Tell us about your faults!

[kung]

Hi ALL
Just thought id put this one up for all those faults we find.
heres one to kick it off !
Domestic RCD tripped and wouldnt reset cause was a blown low energy light bulb.
There you go now for yours !

 

[AA410]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Here is one of mine called to house with a split load fuse board RCD keeps tripping out 6 s/o later found a large slug in the back of the s/o NICE

 

[pennywise]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I snore loudly

 

[m4tty]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I fart in public

 

[Notsosmart]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Speak to my Ex she's got a loooong list

 

[Sav]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

My in-laws live next door !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cbw]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

All of the above!

PLUS

Latest one was nusiance tripping, called to a house where the downstairs ring kept tripping.

On talking to the house owner he informed me he had ' removed an electric fire and ever since then if you walked near the TV everything cuts out! '

I took the cover off the FCU and to my disbelief he had just pulled all the wires out and rolled them up and tucked them back into the metal back box!

A quick fix, then asked about any other DIY attempts. tested circuit....All ok and left, still cant quite believe a fairly intelligent chap being so stupid!

CBW

 

[drywax]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

lol intelligent in what the art of death

my faults that I didn't start sparkying sooner rather than now

 

[Frenchsparky]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I have quite few list from USA side and some are pretty nutty.

Here one
Customer called me to find out why keep blowing fuses out every time the sump pump kick on .,,

found snakes in the pump no crap about it !!


Other service call .,

Customer compain the lights get bright and dim all over the house { remember in USA we have split single phase btw } so the customer did call the power company and they say their side is good nothing is loose so they told them to call the electrician so they got a hold of me I say ok I comming over and take a look .,,

check the main switch good .,,
check the netural good .,,
check the earth oh oh where is the earth connection
did do little more deeper digging and found water heater is shorted to earth and cause the earth conductor get frizted up btw yeah this is alum conductor { the USA code do not allow alum conductor for earth connection for safety reason} and to make it worst the next door house they have open netual
all the netrual current was running thru the copper water pipe that how it got burnt up !

France side .,

customer called me about the RCD failure ok., look at it found a mouse got between the active and earth conductor and replace it and fix the conductors up and seal up the holes good so the mouse can not get inside again.

Merci, Marc

 

[cafc999]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I got called to a house to rectify a cooker circuit that had tripped and stopped working. Traced the fault all the way back to inside to cooker only to find an electrocuted mouse between live and earth.........nice!

 

[dowsettl]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hi sorry need some advice. The bathroom in my lower ground floor flat has underfloor heating. the main fuse switch keeps tripping to it. sometimes this is immediate, sometimes it stays for a couple of minutes and then trips. Any idea? do you think the fuse just needs replacing or could there be a bigger probelm with the dimplex heaters in the underfloor?
any help appreciated.

 

[Sav]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Called to a job that sockets were tripping the RCD.
after inspection, found that cables had been selo-taped together ( live to live , neutral to neutral etc ) under the floorboards and were arcing.
Builder did not have proper junction boxes etc to make correct extension to existing ring !!!!!
"Should have used maybe different tape" was the reply by the customer when I showed her what had happened !!
Cookoo !!! Cookoo !!!!!

 

[adam.h]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Called to a job that sockets were tripping the RCD.
after inspection, found that cables had been selo-taped together ( live to live , neutral to neutral etc ) under the floorboards and were arcing.
Builder did not have proper junction boxes etc to make correct extension to existing ring !!!!!
"Should have used maybe different tape" was the reply by the customer when I showed her what had happened !!
Cookoo !!! Cookoo !!!!!

hahahaha sellotape!

