electrical grounding is insufficient it is not a typical DIY project. It requires attaching a properly sized ground wire from the ground rod to the ground bars inside the service panel. Definitely not a tenant responsibility.
I definitely would not want a tenant in a open service panel.
Might want to get a quote and give it the owner.

 

[MrElectricianTV]

So my house is not properly grounded according to my TWC guy which is effecting my modem causing it to fry out monthly I live in an apartment and my landlord has given me the option to do it my self so I said ok and she will reimburse me for any thing used problem is I work on computers I have a wire stripper the biggest tool I have is a socket set I bought from harbor freight.... Any way I need help I know I need an 8 ft grounding rod I have plenty of wire the guy from TWC gave me a whole spool of solid core (along with 1000ft of cat6 I love this guy) since it was his last day and the clamps to ground it as well just not sure how the hell I am going to do this the landlord takes months if not longer if I have her hire someone to do it. I have to hound her daily and most of the time it still never gets done so it is up to me! What do I need to rent what do I need to buy and how do I do it? Please help I am utterly lost and this is my 4th modem in 3 months they said if it keeps happening they will not supply cable to my home any more. I do not have the money to hire a professional unfortunately and I don't want to shame my father who was a master electrician he passed away years ago and I figure maybe pick up on his trade Again Any Help Thank you so MUCH

You should already have a good grounding electrode installed if you have a metal waterpipe coming into the house. I would take a look at that connection near the water meter. Make sure the clamp is not corroded or loose.

I would also call your power company to have them check their lines. They shouldn't charge for that and it is possible that their wiring may be causing your problem. Tell them what has been happening.

Have you been getting hit with lightning?

A few options to drive a ground rod are a 4 pound sledge hammer or a 45 pound jack hammer. It depends on the soil conditions how easy they go in. I use a rotary hammer with a ground rod driving attachment. You won't need an attachment with a jackhammer.

 

[herdfan]

Do a 1 call before driving the rod, then check with a local rental for the availability of a T-Iron post driver. By the time you have the first 6 ft. in the dirt you'll have determined how to put the last 2 ft. in.

But if you rent one of those, make sure you let go of the handles when you slam it down. Otherwise it HURTS!

 

[SeniorSitizen]

But if you rent one of those, make sure you let go of the handles when you slam it down. Otherwise it HURTS!

I ran one of those enough for 5 bucks/day to know to leave the handles off when I built mine. Three ft. of sch 80 2" with a coupling and a hex plug.

Leather gloves slide with no arm shock. And it never got stolen from the back of my pickum-up truck. Doesn't look like a post driver but only like a big stupid looking piece of 2" pipe and who would want that.:biggrin2:

 

[rjniles]

If you have current on the grounding electrode there is a good chance your service has a compromised neutral. You need to have a competent electrician look at this and possibly get the POCO involved. This not a job for the inexperienced. You can get hurt or killed.

 

[AllanJ]

One thing that cannot hurt is a long ground wire (single conductor #14 will do) daisy chaining among the modem, TV, A/V receiver etc. and bonded to the chassis of each. Such a bond might be accomplished by a screw that penetrates to the chassis, or connection to one of the jack shells, possibly the same one that the coax cable is screwed onto provided that the stud is long enough that the coax cable plug will still go all the way on.

The far end of the wire is connected to a known electrical ground. This can go as far as the outside of the meter box.

We're not done yet. The electric company will have to make a repair if you don't have a bond the rest of the way to the pole transformer secondary neutral, such a bond normally accomplished by the pole to pole combination ground/neutral and your service drop combination ground/neutral/support wires. If voltages hold steady when you use the hair dryer then this part should be good.

In some older systems or if there is no master disconnect switch or breaker affecting your apartment further upstream, your panel ground bus bar (and the panel enclosure itself) and the neutral bus bar will be bonded (interconnected) in the panel.

The neutral from pole to pole is also a ground since there are (should be) a connected wire going down to a ground rod at the pole base for several if not all poles.

Why all this complexity? To make sure that harmful voltages don't come from your electrical system that can damage electronics such as the cable company utility pole distribution equipment. If cable company equipment gets fried when a subscriber is hooked up then lots of finger pointing takes place. Oh, by the way, do put in that ground rod of your own. You don't want the cable company coming after you because they said, for better or worse, that you needed to do something and you did not do it.

Hint: If A is bonded to B and B is bonded to C then A is bonded to C.

 

[Big_John]

What jbfan said is worth repeating:

- Doing this work likely violates your lease
- Even if it didn't you don't have the experience to do it properly
- Even if you did the cable guy is BSing and this won't solve you problem.

In the electrical trade, when someone starts vaguely going on about "grounding" or "noise" to solve a problem, there's a 99.98% chance they have no clue what they're talking about.

Buy your own modem and tell the cable company to stop throttling your speed.

 

[hueco]

better not mess with the grounding (bonding) unless you're certain of how. I use a rental Hilti demolition hammer, with (or without) a "ground rod driving" adapter.

Better to purchase a "surge arrestor" at places like "Best Buy." A little pricey, but worth it. By the way, if your utility loses the neutral to the building, the outlets voltages all go to 240 (like for stoves and dryers) instead of the nominal 115 volts. A loose neutral connection can be intermittent (not obvious) but can fry your appliances in a New York minute.