Do you unplug receivers during lightning storms?

[smokey982]

I'm curious how many people actually unplug their tv's and receivers during lightning storms. I had a friend that's replaced 2 receivers and a tv in the past 2 years from lightning. So that's kind of scared me into unplugging everything when it storms. Am I being over protective or is this something most people do? Although I have insurance to cover these things I would rather not have the hassle of replacing. And the biggest thing would be losing my recordings that are on my receiver due to a lightning strike. Is unplugging the power cord from the wall enough or is it recommended unhooking the sat coax from the back of the receiver? How likely is lightning to run through the dish and coax and hit the receiver? We're expecting some bad storms this evening and I don't know if I want to keep unhooking everything.

 

[dfergie]

I do, & unhook the OTA antenna also just in case.

 

[aaronc]

Unplugging the receiver does no good if the coax is still connected.

 

[Ronnie-]

At our previous home I would unplug the tvs, and remove the input cables from them. I never unplugged the receivers though.

At our current home I have not felt the need to.

 

[osu1991]

I quit doing it probably 10 years ago. Used to all the time, because my grandparents always had me doing it, but with all the equipment I have it's more hassle than I care to deal with. Besides if I unplugged everything I wouldn't be able to complain and the weathernuts interrupting my programming.

 

[stardust3]

The danger from a power surge is more likely than a direct strike. Even though I have surge protection in place I still find myself turning off breakers during bad storms.

 

[riffjim4069]

Growing up in the city/suburbs we never unplugged anything. However, when I moved out to the country one of our neighbors (older gentleman) had me so paranoid that I routinely unplugged various electronic components. Anyway, I don't worry about it since my dishes and antennas were property grounded; the RG-6 (satellite, TV, cable) and RJ-11 phones lines all run through 3500+ Joules surge protectors in a central wiring closet (to include the pre-amsp and signal amp/distribution), and our TVs and receivers (and RG-6) are connected to surge protectors at the source. In other words, we're double or triple protected. Regardless, if lightening is going to strike us directly there is probably very little these surge protectors will provide.

 

[3HaloODST]

I never unplug anything. So far, nothing ruined *crosses fingers*.

 

[papalittle]

I never unplug anything and the only thing I have lost is 1 computer monitor.

 

[gpollock87]

I have never unplugged mine. i bet your getting the same storms we just got here.

 

[dfergie]

Unplugging the receiver does no good if the coax is still connected.

Do that also, I had a C-Band dish lightning strike about 20' from my bedroom in the 80's, got my attention and fried my receiver...

 

[MikeD-C05]

I don't unplug anything. My grandma used to make us unplug everything in her house, close all the doors to the rooms and hide under a blanket in the hallway in complete darkness till the storm passed. We lived in Little Rock when I was very young and we used to get thunderstorms and tornadoes like crazy. My dad used to do the same thing , as he inherited her phobia about the weather . But my mom got all of us to chill out and not worry about it as much . She had took me to the porch swing and we put a blanket around us and we would listen to the thunder and lightening and my mom would say that was God and Jesus bowling. What used to scare me ,due to grandma, then made me laugh and I no longer feared it. My dad then didn't want to look scared in front of his little boy, and he too chilled out. I also have surge protectors on all my electronics in my house and a grounding rod on my sat dishes.

 

[greeny96]

Have any of you that live in the areas with major thunderstorms considered whole home surge protectors? I don't know much about them, but they seem to install them in every house on Holmes Inspection. The last episode I saw they put them in for the electrical, coathey had sat tv), and phone lines.

And no, I've never unplugged any of my electronics during thunderstorms. But, I live in a city in Central California and severe weather is a non-issue(except for the summer heat).

 

[Stargazer]

I don't unplug anything. The only thing I have ever lost was stuff plugged into phone lines and that happened a few times but nothing major.

 

[ClarkGable]

I unplug the OTA antenna since it is on a 40' tower. We live in a rural area, and have had nearby lightning strikes fry an LNB and a cordless phone one time, and a Dish receiver on another occasion. During that second incident, a neighbor lost their DirecTV receiver.

After I tied the ground from the dish and the TV tower to the service ground with #6 copper wire, we have had no problems (loudly knocking on wood here) for many years.

 

[jevans64]

All my computers are connected to high-quality CyberPower and APC surge protectors / battery backups. MY home theater stuff is all plugged into a Monster Power HTS-5100 MkII ( the expensive stuff ) and Monster Power HTS-1000 MkIII ( for the powered subs. ) All I really need to do is disconnect the cable going into the cable modem and the cable coming from the satellite if there is vivid lightning; otherwise, I just leave them both connected.

 

[scottmead]

Nope waste of time unplugging everything.

 

[Ramy]

No I don't. I have everything on AVR's including TV's.

 

[n0aaa]

Everything interesting is on surge-protected terminal strips. Dish is a whole lot lower than my ham antennas used to be. Never felt the need to disconnect the coax from the Dish (it's below the peak of the house, connected to the side) , used to do it for higher outside antennas (when I thought of it).

 

[jimdandyvi]

According to Wikipedia an average negative bolt of lightning delivers 500 megajoules of energy (500,000,000 joules ). The whole house surge protector I have is rated at 13,000 joules of energy absorption.

If you take a direct or even very close lightning hit and it gets into your electrical system, data network, coaxial cables, telephone, etc. your electronics will be toast.

The only thing your surge protector is going to do for you is allow you to file a claim with the surge protector's manufacturer for the damaged electronics assuming you can find the receipt for the surge protector, have registered it and then the surge protector's manufacture is still in business does not try and weasel out on your claim, you might get some money.

Actually in some ways you are better off if everything is toast as trying to live with electronics that have been weakened or damaged by surges will drive you crazy with all the mysterious glitches that develop.

Surge protectors will protect your electronics from disturbances in the electrical grid, but probably not direct lightning strikes.