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	Subject - Satellite Dish Grounding akopperl Is it safe to have your satellite dish grounded to a cold water pipe? When my satellite was installed, a ground wire was run from the dish to a grounding block attached to the cold water pipe/faucet in my backyard. The house is new (built in 2004 and located in Tulsa, OK) and I don't know whether the interior water piping is copper or PVC. Is the cold water pipe/faucet safely grounded to the electrical service? Or do I need to get an electrician to come and run a ground wire to the electrical servie - but this is 50-60 feet away from the dish? Thanks kbsparky You should have an electrician ground that dish to your main electrical service ground. In the event of a lightning strike, even an indirect one, you want those spikes to have a safe, short path to a solid grounding connection. Leaving out that grounding wire means the lightning will then travel thru your receiver, TV, VCR, TiVO, etc while seeking that ground. You don't want those items to burn up along the way, do you stedder What kills me is that the installer didn't check to set you at ease (whether copper bonded or not), he was probably just following procedure and has no idea why. Yes we are required to run a bond if we are running the cable to dish location (at least I know my job is right) usually back to the service bond. akopperl Unfortunately, many of the installers that DirecTV uses do not do the greatest work. When I lived in Florida, the installer did not ground the dish at all - when I called him to return, he said that as long as it was connected to a surge protector everything was ok. If I call the company that did the plumbing in my house and they state that the interior plumbing is all copper - is it safe to assume that the ground to the cold water pipe is ok? From what I understand, the problem with the ground to the cold water pipe exists only if the interior plumbing is a mix of copper and PVC. Thanks stedder If you can be sure that the section of copper cwp is bonded to the service equipment, you might be good to run to the driven grounds since they s/b bonded also. Ryan If I were you I would either call the dish installer and make them come out and properly ground the system, or I would pound a ground rod next to the grounding block and save yourself alot of time drilling holes in the basement and pulling a ground wire to the exsisting ground rods. Easy job if they won't fix it for free do it yourself. blackrd "Is it safe to have your satellite dish grounded to a copper water pipe?" Not the best choice, but it is sometimes the only choice for differing reasons. Do you mean to say he ran the ground to the hose spigot? That is how I read it. Ive seen this before, and it should be one of your very last choices. Generally, you can find something better than this to ground to, depends on the tech skill level.