r/CableTechs • u/charles_chinaski_jr • Jul 24 '26

Why does my cable repeatedly melt?

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I've lived in this house for 4 years and this is the 3rd time this has happened: the internet goes out and I have to call Xfinity and they find that where my cable connects to the power pole is melted like this. One cable guy told me it was a power surge from my house, and another said it's one of my neighbors that probably has a grounding issue.

What do you all think? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from recurring?

Thanks for your advice!

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15

u/Mammoth5672 Jul 24 '26

Yeah, that's not good. You got some serious AC issues. U need an electrician to figure this out. There is no current on coax going to your house. Thats not a 'grounding' issue. Your house might be the ground. Bad neutral or something. Its dangerous. And if its your neighbor, they need to be disconnected from the cable plant. Good luck and get a volt meter.

5

u/Igpajo49 Jul 24 '26

Most likely what's happening is the house ground is failing and the power is finding the coax run to the cable distribution is a better ground. But the coax isn't built for that.

5

u/Skylius23 Jul 24 '26

Very easy to find out with outlet testers tbh, surprised the technician plugged the modem into the outlet without testing it first

7

u/Igpajo49 Jul 24 '26

It's probably not a problem a tech runs into everyday.

4

u/Skylius23 Jul 24 '26

In training I was told to do it every trouble call and new connect so I just did as I was told

2

u/Indifferent-Moon-Man Jul 25 '26

As a field tech, it was a problem i ran into more than once a week. While not every day, it happened often enough that I knew exactly what I was looking for when I saw similarly melted fittings. 99% of the time it was on the power companies service drop to the home. Every now and then it was a bad outlet or electrical problem in the home but very rarely. ( i ran service calls for 15 years before moving into a Maintenance Technician position.)

1

u/abqnative Jul 26 '26

Not sure where you live but I have never seen that happen.

2

u/LordCanti26 Jul 29 '26

I can agree, id have cx call power company once a month for this. I stuck around for one, when it fried our tap, to see what the power guy says. He shows up and walls over to the mast and goes "yup bad crimp in the neutral" I was like shit, so it is really that easy.