How resilient are the hubs/scouts to voltage spikes?

[StevenJohn]

Now that I have ooma working better than I expected, the thought comes to me that one quick lightning bolt a mile down the road could kill my Hub and Scout. Has anyone here had a problem with this? It is June and we get lots of the stuff here in East Tennessee and replacement devices are expensive.

I have the Scout running off my home Line2 wiring. I have the Hub suppling Line1 so the garage and kitchen phones ring. Everything is working great. I unplugged the telco connections at the demarc. No landline here anymore. While I was in there I noticed that the grounding protection much be inside the telco access. It appears there is no grounding protection on the 4 wire loop with the telco unplugged. Am I missing something here?

All of the copper that is strung though the house will act as one big inductor and pull thousands of volts from the sky with a nearby lightning strike. I am not speaking of direct strikes. I used to run those 3Com ISDN "modems" and the phone ports on them would get knocked out even when connected to the telco. All I am using now are the RJ11 surge protectors on APC UPS. I do not know if that is sufficient.

Can someone on the board advise on how to protect my equipment without too much cost? The Hub/Scout/Phones seem to be vulnerable.

sj

[southsound]

I would assume that the RJ-11 surge protectors on your APC UPS would provide some pretty good protection since you are no longer tied to the telco lines. You might want to shoot an email to bobbyb or dennisp to see what kind of testing they have done in the labs. I've never heard of anyone on the forum losing a hub or scout due to induced voltage from lightning, but I do keep my hub (and my DSL modem, switch, and most of my network) on APC UPS's. In fact, I'm such a heavy believer in them that when we do have the occasional power outage every corner of the house beeps.

[Bobby B]

There have been a few customer RMAs where a Scout or Hub was disabled due to the voltage surge caused by a lightning strike. If you live in a lightning-prone area, I'd do as southsound recommends - make sure you have your ooma devices plugged into a high-quality surge protector.

[lohertz]

I'd do as southsound recommends - make sure you have your ooma devices plugged into a high-quality surge protector.

As you should with ANY electronic device.

[StevenJohn]

I'd do as southsound recommends - make sure you have your ooma devices plugged into a high-quality surge protector.

As you should with ANY electronic device.

What you said may seem quite obvious, and most consumers today may consider plugging in their electronic device to a 120 volt surge protector. But this post was about the not so obvious dry 4 wire loop. Most consumers would never think about this wire having the potential of destroying their equipment or even cause a fire with a near by lightning strike.

The APC UPS that I use may be sufficient, but I would like some better recommendations. I did a search and found the Tripp Lite DTEL2. I think this would fit nicely in the demarc box and would be easy to attach to the earth ground. Does anyone have any better ideas?

We are having a thunderstorm as I write this. The power tripped off twice so far but is back on. ooma stills works. 8^)

sj

[scottlindner]

The APC UPS that I use may be sufficient, but I would like some better recommendations. I did a search and found the Tripp Lite DTEL2. I think this would fit nicely in the demarc box and would be easy to attach to the earth ground. Does anyone have any better ideas?

Nice find. Let us know what you think of it after you have it installed.

We are having a thunderstorm as I write this. The power tripped off twice so far but is back on. ooma stills works. 8^)

I live in a very high lightning area and just last year the neighbor's house was hit and all electronics were toast. Whenever anyone posts about electrical protection I pay attention very keenly.

Scott