So much for internal lightening protection!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

So I sent my 50 mile Parmak off to be repaired after a lightening strike (out of warranty, of course) and they tell me all three componets are fried and it is not worth repairing. (also note that they sell plenty of refurbished chargers, probably all those "not worth repairing".) So my question is, what good is the "internal lightening protection". Note this is why I never bothered putting on a choke or arrester...

[meanwhile]

Glad to see you are back on your Blog site. Hope things are going good -

[palani]

Originally Posted by Matthew Lindsay

So my question is, what good is the "internal lightening protection".

Sort of like asking "what good are fuses".

The lightning protection might have protected some downstream components. If it destroys itself in the process of protecting those downstream components that is just an indication of the level of energy it was attempting to deal with.

I was on a committee once with a guy who thought opto-couplers were a major source of problems in failure of some fairly expensive equipment. Their function in electronics is to separate a noisy environment from one that cannot tolerate noise. In the process of providing this protection they had a higher than normal failure rate. Without their use none of these electronics gadgets would work in the first place.

[GoldenCityMuse]

Generally, nothing will survive a direct lightning strike, but they can survive a close strike or induced voltage.

[Allen W]

Its been awhile since I have sent any in, but they usually fixed them for about half the price of a new one. I don't think they went back to Parmak just back to the distributor and were done in house there. There is not much inside of a fence charger any more beyond a circuit board and some resistors. Has been awhile since I looked in on though.

[Qhorseman]

I bought my ParMak from the local MFA, I have sent it back in for repair twice now, minimal repair fee and the MFA loaned me one to use while mine was in for repair

[arabian knight]

Depends on just where the lightening strike took place. the Internal protection is on the Electrical side. (Power input) side. But if the lightening strikes the Hot Line out on the fence line There is NO protection from that when the lightening comes back to the box~!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Strike was about 100 ft or so from the charger, shattered the fuse (probably arced across it) and popped the breaker in the fuse box, no other obvious damage other than little soot marks around the positive terminal!

[texican]

My rule is... if it's out of warranty, and definitely a boat anchor, I have nothing to lose by taking it apart and looking for obvious damage... and if possible, replace the part. If that's not an option, a gentle whack... doesn't work, whack progressively harder... until the sledge hammer gets it's turn. If it doesn't work, at least I got some pleasure (and exercise) out of whacking on it. Amazingly, a lot of times, whacking does fix the problem.

[agmantoo]

Divide the warranty period into the purchase price and you have the cost of ownership when it comes to a hard hit by lightning regardless of the manufacturer. I always do like Texican and take a look see inside to see the extent of the damage. I have a choke on the hot side and a surge protector on the line side. Seems to help.

[GoldenCityMuse]

Well, git your soldering gun out and work away..