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Scottb568
join:2011-02-01

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Scottb568

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Comcast fried my new Sony 52" lcd tv

Comcast settled claim. Thanks to all who responded with positive information.
Bill or Will
Bill or Will Willy J to you LOL
Premium Member
join:2002-05-26
Lumberton, TX

Bill or Will

Premium Member

I am guessing you'd get the run around
primeomega
join:2004-03-11
De Pere, WI

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Call your insurance. They will cover it. If you have a "media package" on your insurance, there will be little to no deductible. Otherwise, you will have your normal deductible.

You could spend hours and hours on the phone with all of the providers fighting to get someone to pay for it.

Guess it comes down to how much time you want to invest in it.

gar187er
I DID this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Seattle, WA

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said by Scottb568:

The electrical contractor found an improperly grounded coax wire to our ufer, or ground post inside the stucco wall and behind a cover plate. The wire was sharing a position with the clamp and set screw for the house ground bundle and was not attached.

im trying to decifer that and have no idea what your saying.....was the cable grounded or not?

also why was the ground rod inside your stucco?!!??!?!? and what cover plate do you mean?

then you say the cable ground was sharing the house ground but not attached? not attched to what?

did you take pictures?
Scottb568
join:2011-02-01

Scottb568

Member

Cable was not grounded.
Ground rebar rod with service ground wire bundle attached was set in foundation behind metal access plate within the wall below the service box.
The coax connector ground wire was attached to the coax connector but was hanging loose behind the cover plate and pinched by same, but not attached to the clamp and set screw provided for the ufer ground. It might have been sharing a clamp position with the bundle at one time or not.
Have pictures of the wire inside the wall unattached to the ground post.

The Q
join:2008-06-26
Collegeville, PA

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Try posting here. »Comcast Direct

Tordek7
Make the outages go away
Premium Member
join:2009-09-07
Great White

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said by Scottb568:

Cable was not grounded.
Ground rebar rod with service ground wire bundle attached was set in foundation behind metal access plate within the wall below the service box.
The coax connector ground wire was attached to the coax connector but was hanging loose behind the cover plate and pinched by same, but not attached to the clamp and set screw provided for the ufer ground. It might have been sharing a clamp position with the bundle at one time or not.
Have pictures of the wire inside the wall unattached to the ground post.

how the bloody hell the the electrician pass a ground rig within a wall is beyond me...

Was the cable grounded outside? ignoring in the wall etc. At the groundblock was their a green wire with a "ground wire tag" (or not) on it going to the meter / SD / Cold Water Pipe / (Gas meter )

--

Did your pco thump your drop?

boooooommm
@telus.net

boooooommm

Anon

said by Tordek7:

was their a green wire with a "ground wire tag" (or not) on it going to the meter / SD / Cold Water Pipe / (Gas meter )

I hope you are not suggesting that it is ok to ground to a gas meter? But maybe the ''huh' faces might suggest Not.
It's not safe to ground to a gas meter. For one thing, is that the gas line coming out of the ground can be plastic, so no ground(ignore the tracer wire along the side of the gas line).
The metal gas line "should" get a ground off a furnace(but pipe dope may prevent a full ground), but still against proper codes, since any energy sent to ground on the gas line could cause a natural gas explosion. Gas line fittings can "slightly" leak without people noticing.
And then there can be a reaction between the gas line metal and the brass ground clamp, causing corrosion.
Some codes even ban grounding to the electrical meter base. Either connect to the house ground cable or put in a new ground specifically for the cable service line.
saratoga66
join:2002-08-22
Saratoga, CA

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said by Tordek7:

said by Scottb568:

Cable was not grounded.
Ground rebar rod with service ground wire bundle attached was set in foundation behind metal access plate within the wall below the service box.
The coax connector ground wire was attached to the coax connector but was hanging loose behind the cover plate and pinched by same, but not attached to the clamp and set screw provided for the ufer ground. It might have been sharing a clamp position with the bundle at one time or not.
Have pictures of the wire inside the wall unattached to the ground post.

how the bloody hell the the electrician pass a ground rig within a wall is beyond me...

Was the cable grounded outside? ignoring in the wall etc. At the groundblock was their a green wire with a "ground wire tag" (or not) on it going to the meter / SD / Cold Water Pipe / (Gas meter )

--

Did your pco thump your drop?

Tordek, it is common practice for a section of rebar to be stubbed into the exterior wall near the main service panel. The grounding electrode conductor is connected to the rebar with a clamp and a single or double gang switch ring with blank cover is installed to give access after drywall. I have attached a couple of pictures that aren't very good but you get the idea.

