Took me 7 years to notice this one thing about ground blocks

I was swapping out an old ground block on a house in Phoenix last Tuesday and noticed the installer before me had the ground wire looped the wrong way. It was going down instead of up before the block, which creates a drip loop that can actually trap water against the fitting. I see this on about 1 out of every 4 jobs now that I look for it. It matters because corrosion happens way faster that way and you'll be back out there in under two years fixing a signal issue. Has anyone else noticed this pattern on older installs or am I just seeing things?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lee19d ago

Seven years of staring at ground blocks and I still can't tell which way a drip loop goes.

logan20519d ago

Ha, I'll be honest - I used to think drip loops were overthinking it until I had water running down my cable into the house! @the_lee, they're simpler than they look, just make sure the wire hangs lower than the connection point so gravity does the work. Took me way too long to figure that out (and a wet wall outlet was my wakeup call).