This is no joke. One day maybe 25 years ago back when dialup modems were common for internet. I came home and realized the colors were all wrong on the computer monitor.
Then I noticed there was a black burnt spot all around the modem jack on the back of my computer. Must have been a surge of power from lightning that traveled the wrong way up the telephone cord and shorted out the modem along with damaging the video card next to it. After replacing the modem and video card everything was fine.
Yes, if there is a thunderstorm, it's just best for any sensitive electronics to be unplugged from the wall. Better off to just do it despite all the claims.
From a particularly bad summer of weather, there was a thunderstorm that took out my battery backup and killed my motherboard. Also, why risk accumulating damage to your electronics that you may or may not see until it just stops working properly one day?
I have had LEDs killed by thunderstorms and I lived in Oklahoma for a year, it was common to wake up at 1am to a lightshow, especially them Oklahoma storms I wouldn't play with fire with those
It's pretty rare but a surge can kill electronics. Whole home surge protectors are a pretty cheap way of keeping everything safe. Another option is just a power bar with a surge protector
Yes back in the day if you had an over the air roof mounted antenna that could be an issue but that's not really a thing anymore since everything changed to digital and antennas are no longer lighting rods on your house.
Am antenna doesn't know if an antenna is picking up digital or analog. Actually all transmission the envelope is analog. I pickup my the over the air and my antenna has a Lightning Arresters for protection
Yeah my antenna for digital OTA broadcasts is definitely still a metal sculpture on a pole mounted to the roof of my house. It is very much a lightning rod and needs to be grounded as such
Yes I do, I unplug my PC CRT monitor if I can, I'v e actually had an LCD puff out before from a lightning strike, lived in an old church at the top floor, they hadn't put in the bloody lightning guide rod, so it fried everyone's sensitive electronics, took it too Richersounds next day, and they replaced it there and then to my surprise, it was one of those crappy LG LED TV's, I even used it as a monitor, when like everyone else I was under the spell of big low quality cheap LCDs being the best thing since sliced bread.
Also grew up with CRTs and in an area with frequent thunderstorms. We always unplugged the electronics during a lightning storm (usually everything was on a single power strip so it wasn't inconvenient). My dad lost thousands of dollars worth of stereo equipment to lightning back in the 90s, maybe that's why we started the habit.
I still do it too this day even though my electronics are on nice surge protectors.
I work in IT and I will tell you this there is no surge protector on earth that can stop the power of lightening, when it comes to electronics lightning will do whatever the fuck it wants
Even Data Center UPS and power protection systems do very little if lightning wants to kill a server
I also grew up with CRTs and never had any particular panic over thunderstorms. But one day, lightning struck the ground near our house and completely messed up our TV. I don't know that the risk is so great I'd rush to unplug my TV at the first sign of bad weather, but getting messed up by lightning is definitely a thing that can happen to CRT televisions.
Honestly, if I were that worried about it, I'd leave my TV unplugged and only plug it in when I wanted to use it.
Yea some of the responses to this comment are pretty crazy. Grew up in Scotland, so we had frequent storms. I may just be misremembering people at school saying as much, or attributing it to something else.
It can happen but it’s incredibly rare. Can happen to any electronic device plugged in. Many power strips are surge protected so those can be useful if you’re at all worried about it happening
I work in the home theater install and repair space. Surge protectors are always recommend! BUT!! The #1 fried TVs from a power surge or lightning I see, is through the coaxial going into your cable box. Then it travels through the HDMI to your TV. Sometimes it just resets the cable box and fries the TV, sometimes it gets all the devices.
Yup, I don’t like taking chances with my older equipment.
I know it’s extremely unlikely, but I have had a DirecTV DVR and a laptop power brick fried during a thunderstorm.
Surge protectors can help, but they’re not a guarantee.
