Caught myself grounding power strips to a painted rack

I was troubleshooting random resets on a server rack I built 2 years ago and finally found the issue - I had been grounding everything to a rack that had thick powder coating on it. The meter showed zero continuity from any ground wire to the actual earth ground. Has anyone else found a hidden ground problem that was staring them in the face the whole time?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_green15d ago

Buddy of mine had a home theater amp keep dying. Replaced the whole thing twice. Turned out he was grounding the surge protector to a painted metal shelf. No connection at all. Nothing but paint between his gear and the ground wire. The voltage was floating all over the place. Fried two amps before he figured it out.

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ruby_wright15d ago

@g mark_green oof, that hits way too close to home. I once almost did the same thing with my old stereo setup, tried to save money by using a metal filing cabinet as a ground point. Turns out that thing had more paint layers than a 70s station wagon. It took me three power strips and a mildly smoky receiver before a buddy pointed out I was just creating a really expensive decoration. Now I just plug everything into the wall like a normal person and hope for the best. But seriously, grounding is one of those things you don't think about until your gear smells like burnt toast.

torres.blair15d ago

Gotta disagree dude. Paint is a problem but grounding to a file cabinet was your first mistake.