My electrician came out to measure my home grounding system. My house has two rods, one at the main panel and another at the front of the house. They’re bonded together for code compliance.
The one at the main panel sits in drier soil. The dirt around the top is dry. It measured 6.9 ohms.
The one in front of the house is in moist soil. It measured 2.5 ohms.
The main water pipe at the front of the house measured 1.2 ohms.
So… I guess I’m going to start watering the rear ground rod. 
Do you?
I live in eastern NC.
I let the humidity and hurricanes take care of that.
Seems like a personal question…
https://www.erico.com/category.asp?category=R2387
This stuff works to drop soil resistivity. In the Air Force (combat comm officer) we’d get all the guys to pee on the ground field. That worked too, but was temporary.
I do. The state gave me two 50 gallon rain barrels to capture rain water. I also use it to water a couple fruit trees but mostly to keep the closest ground rod soil damp.
Cheap and easy to do in my case. Twice in 5 years I’ve cleaned, deoxit and seal with silicone tape the bonding lug. I don’t think I’ll do it again for 10 years. It’s sealed and simply doesn’t change.
…and if you really want permanent connections, cadweld (exothermic connection) all conductor to rod and conductor to conductor connections.
… of course this should be done by a licensed electrician.
Looks like a great idea.
Another way that beer improves listening!
"…hmmm…improved liquidity…arising from a moister background…"
yes, hard to imagine, but with 150 guys on a two week National Guard deployment, there was always lots of beer involved. Work hard, play hard was our unofficial motto.
I doubt the connection between the ground wire and rod are the limiter. In SoCal the connection between the rod and the soil is far more likely to be of higher resistance.
Seems that using a bag of this to set the rod would be best.
And then what do you add to improve the conductivity interface between the GEM and soil… 
The CAD weld was a solid recommendation.
Interesting stuff. Can’t find what it is composed of along with the cement. I guess Weed’s question was what came to my mind as well. What is the difference in performance of say, a cubic foot of it in air vs. in the ground? Is it the material itself that is doing the work, or is it somehow actually improving the connection to poorly grounding ground?
Not trying to be a PITA - the whole topic of power and grounding is the New Frontier AFAICT. I recently bought one of these, and it ain’t connected to nuthin’. Yet it works. Darren was over here the other day and was skeptical, yet heard what I hear. Then he put an ohm meter on it, and yup - current flowing. Maybe has caps or something in the block of Mystery Material that are storing and dissipating into it. So - this Ground Enhancement Material sounds interesting to me🤷🏻♂️
Just an FYI a ground mat with treated salts, copper sulfate, is typically what is used for improved grounding, CAD welded in the field and again at the distribution box or local panels. Maintaining moisture content at 10% may not be practical and beyond 20% adds little benefit. Chasing one parameter alone may not yield the results desired. Care to dig in? See below for additional information:
https://www.ecmweb.com/content/article/20892049/achieving-an-acceptable-ground-in-poor-soil
It’s a conductive cement. It won’t corrode the rod unlike many other additives especially salts.
Yes - I assumed that, but was curious what they used to make it conductive. The spec sheet didn’t provide any clue AFAICT.
This paragraph from Weed’s link may be a clue:
“Another way to lower earth resistivity is to treat the soil with a salt, such as copper sulfate, magnesium sulfate, or sodium chloride. Combined with moisture, the salts leach into the soil to reduce earth resistivity. However, this inexpensive process can also cause problems. First, as the salts wash away, the soil reverts to its untreated condition. As a result, you must recharge the system periodically. Second, some salts may corrode the grounding conductors. Lastly, the salt may contaminate ground water. Local environmental regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may object to adding salts to the soil.”
So I’m guessing they’re using some combination of stuff that doesn’t cause these problems, as this is what it advertises in the brochure.
Pick the right soil amendment, and the corrosion issue is not significant.
You may want to hit up @amsco15 for some commercial solutions, my experience lies with utility solutions, substations, switchyards, generation facilities. You are going to want a resistive gradient, a conductive concrete plug with a significant resistance step change may make it worse. Increasing the concrete plug surface area may be beneficial, but that is assuming soil resistance is constant with varying depth, which is not common.
Starting to sound like we’re giving you a hard time, Brett, but no.
However - the sonic effect of this was magical:
No worries, just sharing what I’ve come across over the years. I only use rain water to keep the soil around my dual, 6’ spaced, copper-clad steel ground rods moist.
I don’t know the chemical makeup of the conductive concrete and would expect this would be protected secret-sauce kind of thing.