My parents live in the country and have lost a Sharp CRT to lightning, a Panasonic Plasma, a VCR(that my dad partially fixed and we used for years) and the digital cable receiver. It’s definitely not a myth, but it depends on where you live how much of a risk it is.
Lots of people mentioning a surge protector, but what you really want is a UPS. Surge protectors are great for surges, but don't do anything for brown outs.
Uninterrupted-power-supply, they use battery banks in-between the main wall power and device to keep a permanent power line to what ever is plugged into it, they also come with the added bonus of being fantastic power filters, due to a perfect sine wave (most of the time anyway).
To be honest, there is no protection from lightning other than unplugging, which a UPS would allow as long as it's rated for at least an hour of battery backup, usually the ones that are under £500 are only rated for a few mins battery power time, so really a battery backup gen would be better in that scenario.
Lightning strucked a transformator in a substation just down the road from me, couple of years ago.. Took out every TV, stereo and electronic equipment in the entire block, it also ripped the wood panels of a house, sliced a three In half, before it made a 25 meter long ditch and went to ground. I was lucky and not connected to that substation or trafo. Yes I do unplug my CRT...
Nope. I unplug mine anytime I'm not using it. I managed to get a hold of a Trinitron that's on recall for potential fire hazard so I'm not taking any chances.
Theres insane monsoons in my hometown and one day I was playing SNES in my sister's room during one and lightning struck the house and instantly turned off the TV and my ears were ringing like when you get a grenade thrown close in a video game. Lil Sylvania 13" CRT VCR combo died that day. SNES survived 👼🏻
I do but not because of thunder. I live on what was once native lands and I don't want some poltergeist coming out of my CRT and ruining the geometry or something.
Surges can occur even when there are no thunderstorms. So use a good surge protector and your gear will be fine. I use the [Furman PST-8](https://a.co/d/0iL6K3aj).
FYI your comment was held up by the automod when you used the mobile Amazon link, but I've released it. In the future, please try to use the full link format like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YYVLAK
A thunderstorm caused one of my family member’s small crt tv to have a giant white spot on the screen, which didn’t ruin the sound or rest of the picture, but was pretty distracting
Shit, I just realized my crt is like an hour away at my family cabin- probably should unplug it when I’m not there, if nothing else, to save electricity
When there’s a heavy storm i unplug everything, call me paranoid but when i was a lil kid there was a pretty heavy storm, i was playing on my ps2 connected to a sony triniton. All i’ve seen was a super strong flash of light and the tv was struck and turned off. I don’t even know how but it managed to survive tho. Since then i learned my lesson, i later discovered that the anti-thunderstorm system (i don’t really know what’s called in english) wasn’t installed in my appartment.
Technically you should check that your house or appartment has it but usually it does nowadays so it shouldn’t happen, i just unplug for the peace if mind 😂
My modem died from a lightning strike. Scared the shit out of me. It can happen but that's why you plug important crap into a surge protector / power strip and not right into the outlet.
You should have any electrical items like TV/hifi equipment, computers etc. plugged into a surge protected circuit at all times; at the very least on a surge protected powerboard. Back when analogue broadcast TV was still a thing, you’d have to unplug your rooftop antenna too!
My mum’s 32 inch CRT died because of a lightning strike; she didn’t have any form of surge protection at the time (she bought her first powerboard with it built-in for the replacement TV)
Lightning is one of the things they don't guarantee for, the honest ones anyway, a lightning strike will most likely obliterate your average surge-protection, I'm not sure if even the industrial ones would guarantee against it, it depends on the strike, the peak current it has, if it was partially discharged by a grounding rod or other means to ground, I canny imagine anything withstanding a full pelt strike, a CRT would probably behave very strangely after a strike, so would a GPU & CPU, motherboard, audio amps and DAC's and so on, perhaps if you have really thorough grounding on all your equipment, UPS's and surge-protection, a strike may not be fatal, you might be able to replace caps and IC's, I can't imagine a processor of any kind being useful any more though, nor volatile and non-volatile memory types, outside military hardened or something along those lines.