In the first picture the Ufer ground is just below the main service panel. There is a horizontal single gang ring for access. The 2 boxes to the left of the service panel are phone and TV service boxes.

In the second picture the Ufer ground is to the right of the panel and there is a 2 gang switch ring for access.
dgoner
Premium Member
join:2002-03-08
Knox, IN

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I would send a bill to Comcast via certified mail. If they fail to respond in 30 days take all the evidence you gathered (with photo's) and file a case against them in small claims court. The filing fee isn't much and you'll spend much less time with this approach then spending hours arguing with some twit on the phone over it. Since this potentially involves both Comcast and the electric company they will waste your time by blaming each other. In the end you could sue them both if you wanted to.
saratoga66
join:2002-08-22
Saratoga, CA

saratoga66

Member

said by dgoner:

I would send a bill to Comcast via certified mail. If they fail to respond in 30 days take all the evidence you gathered (with photo's) and file a case against them in small claims court. The filing fee isn't much and you'll spend much less time with this approach then spending hours arguing with some twit on the phone over it. Since this potentially involves both Comcast and the electric company they will waste your time by blaming each other. In the end you could sue them both if you wanted to.

Even if the coax was not properly bonded to the buildings grounding electrode system you still would need to prove what actually caused the failure and that the bond would have prevented it. The coax is bonded in many places thought out the neighborhood. Its possible that the TV is the source of failure and the fault traveled onto the grounded coax.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

Anonymous_

Premium Member

said by saratoga66:

said by dgoner:

I would send a bill to Comcast via certified mail. If they fail to respond in 30 days take all the evidence you gathered (with photo's) and file a case against them in small claims court. The filing fee isn't much and you'll spend much less time with this approach then spending hours arguing with some twit on the phone over it. Since this potentially involves both Comcast and the electric company they will waste your time by blaming each other. In the end you could sue them both if you wanted to.

Even if the coax was not properly bonded to the buildings grounding electrode system you still would need to prove what actually caused the failure and that the bond would have prevented it. The coax is bonded in many places thought out the neighborhood. Its possible that the TV is the source of failure and the fault traveled onto the grounded coax.

HDMI carries no power just a signal.

only one pin has Power but is only 50 millamps

not enough to cause so called burn marks

gar187er
I DID this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Seattle, WA

gar187er

Member

component cables dont have voltage on them either, but that doesnt mean voltage cant find its way through/on them.....personally had a customers tv was throwing 60v out through the Yb component jack to the HD box, and then through the cable.....causing his modem to drop multiple times every hour.....

he wasnt happy when i showed him with my VOM that it was his 52" projo causing the issue....

voltage doesnt care what type of connection it is....if it can ground out through it, AC can and will do it....
rody_44
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

1 edit

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Rebar is not a proper ground rod. Against code. its easy to file a small claims case against comcast. They wont even fight it. Claiming the judgement isnt going to be as easy. Good luck with it tho as this isnt really comcasts fault. Most likely either a fault in your houses electric somewhere or a lightning strike somewhere. Neither of which comcast can control.
rody_44

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The faces suggest he has seen people make mistakes and ground to Gas pipes but he certainly knows its not a proper ground and unacceptable to do.
saratoga66
join:2002-08-22
Saratoga, CA

1 recommendation

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said by rody_44:

Rebar is not a proper ground rod. Against code. its easy to file a small claims case against comcast. They wont even fight it. Claiming the judgement isnt going to be as easy. Good luck with it tho as this isnt really comcasts fault. Most likely either a fault in your houses electric somewhere or a lightning strike somewhere. Neither of which comcast can control.

The Rebar is NOT a ground rod!!! It is connected to the rebar in the footing and is considered a Concrete Encased Electrode (Ufer). The Ufer is far superior to grounding rods and is required by the NEC if available. You can tie to the rebar in the footing prior to pouring concrete or the concrete contractor can stub the rebar into the wall for the electrical contractor to tie onto to later. You might want to review Article 250.50 and 250.52.
saratoga66

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said by Anonymous_:

said by saratoga66:

said by dgoner:

I would send a bill to Comcast via certified mail. If they fail to respond in 30 days take all the evidence you gathered (with photo's) and file a case against them in small claims court. The filing fee isn't much and you'll spend much less time with this approach then spending hours arguing with some twit on the phone over it. Since this potentially involves both Comcast and the electric company they will waste your time by blaming each other. In the end you could sue them both if you wanted to.

Even if the coax was not properly bonded to the buildings grounding electrode system you still would need to prove what actually caused the failure and that the bond would have prevented it. The coax is bonded in many places thought out the neighborhood. Its possible that the TV is the source of failure and the fault traveled onto the grounded coax.