 

[RexT]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hi Dowsett,

Sounds very interesting. I would suggest you have the installation checked. You say that the main switch keeps tripping out and sometimes this is immediate, sometimes afetr a couple of minutes.
I would be interested to learn if it has an RCD and if this is what is being tripped. If it is then it would suggest that it is possibly an earth leakage issue which should be rectified.
As it happens over a couple of minutes also then there is an issue which is time related and this could suggest a fault occurring after the element in the floor has heated.
It would be best for you to consider employing a qualified electrician who is familiar with underfloor heating to check out the continuity and insualtion resistance of the system, having taken appropriate precautions for what is connected.
Hope this helps,
Best wishes
Rex

 

[kung]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hello and welcome Rex

 

[Steve D]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I got called to a house to rectify a cooker circuit that had tripped and stopped working. Traced the fault all the way back to inside to cooker only to find an electrocuted mouse between live and earth.........nice!

Just out of interest, is IP2X or IPXXB large enough for a mouse to get into ??

 

[GT1]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

called to a house where sockets "going on and off".. found that a previous house extension some ten years ago, had piggy-backed a radial into the existing ring mcb. Final result being loose connection and almost a fire from the c.u.
Melted insulation and burnt mcb...!
however the other horror story is the bathroom lights powered off the old shower circuit 6mm cable, and still installed via 45amp mcb..!!!

 

[Eggster71]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Had one ages ago. Split load board change. Wall lights in the lounge kept tripping the RCD, the lights not being on that side did cause some head scratching.
On further investigation it turned out he'd run T&E from the light switch. Obviously no neutral. Solution? Borrow one from the socket behind the wall!

Still occasionally find a shower or cooker wired into the lights with 30A fuse wire in a 3036!

 

[cbw]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

My Mother wanted to know why 4 particular downlighters out of 30 downlighters keep blowing their bulbs.

Took them out to find the joist drilled almost all the way through, browned/singed wood.

Why oh why would you fit NON fire rated downlighters INSIDE a joist?????

 

[Toonlad]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

A good few yrs ago my dad asked me to look at his immersion heater circuit kept blowing a fuse, strange i thought he doesnt have one.

Checked it all out, turned out the landlord had installed a shower off this circuit, but to my horror it,had been taken from a jb in the loft and extended in 6mm T&E. From 1.5mm feeding from the consumer unit.

The landlord did get it done properly, after i mentioned court of law, etc etc. funny how stuff like that works.

 

[spamwize2]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

tried my best to live up the frame to fry my bosses head but no good health and safety being taken to extremes, i think he knew when i put barriers out, flashing beacons, and locked on, oh and patrolling security to guide him the right way.....what a mess!

 

[MarcT]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Has this happened to anyone?
A friend of mine was doing a CU change and this what remains of a 16A mcb feeding a radial
Brand was wylex, all connections checked beforehand

 

[super_stuey]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Mate rang me last week with an "electrical emergency".
RCD fault narrowed down to downstairs ring with live earth short.
Took a few socket fronts off and found a pattress FULL of dirty orange slime and.........

A freshly fried slug accross the terminals!!!!!!!!

gotta start takin me camera to work!

 

[MarcT]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I remember a call out a few years back where the occupant was
getting a 'tingle' every time he had a shower. It quickly transpired
that everything connected to earth was in fact live.
I confirmed this when I grabbed the dangling piece of bare 7044 masquarading
as an earthing conductor while my other arm was resting on the gas meter.
not so much a girly tingle as a slap in the face! I've not got through a whole
box of clamps in one sitting before.
The guy asked what could have happened if i'd not discovered the problem.
in the nicest possible way I told him his house was a faraday cage and just
needed an exit path to complete the circuit, hence the 'tingle'. I never saw
a mans face so white.

 

[Jason Smith]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Attended Break down today, RCD tripping whole house, old style fuse board. Traced to downstairs ring. One leg reading poor insulation twixt phase and earth. Socket found to have 1 mil lighting cable in back off to two wall lights, pull cord. Metal ring from broken shade had been left in fitting, bridging E and live. Circuit removed, all well.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

PAT testing in a kebab shop and plugged the machine into the socket near to where I was finishing tests. The Fluke 6500 has a self test on the supply and "alarmed" that there was no earth connection. On further investigation, I pulled the socket off the wall and just watch the pattress box drain of gloopy grease................

Earths strangelt were terminated in a chock block and not into the socket outlet!!!!!