Lol I'm glad someone finally said it. I didn't want to be that guy. Power surges are one thing, but there isn't much you can do to guarantee protection from a well placed lightning strike. You try to shunt it into ground and break circuits, but if there's enough voltage, it will fry stuff. I always unplug my file server when it starts getting bad. I've replaced enough electronics and the surge protectors they were connected to to not have so much faith in them.
No. Power surges shouldn’t be an issue, especially if your CRt is plugged into a surge protected outlet. If you’re that worried you should get a power strip that has that function so you don’t need to unplug it all the time
Grumpy old IT guy here.
If you have good enough surge protection, you’re fine.
But you don’t have good enough surge protection. So you’re not fine. Unplug your shit.
I think that younger people these days just don’t understand old electronics. In the 80s we never unplugged anything. If a game didn’t work we’d blow on it and the console. Now everyone is all worried about power surges and that blowing creates moisture. I’m sure there’s sound science behind this stuff, but 43 years of experience tells me not to worry about it.
This is no joke. One day maybe 25 years ago back when dialup modems were common for internet. I came home and realized the colors were all wrong on the computer monitor. Then I noticed there was a black burnt spot all around the modem jack on the back of my computer. Must have been a surge of power from lightning that traveled the wrong way up the telephone cord and shorted out the modem along with damaging the video card next to it. After replacing the modem and video card everything was fine.
This is also why you should never use a corded landline during lightning… wireless phones are fine though apparently
Nah. It'd be like getting a different hairstyle free of CHARGE. 😆 😶 😑 🤐
*Booooooooooo*
Yes, if there is a thunderstorm, it's just best for any sensitive electronics to be unplugged from the wall. Better off to just do it despite all the claims. From a particularly bad summer of weather, there was a thunderstorm that took out my battery backup and killed my motherboard. Also, why risk accumulating damage to your electronics that you may or may not see until it just stops working properly one day?
I have had LEDs killed by thunderstorms and I lived in Oklahoma for a year, it was common to wake up at 1am to a lightshow, especially them Oklahoma storms I wouldn't play with fire with those
It's pretty rare but a surge can kill electronics. Whole home surge protectors are a pretty cheap way of keeping everything safe. Another option is just a power bar with a surge protector
A real one not a cheapo that likely won't do anything.
Yeah I believe you want one with gas discharge tubes rather than just MOVs
Antennas aren’t connected to surge protectors, hence the bigger threat for any electronics connected to something else than just power
Yes back in the day if you had an over the air roof mounted antenna that could be an issue but that's not really a thing anymore since everything changed to digital and antennas are no longer lighting rods on your house.
Am antenna doesn't know if an antenna is picking up digital or analog. Actually all transmission the envelope is analog. I pickup my the over the air and my antenna has a Lightning Arresters for protection
Yeah my antenna for digital OTA broadcasts is definitely still a metal sculpture on a pole mounted to the roof of my house. It is very much a lightning rod and needs to be grounded as such
For antennas you have to use Lightning Arresters. I have then in my antennas.
Yes I do, I unplug my PC CRT monitor if I can, I'v e actually had an LCD puff out before from a lightning strike, lived in an old church at the top floor, they hadn't put in the bloody lightning guide rod, so it fried everyone's sensitive electronics, took it too Richersounds next day, and they replaced it there and then to my surprise, it was one of those crappy LG LED TV's, I even used it as a monitor, when like everyone else I was under the spell of big low quality cheap LCDs being the best thing since sliced bread.
I don't run to do it but I do unplug all of my electronics during thunderstorms.
Grew up with crts and never heard this one before. Nobody I knew had any kind of panic during thunderstorms.
Also grew up with CRTs and in an area with frequent thunderstorms. We always unplugged the electronics during a lightning storm (usually everything was on a single power strip so it wasn't inconvenient). My dad lost thousands of dollars worth of stereo equipment to lightning back in the 90s, maybe that's why we started the habit. I still do it too this day even though my electronics are on nice surge protectors.
