Tried grounding my keypads to a cold water pipe instead of the panel. Major mistake.

Honestly, I thought I was being clever last month on a job in an old house with a rusty panel. The ground loop was giving me false alarms on three keypads, so I ran a separate ground line to a copper pipe in the basement. Ngl, it stopped the false alarms for about a day, but then the whole system started acting weird - random beeps, zones showing open when they weren't. Learned the hard way that mixing grounding points messes with the voltage reference. Ended up ripping it all out and bonding everything back to the panel. Has anyone else tried a non-panel ground and gotten burned?

3 comments

3 Comments

dylanwilliams26d ago

Did you at least get a buzz from the pipe before the system went crazy? I tried a gas line once in a pinch, thought I was a genius. Nah, never again. Ground loops are a nightmare I don't need.

gibson.sean26d ago

Bruh gas lines are sketchy ground loops just turn it into a whole other problem.

seanh9126d ago

Tbh that "buzz from the pipe" comment got me thinking - most guys ignore the fact that cold water pipes might have dielectric unions or plastic fittings these days. Could be you're not actually grounding to earth at all, just creating a big antenna.