 

[pennywise]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Went around one of the girlfriends friends house on a night out we were all in the living room she was saying she had got through two laptops in as many months and the screens where never the right contrast. Looked at where she had it plugged into, some muppet had only made up a 4 gang extension lead and put a 5amp round pin plug on the end, the laptop was being dimmed.

 

[robsparky1975]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

when to a call out with faulty immersion circuit,element shorted,checked supply side of switch no l-e no reading,zs test socket outlet same,fusebox ze test 763 ohms,oh dear this was on a tn-s supply no rcd just all re-wirables,fault on supply cable in road

was doing a central heating s plan,client said she was getting shocks off the sink,checked it out 90 volts sink-socket outlet earth,no gas or water bond,tt supply, old stlye voltage operated earth leage circuit breaker,you know the one with the yellow test button,hmmmmm,re-wirables,isloated circuit,turns out she had a lightning strike and it melted the cable,lol she said to me to touch the sink i said no ta thats why ive got a meter,on the same job some botchit and scarper had wired her a 4 way extension lead into the existing faulty circuit double socket with the 1.5mm flex as supplied,i had the pleasure of meeting said git,after politly asking client to get him back,he could not see what he had done wrong and even had on his business card electrcis/plumbing etc,unfortunatly i did not have my boxing gloves with me,but git said he would not do any mor sparks work,well i bleedin hope so.

 

[Brian Boyd]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Has anyone come across empty mcb`s. By this i mean just the casing with terminal top and bottom and a load of nothing in between. I got called to breakdown at old ladies house and her sockets had stopped working. She recently had full refurb done which tbo was quite good. Opened cu cover everyting tidy and properly terminated. So out came the multi meter and quick check found mcb with no power going through even though sw was in on position. I thought just straight forward replacement. I isolated cu and removed the mcb and its only when i lifted the new one that i thought hang on theres something different. I decided to take it to bits to see and found what looked like 5amp fuse wire across it that had fused causing loss of power. I asked the old lady and she gave me number of the spark who was decent and explained that he`d ordered stock through internet and had got box of duff mcb`s. He Paid my bill and sent letter of apology to the lady.

So to cut long story short has anyone else been caught out by this??

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Has anyone come across empty mcb`s. By this i mean just the casing with terminal top and bottom and a load of nothing in between. I got called to breakdown at old ladies house and her sockets had stopped working. She recently had full refurb done which tbo was quite good. Opened cu cover everyting tidy and properly terminated. So out came the multi meter and quick check found mcb with no power going through even though sw was in on position. I thought just straight forward replacement. I isolated cu and removed the mcb and its only when i lifted the new one that i thought hang on theres something different. I decided to take it to bits to see and found what looked like 5amp fuse wire across it that had fused causing loss of power. I asked the old lady and she gave me number of the spark who was decent and explained that he`d ordered stock through internet and had got box of duff mcb`s. He Paid my bill and sent letter of apology to the lady.

So to cut long story short has anyone else been caught out by this??

I was shown thes on a course to highlight the need to be aware of cloned products entering the UK market. Basicaly what you have is an "on/off" switch in an MCB case. Basically why you should always buy your kit from a reputable source.

 

[Notsosmart]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I asked the old lady and she gave me number of the spark who was decent and explained that he`d ordered stock through internet and had got box of duff mcb`s. He Paid my bill and sent letter of apology to the lady.

Wow; an honest to God thoroughly decent bloke. If he is a member of this forum. he has my vote.

 

[Jason Smith]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

when to a call out with faulty immersion circuit,element shorted,checked supply side of switch no l-e no reading,zs test socket outlet same,fusebox ze test 763 ohms,oh dear this was on a tn-s supply no rcd just all re-wirables,fault on supply cable in road

was doing a central heating s plan,client said she was getting shocks off the sink,checked it out 90 volts sink-socket outlet earth,no gas or water bond,tt supply, old stlye voltage operated earth leage circuit breaker,you know the one with the yellow test button,hmmmmm,re-wirables,isloated circuit,turns out she had a lightning strike and it melted the cable,lol she said to me to touch the sink i said no ta thats why ive got a meter,on the same job some botchit and scarper had wired her a 4 way extension lead into the existing faulty circuit double socket with the 1.5mm flex as supplied,i had the pleasure of meeting said git,after politly asking client to get him back,he could not see what he had done wrong and even had on his business card electrcis/plumbing etc,unfortunatly i did not have my boxing gloves with me,but git said he would not do any mor sparks work,well i bleedin hope so.