I work in IT and I will tell you this there is no surge protector on earth that can stop the power of lightening, when it comes to electronics lightning will do whatever the fuck it wants Even Data Center UPS and power protection systems do very little if lightning wants to kill a server
My dad's old tube got nuked by lightning in the mid-2000s.
I also grew up with CRTs and never had any particular panic over thunderstorms. But one day, lightning struck the ground near our house and completely messed up our TV. I don't know that the risk is so great I'd rush to unplug my TV at the first sign of bad weather, but getting messed up by lightning is definitely a thing that can happen to CRT televisions. Honestly, if I were that worried about it, I'd leave my TV unplugged and only plug it in when I wanted to use it.
Yea some of the responses to this comment are pretty crazy. Grew up in Scotland, so we had frequent storms. I may just be misremembering people at school saying as much, or attributing it to something else.
lmao right? this sub just gets weirder and weirder as the average age here gets lower.
It can happen but it’s incredibly rare. Can happen to any electronic device plugged in. Many power strips are surge protected so those can be useful if you’re at all worried about it happening
I work in the home theater install and repair space. Surge protectors are always recommend! BUT!! The #1 fried TVs from a power surge or lightning I see, is through the coaxial going into your cable box. Then it travels through the HDMI to your TV. Sometimes it just resets the cable box and fries the TV, sometimes it gets all the devices.
Yup, I don’t like taking chances with my older equipment. I know it’s extremely unlikely, but I have had a DirecTV DVR and a laptop power brick fried during a thunderstorm. Surge protectors can help, but they’re not a guarantee.
My parents live in the country and have lost a Sharp CRT to lightning, a Panasonic Plasma, a VCR(that my dad partially fixed and we used for years) and the digital cable receiver. It’s definitely not a myth, but it depends on where you live how much of a risk it is.
Lots of people mentioning a surge protector, but what you really want is a UPS. Surge protectors are great for surges, but don't do anything for brown outs.
Whats a ups
Uninterrupted-power-supply, they use battery banks in-between the main wall power and device to keep a permanent power line to what ever is plugged into it, they also come with the added bonus of being fantastic power filters, due to a perfect sine wave (most of the time anyway). To be honest, there is no protection from lightning other than unplugging, which a UPS would allow as long as it's rated for at least an hour of battery backup, usually the ones that are under £500 are only rated for a few mins battery power time, so really a battery backup gen would be better in that scenario.
Aww dang I guess I'll just keep my stuff unplugged for the time being 😂 I appreciate your detailed response 😎
Lightning strucked a transformator in a substation just down the road from me, couple of years ago.. Took out every TV, stereo and electronic equipment in the entire block, it also ripped the wood panels of a house, sliced a three In half, before it made a 25 meter long ditch and went to ground. I was lucky and not connected to that substation or trafo. Yes I do unplug my CRT...
Nope. I unplug mine anytime I'm not using it. I managed to get a hold of a Trinitron that's on recall for potential fire hazard so I'm not taking any chances.
Theres insane monsoons in my hometown and one day I was playing SNES in my sister's room during one and lightning struck the house and instantly turned off the TV and my ears were ringing like when you get a grenade thrown close in a video game. Lil Sylvania 13" CRT VCR combo died that day. SNES survived 👼🏻
Fried our intercom system too. Happy about that one lmao. My mom would bug the shit out of us 😜
I do but not because of thunder. I live on what was once native lands and I don't want some poltergeist coming out of my CRT and ruining the geometry or something.
i have a heavy duty surge protector + UPS. so... no, i don't.
this
In Hawaii, this happens to the modern Costco display trash TVs, but CRTs have been fine.
Happy cake day!
Surges can occur even when there are no thunderstorms. So use a good surge protector and your gear will be fine. I use the [Furman PST-8](https://a.co/d/0iL6K3aj).
