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 · Jan 31, 2022

sarky spark said:
Opening an external lighting joint box.

Ahh, good old water powered lights. Always remember to drill a hole in the bottom of the box. If the water can’t flow the lights won’t work!

MFS Electrical · Jan 31, 2022

sarky spark said:
Opening an external lighting joint box.

Looks like a bit of a water feature you’ve got there

MJPD29 · Jan 31, 2022

Shop in Dublin had refurb carried out end of last summer. New 35mm tails connected into old panel. Clearly someone didn't check their final connections. The same idiot also managed to break nearly every single cover on the terminals across every panel.

JordyStepho · Feb 1, 2022

Oh my gosh, some of these pics are insane, I would laugh if they weren't so terrifying!

timhoward · Feb 1, 2022

sarky spark said:
Opening an external lighting joint box.

You must have been like Billy the kid getting the camera out to catch that. Impressive. Or did you fill it up again for the photo?

littlespark · Feb 1, 2022

timhoward said:
You must have been like Billy the kid getting the camera out to catch that. Impressive. Or did you fill it up again for the photo?

Good point. You’de think the water would be running brown with rust.
Someone else is pouring a bottle of clear water in the top.

Micktw68 · Feb 4, 2022

EON Meter monkeys strike again. Morrison call out guy said incoming live and Neutral we’re both loose.
Managed to bang out the 100A service fuse.

freddo · Feb 5, 2022

sarky spark said:
Opening an external lighting joint box.

Street light column in someone's garden.

Sorry for vertical filming, it was the phones fault.

Stevie g · Mar 8, 2022

Call out to loss of power on house ring main, further conversation with owner , they had various sockets lowered from switch height to low level downstairs only a month back by a electrician, said electrician as been back to find the cause but had to leave without solving issue. Although he did disconnect the live and neutrals from fuse board so he got some power back on . That was 3 weeks ago. Said Rfc controls the combi so no heating/hot water and extension leads to various rooms to keep going.
After few tests got open circuit on neutrals and neutral live earth faults. After a bit of bashing nice new painted and fresh plastered walls where the old sockets used to be .Found 4 joints in wall in wagos taped up behind channel. One burnt out giving me the short and another poor joint giving me the open circuit. Ko boxes fitted and blank plates over top new joints.

timhoward · Mar 12, 2022

Hmm. Reckon that needs a look at….

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

Of course it would be wired in and out with conduit so not the quickest to change.

Simon47 · Mar 12, 2022

Could be worse, could be all metal conduit, threaded into the fittings, and needing half a mile* of other stuff removing before you get back to that one. Of course, I'm guessing they've used male adapters rather than female adapters with bushes.

* Exaggerated for effect.

timhoward · Mar 12, 2022

Simon47 said:
Could be worse, could be all metal conduit, threaded into the fittings, and needing half a mile* of other stuff removing before you get back to that one. Of course, I'm guessing they've used male adapters rather than female adapters with bushes.

* Exaggerated for effect.

In this case it's male adaptors with lock rings both sides and there's another 5 of these fittings 2m apart probably all connected the same way, with singles for another lighting circuit running uninterrupted through all of it....
But yes, at least it isn't galv....!

freddo · Mar 12, 2022

Lucky. We were recently working on an installation in PVC conduit, no adaptors used, just a plastic lock ring glued on to the conduit either side of the boxes/trunking.

nicebutdim · Mar 12, 2022

timhoward said:
In this case it's male adaptors with lock rings both sides and there's another 5 of these fittings 2m apart probably all connected the same way, with singles for another lighting circuit running uninterrupted through all of it....
But yes, at least it isn't galv....!

Male pvc adapters are terrible. Badly designed with terrible lock rings and, for the most part, much less practical than their female counterparts. I dislike them intensely.

giladabush · May 1, 2022

I have a similar pair of strippers.

timhoward · May 5, 2022

LED tube…..

pirate · May 5, 2022

DED tube!
Not enough characters...
So, Mickey Mouse...

littlespark · May 5, 2022

Mickey Mouse?

Oh I get it….
“It Disney work”

pirate · May 5, 2022

A Scottish thing!
Plus my original post didn't have enough "characters" so i added Mickey...
Humour makes the day go better!

ipf · May 5, 2022

nicebutdim said:
Male pvc adapters are terrible. Badly designed with terrible lock rings and, for the most part, much less practical than their female counterparts. I dislike them intensely.

giladabush said:
I have a similar pair of strippers.

I think you two better meet up......for a chat, of course...

crr003 · May 10, 2022

May I add this one (I had the offending sink waste disposal replaced by a plumber but I kept the old one).

There was a big bang and a breaker tripped. The tenant found this blackened socket. Where did all this black deposit come from? The molded plug looks undamaged - the 13A fuse was fine - can anyone explain what physically blew up here? I'm just interested.
I plugged the unit into an extension cable in the back garden and it blew the fuse in the extension cable (and left the same black deposit). The disposal was free to rotate so I don't know where the problem was.

LukeD · May 10, 2022

sarky spark said:
Opening an external lighting joint box.

Funny thing...last week fitting some security gear outside .The lady enquired why i was drilling 2 tin holes into each connection box etc. I know many guys that wont bother ...madness . few seconds can save a lot of issues

littlespark · May 10, 2022

crr003 said:
May I add this one (I had the offending sink waste disposal replaced by a plumber but I kept the old one).

View attachment 97391

There was a big bang and a breaker tripped. The tenant found this blackened socket. Where did all this black deposit come from? The molded plug looks undamaged - the 13A fuse was fine - can anyone explain what physically blew up here? I'm just interested.
I plugged the unit into an extension cable in the back garden and it blew the fuse in the extension cable (and left the same black deposit). The disposal was free to rotate so I don't know where the problem was.

Classic dead short between live-neutral or live-earth. The fault is nothing to do with the motor, so its spinning freely.

The black deposit is powdered charred metal. If you can visually inspect the plug pins with a good plug, youll see damage on the pins. The metal has laterally exploded into powder. If not the pins, then the socket youre plugging into.

Best place for that appliance now is the council dump.

crr003 · May 10, 2022

littlespark said:
Classic dead short between live-neutral or live-earth. The fault is nothing to do with the motor, so its spinning freely.

The black deposit is powdered charred metal. If you can visually inspect the plug pins with a good plug, youll see damage on the pins. The metal has laterally exploded into powder. If not the pins, then the socket youre plugging into.

Best place for that appliance now is the council dump.

Thanks for replying.

I had a look at the plug pins before I threw it all out - they looked ok which confused me (easily done...). I was hoping to see the black insulation that covers about half of the pin vaporised, but it looked OK. Although the 13A fuse was intact (electrically/physically), the "live end" connector in the plug that holds the fuse was much blacker than the other end. I thought the fuse should have protected something, but it looks like the short was somehow before the fuse. The disposal had been working OK for about 8 years and then "bang"!

Simon47 · May 10, 2022

My guess would be that a build up of dirt and damp eventually created a track which allowed an arc to form. Normally the distance is such that even when there's lightning induces surges about, you won't get arcing between L & N. But add dirt and moisture, and perhaps something sub-standard in manufacture, and you can get arcing. Once an arc forms, then the ionised air is a good conductor and the arc won't go out until either the power is cut off (the upstream fuse/breaker goes) or the arc is manipulated in such a manner that it gets broken. The energy in the arc can be "a surprising amount", and in all that black there is likely to be as least some it conductive material - so I'd be replacing the socket as well because it definitely doesn't have the arc resistance that it once had.

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