Rob- Have met this bloke did the same with a dish washer circuit. He was warned the same from me, however this was a year ago, I hope that yours is not thesame bloke and more recent !

 

[robsparky1975]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

welcome to the forum jason,this geezer was 50ish,and the job was in freshwater about 4 months ago,could be same bloke,but there are more of his kind out there in fact 1000s

 

[Tester Steve]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Got called to a job yesterday. House owner said that when he shuts the front door, the lights flicker!! Kid was in the front room watching the telly (on full blast!) and all the lights were on. Shut front door behind me and the lights flickered and the telly flashed!!!! Had a look at the meter and CU, tails hidden in 25 x 25 trunking. Took the front off the CU, both tails loose. Told him I was going to switch off the supply at the isolator, kid moaned about his telly going off!! Turned off the isolator............................ nothing happened!! Lights still on, telly still blairing out!! WTF?? The conversation went like this...

me: this meter doesn't supply your power?
him: No
me: where does your power come from?
him: next door
me: next f***ing door!!!???
him:yes, last year when he had his house done up the sparky connected me to his meter
me:does he know about this?
him:no!!

So... put the cover back on the CU and turned the 'isolator' back on and told him to get someone else in!!!!

Steve.

 

[Jason Smith]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Rob........ We have spoken !!! I have spoken to you on the telephone. Eventually Mrs V.B called my colleague and I in to sort this out. We rewired the kitchen and New cu. I found the reason for the shocks from the sink in the first Joint box I examined, pure luck, the earth had melted into the phase from the original lightning strike. I will assume the lady and her elderly husband are still alive because the equpotential was doing its job. Shame there was not a RCD as she would of had to have had this fault fixed when it occured which I understand was years ago. I was very worried when I heard of this character as I am a qualified ( not heating ) plumber as well as Sparks.( domesticinstaller only ) However he apparently is in an unmarked vehicle, just a mobile number etc, no one seems to know his name. Regards, j.

 

[m4rkfish]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I got called to a house where their downstairs sockets had tripped, I asked if they had done any DIY work and they said no the sockets went off when they were watching TV, eventually found fault was a 5.5mm hole in the wall above a socket next to the window (where you would put a curtin hook) to my amazement 2 days later they phoned back saying it had happened again so i went out asked if they had drilled any more holes they said no but I found a 5.5mm hole above a socket on the other side of the window (ready for the curtin hook) UNBELIVABLE, I was charging by the hour and they didnt think that it would be cheaper if they told me what had happend. (and they did it twice)!!!!

 

[Neil]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I am a bit overweight sorry guys!

 

[galin]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I had one similar to yours In the time between the first and the second fix one of the builder's people made some changes to the electrics never letting my boss about them. During the second fix (which was 1 month later) i saw a suspicious cable which was not placed by me just hanging off the ceiling....just hanging unsafe (as unsafe cable i mean without any connectors blocking the access to the wires or any other type of insulation to prevent any "innocent victims" of accessing it). When I tested it...what a surprise it was live!!! Now I am testing every cable that I didn't placed during the first fix no matter of the builder's words how good his people are with the electrics

 

[Mr Brady]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Some years ago now, I was called to a hotel, where it was said that smoke and sparks were coming from a socket, and yes! they really were, it was quite impressive.
It was a brass socket with no earth link to the box, the screws (which were longer than necessary) had trapped the live against the metal backbox. The reason the cicuit breaker had not tripped? it was the lacquer the socket was coated with (insulating the screws), as the brick wall was recently built there was enough dampness about to start the show.

