When electrics go wrong!!!

Darkwood · Mar 31, 2021

Just setting up a new sticky thread that unlike the dodgy trade pics thread is focused on showing the result of failures in electrical installations IE - damage caused which may be due to various reasons. Please do not post pics of poor workmanship if there is nothing else to show like the consequences, use the dodgy pics thread for that.

I will start off below with an example. I am hoping the fresh faced members and inexperienced can get a visual incite of what to expect when you come across such things and how to understand what has occured.

James · Dec 18, 2021

willy fixit said:
I'll wager that all the sparks here have converted side cutters to wire strippers!
Since I did my second ones I've kept a new pair in the bag hoping I'll never have to take them off the card!

Most will not admit to it.

personally, of course I have never done it.
especially not whilst up a ladder and subsequently scaring the brown stuff out of my rear end.
Pity that I have NEVER had that learning experience.

now where did I leave my pet unicorn?

Mike Johnson · Dec 18, 2021

I have converted a pair of wire strippers to side cutters, well put it this way the strippers where no good for stripping cable after my brush with 230volt, luckily only one of the Phase's.

SparkySy · Dec 18, 2021

I have never done it, I especially didn't do it when I was working on a 50a sub main in a gunsmiths, through a 10mm twin and earth with croppers, and it didn't blow the stripping notch clean off them and splatter molten copper all over! No not at all, and I didn't scare myself and half the people who were in there who thought it was a live round going off and all ducked in sync!

Raptor0014 · Dec 19, 2021

Got a phone call earlier this week. Here is a brief synopsis to explain the pics

Customer - "Hi, occasionally when I use my tumble drier there is a strange smell from near the plug and it sometimes trips the electric"

Me - "Sounds like a faulty drier, if you unplug the drier does anything else cause the electrics to trip?"

Customer - "No, just the drier and it is getting more frequent"

Me - "Ok, unplug the drier and don't use it. I will be with you on Friday morning (4 days from the call)

Turns up on Friday morning to find they had still been using the drier and it had decided to let go. The madness continued when I found they were still using the extension lead it blew in! Not anymore after I cut the plugs off both.

[ElectriciansForums.net] When electrics go wrong!!!

brianmoooore · Dec 19, 2021

Raptor0014 said:
unplug the drier and don't use it. I will be with you on Friday morning (4 days from the call)

Turns up on Friday morning to find they had still been using the drier

Had a similar one to this, but with a washing machine. Before the few days were up, they had tried to repair it themselves, and the lady of the house had electrocuted herself.
Made more tragic by the fact that the socket would have been RCD protected within a few weeks, and there was a launderette five doors away in the street.

Mike Johnson · Dec 19, 2021

@Raptor0014 Surge protected, but not Muppet protected, the fish smell is quite distinctive with out the visual aids.

Mike Johnson · Dec 20, 2021

You guys have seen this before, but thought it was worth posting again, the smell in the room was a very distinctive fish smell, it comes from running two 3Kw fires off the same double socket, neither the MCB or RCD reacted to the overload, just got very smelly in the room.

Raptor0014 · Dec 20, 2021

Mike Johnson said:
You guys have seen this before, but thought it was worth posting again, the smell in the room was a very distinctive fish smell, it comes from running two 3Kw fires off the same double socket, neither the MCB or RCD reacted to the overload, just got very smelly in the room.

View attachment 93240

That’s quite concerning that neither protective measure reacted to that.

Then again if nothing created a short then it’s a failure of the socket. Especially if it was connected to a 32a MCB as 26a it would be happy with. Guessing the materials in the socket weren’t rated to withstand 26a for that long.

UKMeterman · Dec 20, 2021

Mike Johnson said:
You guys have seen this before, but thought it was worth posting again, the smell in the room was a very distinctive fish smell, it comes from running two 3Kw fires off the same double socket, neither the MCB or RCD reacted to the overload, just got very smelly in the room.

View attachment 93240

Is that one of the ones with lever contacts, rather than screws?

Mike Johnson · Dec 20, 2021

UKMeterman said:
Is that one of the ones with lever contacts, rather than screws?

Yes, it's French Legrand socket off a 20amp MCB.

UKMeterman · Dec 20, 2021

Me thinks I want to stick to crabtree...

