Is there anyway o test earth ground? My panel is grounded to my copper water service pipe via a long windy path from the panel through the ceiling and then back down a wall to the pipe.
First, most electricians really do not know how electricity works. They spend years learning what must connect to what. Not why.
View that earth ground. It meets code (what electricians are taught) for human safety. But the earthing is almost non-existant for transistor safety.
The simple science of protection is the protector. Something that does not do protection. That only connects to protection. Earth ground does the protection. As noted earlier, that earth ground must be low impedance (ie 'less than 3 meters) and connect to single point ground. The only and best ground for the building. Water pipe grounds are some of the worst. More than sufficient for human safety. Often woefully inadaquate otherwise. And no longer acceptable as the only earth ground in many venues.
Proper grounding can be installed by any layman. A quarter inch (4 mm) bare copper wire must connect the safety ground bus bar (inside a breaker bos) low impedance to a dedicated earth ground. Low impedance means no sharp wire bends, wire not inside metallic conduit, no splices, less than 3 meters, and other requirements. If that wire goes up over the foundation and down to earth, then earthing is insufficient. That ground wire must go through the foundation and down to an earthing electrode. No sharp bends. Wire must be shorter. Wire must be separate from other non-grounding wires. All ground wires must remain separate until all meet at a single point earth ground.
There is no useful method of measuring earth ground. Any wall receptacle tester that reports ground is only reporting on safety ground; not on earth ground. Inspection is the only viable solution. Above described what to inspect. Most of it is unknown to many electricians who are only taught safety code. Learn how to wire for human safety. Are not taught about things such as impedance and no sharp wire bends.
Repeatedly noted was single point earth ground. If a cable TV wire enters without connecting low impedance to that earth ground (by wire; not by protector), then the entire household protection system is compromised. Cable TV must connect by wire to that same electrode before entering.
All homes already have a telco 'whole house' protector installed for free. Why free? Because the best protector is also the least expensive. However, like with all protectors, if that telco installed protector is not earthed 'less than 10 feet' to single point ground, then a surge will go hunting for earth inside the house and destructively via telephone appliances (modem, answering machine, etc).
Previously noted was how single point earth ground must be installed. If lineman screwed the installation, well, a utility demonstrates how to kludge a single point ground. Pictured are the good, bad, and ugly (preferred, wrong, and right) solutions:
The ugly solution often necessary because linemen still connect homes to make surge damage easier.
Again, a surge protector is simple science. The art of protection is in earthing. Above only introduces what defines all protection. No protector provides protection. As the NIST says, "The best surge protection in the world can be useless if grounding is not done properly." Because earth ground (not the protector) does the protection.
Nobody is selling earth ground. So advertising hypes the protector as protection. It quickly identifies many only trained by advertising. Those who know protection know that earthing defines what a protector does.
Above is only the secondary protection layer. Each protection layer defined by the layer's earth ground. Also recommended in inspecting the primary surge protection layer. A picture demonstrates what to inspect:
This is all layman simple. But it is new. Many find something this new as complicated. After a few rereads and after inspecting your own house, discover that surge protection is really dumb simple. But the above rules are critical. A ground wire across the house to a water pipe is virtually a missing (non-existant) earth ground in this context.