Gave up on the $15 grounding rod kit from Harbor Freight, but it saved my workshop wiring

I was pretty skeptical about those cheap grounding rods after a buddy said they were junk. Picked one up for $15 anyway to fix a buzzing issue in my garage near Omaha, and it actually cleared up the noise in my whole setup. Took maybe 30 minutes to drive it in and connect the wire, nothing fancy. Has anyone else had good luck with the budget hardware store electrical stuff?

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ryanhayes7d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy out in Lincoln had the same thing with a cheap surge protector from Menards, he swore it would fail in a month. That was two years ago and it's still running his whole shop fine. The pattern I see is people overthink this stuff way too much. For a basic grounding rod the physics is simple, it's just a metal rod in the dirt doing its job. The expensive ones might have a coating or a fancier clamp but the earth doesn't care about your budget. Same thing with extension cords or basic outlets, sometimes the cheap stuff gets the job done without any drama. Could be that the HF rod is plain steel instead of copper clad, but for a garage setup in Nebraska clay you probably won't notice the difference.