Household Surge Protectors - Good or Bad?


A few weeks ago I had a surge protector installed in my breaker panel.

It was a new variey I had not seen before, in that it took the place of two standard sizede breakers and connected to both phases of the breaker panel supply

Since then we’ve had had a couple of power outtages and all the household devices kept running upon power restoraton - so far so good :-)

This past week I had reason to disconnect power and speaker cables to loan to a friend for audition.

Afterwards I reconnected the power cables to the amp and powered up.

NOTE: the system is on a dedicated line - it’s breaker was not touched by the install

Immediately I noticed a hum from the amp, where previously there had been none - even at full volume with the phono stage selected.

After lots of analysis and testing, I remembered the installation of the Surge protector.

I measured the impedance between the ground and the neutral and found around 5 ohms of resistance.

To temporarily get over the hum I have connected the neutral side of the inputs to a common earth tap on the power distribution box - it has worked like a charm - i.e. until I can get the electrician back here to fix the real issue.

So my question:
- Is this just sloppy work? - I’m assuming that the neutral of the dedicated line was disconnected and not reconnected correctly, OR
- do ALL housewide surge protectors such as the one I have had instlaled always present with this problem?

Thanks for any feedback

williewonka
The surge protector you had installed does not affect the ground, itself. It's a good thing, and if you are going to use these types of surge protectores (parallel mode) the panel is exactly where it should go. 

However, you definitely have a ground lift problem and should have it looked at. Not sure when or how it happened though. Lots could do this. It could be during a storm the ground to neutral connection broke or got severely degraded, or it could be something unique to that line. 

Best,

Erik 
Also, in case anyone cares, these whole house surge arrestors have been around for decades. Most electricians don't think to offer them. 
My dear, departed Mother had one in her new house and it was constantly tripping. A pain in the butt.
@dweller My condolences, but the ones I know of don’t trip. There is no breaker on them to trip and reset. They may however go out and need replacement eventually.


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