To Ground, Or Not To Ground? That Is The Question.

[Cogito]

My 54 y/o is still using the original house wiring. With the exception of a couple kitchen outlets and my bathroom, all the outlets are the original polarized ungrounded outlets. What I have done is replaced the outlets with three hole grounded type, but without any grounding to accommodate all my equipment that uses three prong plugs. I've considered hiring an electrician to come in and replace the wiring for proper grounding, but I THINK the cost of doing so would be prohibitive due to the fact that the walls are all horsehair plaster. Maybe there's a cheaper/easier alternative.

So this brings me to the following question. How much risk is inherent with running my audio gear on these ungrounded outlets. Keep in mind, the majority of my gear only runs with ungrounded two prong plugs (In fact, I can't think of a single component that does have a grounded plug).

[KeithL]

First off, if it really concerns you, you should check with an electrician. Since wires can often be threaded THROUGH the walls without actually ripping them open, you might find that it would cost less to upgrade than you thought - but that will depend on the details of how your house is constructed; again, ask a professional. (I used to live in NY, in a house that was a bit older than yours. Even though that house originally had all non-polarized two-prong outlets, it was wired with metal shielded BX cable that included a ground... so individual outlets with ground pins COULD be added later - and be properly grounded - without additional wiring. It is worth confirming one way or the other. It should also be possible to add "proper earth grounds" to specific circuits without rewiring the whole house.)

That said, most modern pieces of equipment (and tools) are either double insulated or isolated, and so should be safe to run on two-wire systems. Even though modern equipment usually has "polarized plugs", there are enough extension cords and "cheaters" around that fail to maintain proper polarity that very little of it is actually dangerous - even if you reverse the pins. The highest risk generally occurs in areas where there's lots of water around (kitchen counters, bathrooms, and outlets where you might plug in an extension cord running to a tool you're using outdoors) - because that extra ground pin is used to provide a safety path to ground  in case water gets inside and shorts out the insulation (without that safety shield, you could become the shortest path to ground if something goes wrong - which could be VERY BAD). Older equipment is less likely to be absolutely safe to begin with, and beware of old lamps and tools with especially scruffy cords. Also be especially careful of real vintage tube equipment (many old tube TV sets and table radios actually had their chassis or other metal parts "hot" - which could be downright lethal if you plugged them in backwards and touched the wrong screw head.)

If anything, I would be especially leery of "boutique" tube equipment... both because especially high voltages are involved, and because "small run, hand made" stuff is far more likely to suffer from poor circuit design which could render it less safe.

Apr 8, 2014 8:26:40 GMT -5 Cogito said:

My 54 y/o is still using the original house wiring. With the exception of a couple kitchen outlets and my bathroom, all the outlets are the original polarized ungrounded outlets. What I have done is replaced the outlets with three hole grounded type, but without any grounding to accommodate all my equipment that uses three prong plugs. I've considered hiring an electrician to come in and replace the wiring for proper grounding, but I THINK the cost of doing so would be prohibitive due to the fact that the walls are all horsehair plaster. Maybe there's a cheaper/easier alternative.

So this brings me to the following question. How much risk is inherent with running my audio gear on these ungrounded outlets. Keep in mind, the majority of my gear only runs with ungrounded two prong plugs (In fact, I can't think of a single component that does have a grounded plug).