The smoke, was coming from the wallpaper which the sparks had started smouldering, luckily this all happened when there were people about or it might have ended badly.
It's the reason I use links to (metal) backboxes irrespective of any "fixed lugs" it may have.

 

[ChristianG]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

RCCB tripping when the bathroom light (2d 16W Flourescent) was switched off. The Bathroom light was on the main switch side of a split load board, but on a RCBO.

Turned out that a capacitor was missing from between the line and neutral. Some sort of surge knocking out the RCCB. When we took out the capacitor, the light switching off tripped the RCBO.

Added the capacitor from new light fitting to the old light fitting and it stopped tripping.

We still exchanged the old fitting for the new one though.

Also got told today by a customer that her old electrician couldn't fill the gap between sockets in her kitchen because they needed to be vented WTF? lol

If someone could explain exactly why the RCCB was tripping, I'd be grateful........still learning

 

[craig]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I should have informed his scottish cousin mouse of the dangers - coz I found him dead by the same cause !

 

[Alynelec]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Ha Ha!! Love these stories, I have two that spring to mind, one was when I first started. It was in a house rented by three teachers the socket ring had tripped and wouldn't reset. Being young and inexperienced and having no decent testers with me I proceeded to check all sockets, c.u. etc. nothing. They had the comsumer unit in a small cupboard low down in the lounge with all cables running up the wall and buried, right above the board there was a lovely picture of the Mona Lisa hung by a nail hammered into the wall, doh! Pulled the nail out and the RCD reset, asked the tennants how long had the picture been up 'Oh, we were putting it up when the power went off', so had to replace damaged leg, bloody genius's.
Another time I was asked to sort a fault in a tenants house, the RCD was tripping every now and again but quite often, so traced the fault to a leg crossing the landing, lifted the floor boards and spotted a dead mouse and a 2.5 cable with the insulation nibbled down to the conductors, exposing all three. They weren't touching so wouldn't have tripped on it's own, apart from when Mickey Mouse got zapped, scratched my head for a bit until I noticed the heating pipes above the damaged bit were wet and leaking into it.

 

[acvc]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

In the past few months I've been over-tightening terminations and connectons ...... screw heads come off .... conductors cut and fall out! What's going on? Anyone know of a hand-held srcewdriver with a max torque setting!!!???

 

[bugsy]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

You been having too much weetabix

 

[acvc]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

LOL!!!! It'll be the porridge then .... every morning!

 

[bugsy]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Went on a job recently (free house) guy said he had a plasticy smell for about three weeks ,tested circuits found earth / neutral very low reading, at this point he said his mate had done a bit of work in the loft and put a light up on onspection hais mate had connected a neutral return to earth and this was the result

 

[Alynelec]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Just remembered some more. On the same job, an office/unit block. There was a double socket with no power, opened up the front and there weren't any cables behind the socket front, just the metal back box. Went to test the emergency lights on a stairwell, flicked the key and all the lights just went off, bloody batteries not connected and this block had been up for about 11 years. Nice.

 

[gorilla]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Just been at a job on Sunday there with my dad and it was to sort a few bits in a bathroom nothing electrical for us since he isn't a spark but we did have to take a couple of screws out the electric shower as we were replacing one of the wooden panels it was attached to that the electrician had split and was absolutely shocked to see what the so called electrician had connected the shower up with.

Just standard appliance flex not the appropriate twin and earth. I was so shocked by it that I went and switched of the supply at the CU and informed the customer who didn't believe a word I said, as I'm not a qualified electrician.

Now I'm just looking for your advice really fell annoyed at myself for walking away and leaving it but the customer just didn't let me explain the situation that her "electrician" has left her with a dangerous install, I couldn't exactly disconnect it either due to the customer. I also didn't want to touch it as I wasn't wanting the blame for something going wrong.

What is the best approach to get this looked at I doubt any paper work was issued and the local authority hasn't been informed.

 

[m4tty]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

What KW rating was the shower

 

[gorilla]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

What KW rating was the shower

It was around the 10kW mark. One of those power showers, definitely shouldn't be on standard low current appliance flex IIRC it was 2.5mm cable as well.