Mike Johnson · Dec 20, 2021

The socket was Legrand, but the MCB and feeding RCD where both Hager and both tested out as per the specifications for them, I can only think that the fan and thermostat's for the heaters did not come on at the same time consistently, so an intermittent accumulative overload over a long period.

pc1966 · Dec 21, 2021

Mike Johnson said:
The socket was Legrand, but the MCB and feeding RCD where both Hager and both tested out as per the specifications for them, I can only think that the fan and thermostat's for the heaters did not come on at the same time consistently, so an intermittent accumulative overload over a long period.

The back plate looks a bit corroded, maybe contacts were a bit tarnished as well?

In any case a 30% overload (26A on 20A rating) is not likely to trip a MCB but would definitely be considered unacceptable design practice. I guess the approval of double sockets was kind of based on the assumption you would not have two max loads on the same one...

Mike Johnson · Dec 21, 2021

The corrosion is quite normal on the ground floor of an old French farm house, no DPC or DPM so walls are always damp, if does not seem to bother the French,

Believe it or not they where not on each socket, but supplied off an extension lead onto lefthand outlet, oh can I say receptacle.

pc1966 · Dec 21, 2021

Mike Johnson said:
Believe it or not they where not on each socket, but supplied off an extension lead onto lefthand outlet, oh can I say receptacle.

Well they can't really complain about the socket in that case being poorly made as it was clearly overloaded by 160%.

Now if only the French had a 13A fuse in the plug...

Raptor0014 · Jan 10, 2022

Got a call out yesterday afternoon. Told electrics had tripped, turned back on and keeps tripping every few minutes so could I come and check as had no power to sockets, kitchen and half the house.

Arrived to find the following:

Basically the far right breaker was a 50A supply to a second DB for one half of the house (big old farmhouse) which includes a 10.5kw shower, sockets, immersion and lights. Also 2 x 32a socket circuits (one of which was the kitchen) a 20a socket circuit and 16a second immersion.

All hanging off a 63a RCD and the board had never been checked in the 18yrs since it was installed.

So I managed to give them some power back. But told them they need a new board now asap and a full EICR doing, as I wouldn’t change a board without doing it anyway (especially not on house where I’ve been called to a melted board) and investigation was needed to check why that 50A breaker had obviously also overheating given the melted plastic around the busbar connection.

timhoward · Jan 26, 2022

Received from customer:

Going to see it later today, apparently the fitting says "Made in West Germany" on it, so first question is how many others they have.
Second question is what that taped up wire is doing.

pc1966 · Jan 26, 2022

timhoward said:
apparently the fitting says "Made in West Germany" on it

Well that kind of dates it! When did they reunify, some time around 1990?

timhoward · Jan 26, 2022

pc1966 said:
Well that kind of dates it! When did they reunify, some time around 1990?

Yeah - the wall fell in Nov 1989. It's at least had a re-wire since.

Bob Fleming · Jan 26, 2022

timhoward said:
Received from customer:

View attachment 94306

Going to see it later today, apparently the fitting says "Made in West Germany" on it, so first question is how many others they have.
Second question is what that taped up wire is doing.

Taped wire will be the permanent live for if this was to be an emergency light. Currently (hopefully!) choc-blocked and then taped.

littlespark · Jan 26, 2022

The Berlin Wall fell in ‘89 I think… all thanks to knight Rider himself, David Hasselhoff.

pc1966 · Jan 26, 2022

littlespark said:
The Berlin Wall fell in ‘89 I think… all thanks to knight Rider himself, David Hasselhoff.

One of my regrets was not going to the Pink Floyd concert in Berlin to mark that.

There was a minibus going from Dundee arranged by Groucho's (closed now, was 2nd hand record shop and outlet for local gig tickets) but various friend could'nd be bothered and I gave up on the idea.

DPG · Jan 26, 2022

pc1966 said:
One of my regrets was not going to the Pink Floyd concert in Berlin to mark that.

There was a minibus going from Dundee arranged by Groucho's (closed now, was 2nd hand record shop and outlet for local gig tickets) but various friend could'nd be bothered and I gave up on the idea.

You'd need to go for a week just to listen to one Pink Floyd song though!!

littlespark · Jan 26, 2022

I remember groucho’s!

The nightlife was varied when I lived up there.
No1’s, Deacon Brodies, O’Neills… student union, of course.
Mardi gras, fat sams, de’stihls….

That all stopped when we moved to the posh end of Carnoustie

sarky spark · Jan 30, 2022

Opening an external lighting joint box.

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