HDMI carries no power just a signal.

only one pin has Power but is only 50 millamps

not enough to cause so called burn marks

I never said current from the HDMI cable caused the problem. The HDMI cable is shielded and is a grounding path to the cable box which is connected to the coax. An internal ground fault inside the TV will place some current on all grounding paths. If the TV is connected to a properly grounded receptacle most of the current should travel back on the equipment ground conductor. Without doing forensics on the TV there is no way to prove that it was not the cause of the problem.

Comcast may choose to pay for the TV to make the customer happy or they may not. If the OP takes Comcast to court they will loose unless there have expert witness reports detailing the exact cause of the problem. I personally don't think Comcast system caused this problem.
Scottb568
join:2011-02-01

1 recommendation

Scottb568

Member

Comcast settled. Ground wire was not properly attached. Thanks to all who responded with positive comments. The rest...well thanks anyway.

DocDrew
How can I help?
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join:2009-01-28
SoCal
Ubee E31U2V1
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Linksys EA6900

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said by rody_44:

Rebar is not a proper ground rod. Against code.

Check this:
»www.ashireporter.org/art ··· ?id=1676

The 2008 NEC รข€“ Section 250.52(A)(3), reads as follows:

Electrodes permitted for grounding.

Concrete Encased Electrode. An electrode encased by at least 50 mm, (2 inches) of concrete, located horizontally near the bottom or vertically, and within that portion of a concrete foundation or footing that is in direct contact with the earth, consisting of at last 6.0 m (20 ft.) of one or more bare or zinc galvanized or other electrically conductive coated steel reinforcing bars of not less than 13mm (1/2 in) in diameter, or consisting of at least 6.0 m (20ft.) of bare copper conductor not smaller than 4 AWG. Reinforcing bars shall be permitted to be bonded together by the usual steel tie wires or other effective means. Where multiple concrete encased electrodes are present at a building or structure, it shall be permissible to bond only one into the grounding electrode system.

saratoga66
join:2002-08-22
Saratoga, CA

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said by Scottb568:

Comcast settled. Ground wire was not properly attached. Thanks to all who responded with positive comments. The rest...well thanks anyway.

I'm glad you are satisfied. I was not against you but wanted to make the point that not having the ground connected at your home would not cause the problem. Something else had to happen for current to be placed on the HDMI connection. If it came from Comcast network the grounding connection might have prevented the damage in your home.

If you want to talk about providers not grounding their equipment properly you should see see what AT&T does in my area. I don't think I have seen any recently installation that were grounded properly. We just finished wiring a new home and installed a grounding wire for AT&T. The tech just coiled up the wire next to his box and made not attempt to attach any ground to his box. Even if he didn't want to use our wire he could have installed his own and connected it to the Ufer ground or grounding electrode conductor that was 18" away.

I have never seen DTV or Dish attempt to install a ground.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

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*Screams bloody murder*

gchris2203
join:2009-10-15
Lafayette, IN

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said by saratoga66:

said by rody_44:

Rebar is not a proper ground rod. Against code. its easy to file a small claims case against comcast. They wont even fight it. Claiming the judgement isnt going to be as easy. Good luck with it tho as this isnt really comcasts fault. Most likely either a fault in your houses electric somewhere or a lightning strike somewhere. Neither of which comcast can control.

The Rebar is NOT a ground rod!!! It is connected to the rebar in the footing and is considered a Concrete Encased Electrode (Ufer). The Ufer is far superior to grounding rods and is required by the NEC if available. You can tie to the rebar in the footing prior to pouring concrete or the concrete contractor can stub the rebar into the wall for the electrical contractor to tie onto to later. You might want to review Article 250.50 and 250.52.

I am obviously not an electrician but I have never seen a house grounded using that rebaar method...either way it is a rod that you ground to..hence it is a ground rod. I cannot see how an open ground inside a wall would be considered a good thing though.
rody_44
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join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

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Agreed and and to be fair ive been in cable a long time. I will just tack this up to you can teach a old dog a new trick. I think we all agree that this wasnt comcasts fault but we also feel that just maybe comcast did the proper thing here. I will remember this thread if i ever run into a ground where a copper coated ground rod isnt used. What will i do, who knows as i havent run into that grounding situation in the 15 years or so of doing cable. Probably has to be a area thing because imn sure our local code would not allow that. And yes local code trumps the NEC. The NEC is a guide line but local code trumps all. I couldnt imagine anything that isnt at least copper coated lasting very long at all. If i ever did or do run into it ide probably go to both the cold water pipe and the rebar. Rebar just isnt a good grounding spot.