captain nemo
New Member
Title says it all............... Do they work are they needed?
Grounding Probes Fact Or Fiction?
- Thread starter captain nemo
- Start date
socal57che
Active Member
I suppose one wouldn't need them until a powerhead leaked voltage into ones tank. As soon as you touched the water you would know if you needed it. As for a minute power leak you might not know. If the elictricity took a direct path to the ground terminal then it makes sense to place them near electrical equipment.
nigerbang
Active Member
Here is what SCSI says about it from another thread...I tend to trust him on equipment related things about 99.99% of the time..
A couple things to note here:
1. You can't measure stray voltage with a meter. A meter's input impedence is so ridiculously high that it is sensitive enough to measure eddy currents in the water as a result of all the magnetic fields involved (from your pumps, powerheads, ballasts, etc) so close to the water. It's not uncommon for a test in this fashion to read many volts... 50, 100+, etc and NOT have a stray voltage problem.
2. The term "stray voltage" is an industry gimmick cooked up by manufacturers to cash in on the sale of another gadget, grounding probes. It's not like electrons swim around "stray" in the water, biting fish unless they are "sucked out" by a grounding probe. As Harris said, if a single piece of equipment is failed in the tank, and the water is not grounded, no current will flow and no danger will be posed, until you give the current a path to ground, thus causing a "ground fault condition." That path to ground can be through a grounding probe, though your body (if you are standing on a grounded surface or touching something that's grounded like a light reflector, and stick a hand in the water, or to another piece of failed equipment. In any of these cases, you are dealing with current FLOWING through the water, not "stray voltage."
Long story short, the only way you can protect against a ground fault is with a GFI. Use a grounding probe, sure, but use a GFI with it or you will make a failed equipment scenario far worse for you and your fish than you had without one. Hook your equipment up through a GFI, and hook your grounding probe up. If you have a problem condition, your GFI will trip. If the GFI doesn't trip, regardless of how many volts you read, you are a-ok.
A couple things to note here:
1. You can't measure stray voltage with a meter. A meter's input impedence is so ridiculously high that it is sensitive enough to measure eddy currents in the water as a result of all the magnetic fields involved (from your pumps, powerheads, ballasts, etc) so close to the water. It's not uncommon for a test in this fashion to read many volts... 50, 100+, etc and NOT have a stray voltage problem.
2. The term "stray voltage" is an industry gimmick cooked up by manufacturers to cash in on the sale of another gadget, grounding probes. It's not like electrons swim around "stray" in the water, biting fish unless they are "sucked out" by a grounding probe. As Harris said, if a single piece of equipment is failed in the tank, and the water is not grounded, no current will flow and no danger will be posed, until you give the current a path to ground, thus causing a "ground fault condition." That path to ground can be through a grounding probe, though your body (if you are standing on a grounded surface or touching something that's grounded like a light reflector, and stick a hand in the water, or to another piece of failed equipment. In any of these cases, you are dealing with current FLOWING through the water, not "stray voltage."
Long story short, the only way you can protect against a ground fault is with a GFI. Use a grounding probe, sure, but use a GFI with it or you will make a failed equipment scenario far worse for you and your fish than you had without one. Hook your equipment up through a GFI, and hook your grounding probe up. If you have a problem condition, your GFI will trip. If the GFI doesn't trip, regardless of how many volts you read, you are a-ok.