sleepysurf
Well-known member
I've recently encountered what I thought was a recurring ground-loop problem, namely an intermittent loud hum, which I could eliminate with the use of THREE cheater plugs! After ruling out the usual culprits (video coax, simultaneous use of a dedicated 20A line, plus standard 15A line, etc, etc), I finally had an electrician come out today. Turns out, the culprit was my aging clothes dryer (220 V line) which was leaking current to ground! Because it's remotely located, I never knew when my wife/kids turned it on, hence the intermittent nature of the problem. I actually had him upgrade my 20A line to a quad outlet today, thinking my daisy-chained power conditioners might be the problem. Fortunately, he was very thorough, and (fortuitously) my wife happened to turn on the dryer while he was testing the main panel ground, and he saw the spike!! If it hadn't been for that, I would have been totally frustrated as the hum would have recurred despite the expanded 20A outlets.
So, lesson of the day, check out your other household appliances (even if remotely located, and on another line) should you ever encounter a refractory hum/ground loop issue that cannot be traced to the usual suspects!
So, lesson of the day, check out your other household appliances (even if remotely located, and on another line) should you ever encounter a refractory hum/ground loop issue that cannot be traced to the usual suspects!