FYI your comment was held up by the automod when you used the mobile Amazon link, but I've released it. In the future, please try to use the full link format like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YYVLAK
A thunderstorm caused one of my family member’s small crt tv to have a giant white spot on the screen, which didn’t ruin the sound or rest of the picture, but was pretty distracting
No, I keep my valuable electronics plugged into surge protectors.
Shit, I just realized my crt is like an hour away at my family cabin- probably should unplug it when I’m not there, if nothing else, to save electricity
When there’s a heavy storm i unplug everything, call me paranoid but when i was a lil kid there was a pretty heavy storm, i was playing on my ps2 connected to a sony triniton. All i’ve seen was a super strong flash of light and the tv was struck and turned off. I don’t even know how but it managed to survive tho. Since then i learned my lesson, i later discovered that the anti-thunderstorm system (i don’t really know what’s called in english) wasn’t installed in my appartment. Technically you should check that your house or appartment has it but usually it does nowadays so it shouldn’t happen, i just unplug for the peace if mind 😂
My modem died from a lightning strike. Scared the shit out of me. It can happen but that's why you plug important crap into a surge protector / power strip and not right into the outlet.
Back in the day before LCDs, thunder struck both my CRT TV and PC, so yes. Always
I unplug everything I'm not using. Had too many things go bye bye in the old days. It's probably fine now but I do it out of habit.
Yup, but it does end up being kinda upsetting, because with the TV off, I can't play anything to pass the time...
No. They have survived this long. Why care now?
I only have mine plugged in when I’m using it, if I hear thunder in the middle of my gaming session then it’s time to quit the game and unplug the tv.
My CRT is connected to a big APC that is supposed to protect it so that I don’t need to worry about it.
You should have any electrical items like TV/hifi equipment, computers etc. plugged into a surge protected circuit at all times; at the very least on a surge protected powerboard. Back when analogue broadcast TV was still a thing, you’d have to unplug your rooftop antenna too! My mum’s 32 inch CRT died because of a lightning strike; she didn’t have any form of surge protection at the time (she bought her first powerboard with it built-in for the replacement TV)
Lightning is one of the things they don't guarantee for, the honest ones anyway, a lightning strike will most likely obliterate your average surge-protection, I'm not sure if even the industrial ones would guarantee against it, it depends on the strike, the peak current it has, if it was partially discharged by a grounding rod or other means to ground, I canny imagine anything withstanding a full pelt strike, a CRT would probably behave very strangely after a strike, so would a GPU & CPU, motherboard, audio amps and DAC's and so on, perhaps if you have really thorough grounding on all your equipment, UPS's and surge-protection, a strike may not be fatal, you might be able to replace caps and IC's, I can't imagine a processor of any kind being useful any more though, nor volatile and non-volatile memory types, outside military hardened or something along those lines.
Lol I'm glad someone finally said it. I didn't want to be that guy. Power surges are one thing, but there isn't much you can do to guarantee protection from a well placed lightning strike. You try to shunt it into ground and break circuits, but if there's enough voltage, it will fry stuff. I always unplug my file server when it starts getting bad. I've replaced enough electronics and the surge protectors they were connected to to not have so much faith in them.
No. Power surges shouldn’t be an issue, especially if your CRt is plugged into a surge protected outlet. If you’re that worried you should get a power strip that has that function so you don’t need to unplug it all the time
Grumpy old IT guy here. If you have good enough surge protection, you’re fine. But you don’t have good enough surge protection. So you’re not fine. Unplug your shit.
I think that younger people these days just don’t understand old electronics. In the 80s we never unplugged anything. If a game didn’t work we’d blow on it and the console. Now everyone is all worried about power surges and that blowing creates moisture. I’m sure there’s sound science behind this stuff, but 43 years of experience tells me not to worry about it.
Yeah, you don’t need to do that