chuckears Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 Hey, Does anyone have a solution for this? Almost every time I turn off a ceiling fan or bathroom fan in my house, I get a popping sound through my speakers and subwoofer. I recently had a dedicated circuit installed for my all my gear, but still get the popping. The electrician said it's probably because the new line still has to share a neutral and ground through the main circuit going into my house; I'm afraid having a separate circuit brought into my house from the pole just for the HT would be a little cost-prohibitive. I have this problem with or without running everything through a Monster Power Conditioner... does anyone know of another solution? I certainly do not want to shut down my system just to turn off fans in the house... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diggs Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 I have the same problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted September 5, 2003 Share Posted September 5, 2003 The switches in the fans are probably creating a spark within the fan motor housing at the switch itself between the two contact points. Electricity when traveling through the air in an arc also creates radio interference. The next time you have a thumder/lightning storm around you turn on an AM radio and listen for the crackels and pops when the lightning strikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 Same here. It's no big deal, but maybe the Monster is showing its, ummm, weaknesses... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksdad Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 if the electrician installed a dedicated circuit it would also have dedicated neutral and ground, but everyone is right, the fan has a motor, and it is the motor that is causing the noise, it can be damaging to your electronics. if possible try a floating ground, or try a ufer ground, but thinking about it now it seems to me that if you just ground your panel better you would fix the prob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted September 6, 2003 Author Share Posted September 6, 2003 marksdad, Forgive my appalling lack of knowledge about home wiring: but how would my electrical panel be grounded poorly, and how would I go about grounding it well? kenratboy, What power product(s) would you characterize as not having the limitation of the Monster HTS-series (I'm assuming it is going to be something more than the $100 I spent on the Monster)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 I get it as well when turning of my circulating fan in the living room. Not a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelShaffer Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 The lights in our house dim when the water pump or air conditioner comes on, but it doesn't seem to affect my speakers. If there's lighting though I hear some crackling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 ---------------- On 9/6/2003 4:16:57 AM chuckears wrote: marksdad, Forgive my appalling lack of knowledge about home wiring: but how would my electrical panel be grounded poorly, and how would I go about grounding it well? kenratboy, What power product(s) would you characterize as not having the limitation of the Monster HTS-series (I'm assuming it is going to be something more than the $100 I spent on the Monster)... ---------------- All I am saying is I would expect a line conditioner to take care of all that stuff. The whole fan popping thing is common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ygmn Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 How old is house, and fans? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBB Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 Sorry Lee but something just isnt jiving here. If you had a dedicated circuit set up for your audio gear that means the electrician installed a new circuit breaker. Right? Or did they tap off an existing receptacle in your house? I have fans all over my house including a ceiling fan right in the middle of my listening area above my head. I use other fans for cooling my equipment. All of them USED TO make popping sounds in my speakers when I turned them OFF while the audio equipment remained powered up. I never heard a popping sound when I turned the fans ON. JUST when I turned them OFF. I eliminated this by running a 100 foot extension cord to every receptacle in the house for all my audio gear until I found outlets that did not make a popping sound in my speakers when I turned on the ceiling AND cooling fans. The main culprit was the ceiling fan that some how has something in common with many of the receptacles in my home BUT not all of them. Also the piece of gear that was most affected was my 1,000 watt Samson I use to power my 2 SVS Ultras. I needed to put a ground lift on it to eliminate a hum it was making no matter what outlet I plugged the amps power cord into. I finally found a receptacle that works fine without the slightest hum OR popping for the Samson when I turn on any of my fans. I did the same thing with all the rest of my gear that is using different receptacles other than the Samson OR the fans by finding outlets that didnt cause a pop by using the extension cord to find them. Is the popping coming from ALL your speakers? Do you hear it just from your HSU sub amp? Are you using any ground lift switches on your amps? Are you using any ground lifts (3 to 2 prong plugs) on any of your gear? Does the NHT amp have a bi-polar plug versus a 3 prong? Yeah. Thats a lot of questions but the bottom line is IF you can turn on your fans without getting a popping noise from any of your speakers while your audio gear is plugged into an outlet in your garage, bathroom or kitchen then the Sharing a neutral and ground through the main circuit in the house theory goes right out the window. Or the garage. Which ever is the handiest. He He He He He. My point is that Ive had 3 electrical contractors in my home to run new circuits and every one of them told me on every job they did for me that I have different grounds and neutrals all over this house. I have 72 circuit breakers running out of 5 boxes with 300-amp service. YIKES! But I was still able to find receptacles that didnt contribute noise to my audio OR video gear. Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckears Posted September 6, 2003 Author Share Posted September 6, 2003 BBB, I won't try to answer all of your questions; it's a really nice day here in SW Missouri, and I have work to do outside Anyway, I get the popping sound through all speakers; I am not using any ground lift switches; however, my Anthem processor only has two prongs. I would be concerned about changing my amp plugs to two prongs; however, if I am mistaken in thinking that my amps should be run with the ground plug, I am open to trying it. Since I just shelled out a goodly sum to have this new circuit installed (yes, it has it's separate breaker), I hesitate to mess around with extension cords, unless I can glean usable information from the test. This is not an enormous deal; but it bugs my wife, and the popping makes me fear for my aging Klipsch crossovers and drivers... ygmn, My house is only 13 years old; I bought it new... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruinsrme Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 Popping can be from many sources, one can be related to ground. You entire electrical system is really connected together. The only thing preventing a short on one dedicated circuit from affecting all of your electrical circuit is the breaker. But youonly have one feed coming in and then its split out on the bus bars. With that said a pop on one circuit is like feedback and will travel along the path of least resistance. Sometimes that is into a tv or your audio equipment. Ceiling fans are a cheap ac motor and to keep them affordable the efficiency and components are not of the highest standards. Short of changing your switches or fans perhaps a heavy duty UPS, but that might interfere with the power conditioner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 ---------------- On 9/6/2003 6:59:47 AM MichaelShaffer wrote: The lights in our house dim when the water pump or air conditioner comes on, but it doesn't seem to affect my speakers. If there's lighting though I hear some crackling. ---------------- That's because when electricity travels through the air it creates radio waves over a limited frequency rage. Your water pump or A/C are most likely "non-open air" system thus no radio waves. Similar to a regular telephone as opposed to using a cordless phone. I've got a light dimmer in my study that effects the AM radio in my bathroom too but that's a little different story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ygmn Posted September 6, 2003 Share Posted September 6, 2003 Could be the fans and such are decaying and the isulation on the wires and motors is breaking down and causing this.....cannot tell but by changing one out..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 One thought is that it is not a matter of the speakers alone. Rather, the transient is getting into your amp. I've never been a big believer that it is getting in through the power line. But maybe there is a problem with the wiring. One way to experiment may be to listen with a battery powered AM radio. Rare these days but some walkmen and shower radios do. One of our buddies had a problem with picking up a broadcast AM station. He is in Mexico where the high power AM broadcasters run a lot of power. I suggested the AM signal was getting into the amp through the speaker wires. I suggested getting some small disc capacitors from RS and wiring them across the speaker outputs at the back of the amp. Just as if it was a little speaker in parallel. You should be able to try this at an expense of about $3.00. I'm fairly sure RS sells 0.1 or 0.01 uF caps in a blister pack for about that price. The buddy reported good results, and promised a longer report. I never heard from him again. But give this a try. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky101 Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 I know this is an old post, here is what i've figured out in the field ..... the problem with fan cheap fan controls is that the motor needs to ramp up (slowly rev up) to get the motor started. most cheap switches allow this, (mostly because of the internal fan parts) but they will not allow it to 'ramp down'. it just shuts it off....a dedicated circuit will not do it, they still share the neutral and ground. You need a Zero Inductance switch that will ramp down the motor. This will fix your issue. Or replace your old fan with a newer one that has the remote control....its built in the unit. Give it a shot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted May 10, 2010 Moderators Share Posted May 10, 2010 The electrician could have fixed it if he would have spent the time when he put in the circuit, but he probably just gave you a price on a new circuit . You said your house is about 13 years old, since then things have changed, you have the older way of doing it. On the older boxes the grounds and neutrals are on the same bars, on the newer boxes the grounds are not connected to the neutrals. The grounds go to the ground bar and the neutral wires (white) all go on one bar and float, not connected to anything. You can change this yourself if you have done any electrical work, if not don't touch it. Even on the older boxes both ground bars are connected with a strap that can be disconnected so one of the bars can be ground and the other float or just not connect to anything. The only problem you could have is if the electrician cut the white (neutural) or ground (bare wire) where you cant switch sides to make the change, most of the time it can be done. If you don't have experience inside the box, DON'T TOUCH IT, remember the commercial with the monkey and the power line....Buzzzzzzzzzzz.....then the smell of smoke. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted May 10, 2010 Share Posted May 10, 2010 IMOP not a good idea to float the ground buss on one side. Usually all of the nuetrals (white) are on one buss and all of the grounds (green) are on the other buss. If the whites are not grounded you have nothing and if the greens are not grounded the GFI's won't trip. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted May 10, 2010 Moderators Share Posted May 10, 2010 It's the new code, (I was told) I am out of the business now ? I am not sure how they handle GFI's, ( green to ground) ? The old way you could get electricity back through the neutrals if something went bad or an receptacle was wired wrong, I have been shocked by a white wire before. [:|] I cant find the diagram, I think it was GE panels, I had it bookmarked a while back because I was talking about this with a Klipsch Engineer about the new boxes. In the drawing it gave you directions on how to add or remove the bar between the two ground bars to make one neutral and one ground, it actually came disconnected and if you wanted to ground the whites you connect the bar like the old boxes. I did our house, but it was before the new boxes, I am lucky I have no ground or motor noises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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