# surge protection



## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i posted this in the computer forum because i honestly feel it works. i post it here because many of you have great technical knowledge and i wanted to run it by you as well. any thoughts on the following?


i was told, or perhaps read online (or both...it's been awhile), that if you tie a simple square knot (like tying your shoes without the bows) that it can stop a surge. when i still had dial-up. i tried this. my phone line was hit by lightning and the wire burned off at the knot. it saved my pc! it works. you can do this for the power cords as well. just one knot.

has anyone else heard of this?


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

No

If the surge was so large as to burn the wire...............
...ehh.....what else did it burn ... ?

When you say "surge" I would take that to mean the "common" BIG spike of voltage which releases the canned smoke in electronic stuff. It will not burn wire.......usually.

If lightning was close enough at hand to burn wire.....well then bend over and kiss it goodby.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i assure you that i had a lightning strike that burned the wire in half at the knot and my modem survived.

i just googld this and i found this...

Little trick worth remembering:
Lightning strikes that are so close that they jump circuit breakers and switches, or are inducted through connected cables often travel on the outside of the conductor - a skin effect. The connected cables act as an aerial, picking up the emitted waves from the lightning impact. Putting a SMALL KNOT in the cables entering your equipment, whether they be power cords, modem cables, speaker wires, or antennas will effectively form an inductance choke which may slow the path of the power surge. Combined with surge protector where installed, it may be enough to save your equipment, or at least delay its early demise. Simple, but may save your skin one day.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

MELOC said:


> i assure you that i had a lightning strike that burned the wire in half at the knot and my modem survived.


But that does not mean it saved your modem. For the electricity to burn the knot it had to pass to ground somehow. That ground most likely was through the modem. Just not at a high enough voltage to hurt the modem. 

Did the knot act a a fuse. Not realy. Fuses (TMK) blow from excess amperage, not excess voltage.

Would I bank on this to protect my equipment? NO WAY


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i would not bank on it either but i do not think it can hurt anything. i would never have tied that knot if i had not listened to others who claim it works.


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