Took advice from a guy in Denver about grounding blocks, saved my whole install

Last month on a big job in a new subdivision, I was installing cable runs for a 12 unit building. A veteran installer I met at the supply house told me to always use #6 copper wire for grounding blocks instead of the #8 I usually grab. I figured he was old school and blowing smoke, but I gave it a shot on unit 4. The signal quality was noticeably cleaner on that unit compared to the ones with #8 wire. Did anyone else have a similar win from listening to random advice on site?

2 comments

2 Comments

seth_nguyen4h ago

What kind of signal issues were you seeing with the #8 wire before you switched? I'm curious if it was just noise or if you noticed it affecting the actual data speeds too. Trying to figure out if the gauge really makes that big a difference or if the better grounding placement helped more.

grace9262h ago

The constant noise was the BIGGEST issue for me, like a static hum that got worse when I'd run the microwave or something. But yeah, it definitely tanked my speeds too, I was losing about 30% on downloads before I swapped to the thicker gauge. I think both changes helped for sure, but the wire gauge made the most night-and-day difference since the thinner wire was basically acting like an antenna for interference.