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 !

 

[kung]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Fault on School Mains That Manweb Wouldnt Touch

there was more pics wouldnt let me upload them ! this picture speak a thousand words tho !!

out comes the helacons !

 

[electrician53]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Called out to a domestic property that had experienced some flickering on the lighting circuit on the top floor, they eventually called us out when the circuit failed completely, after moving the usual 100 boxes in the loft I was amazed to see a rats skull devoid of all flesh with its teeth still biting down on the lighting cable. Gave client the skull as a souvenier and told them that if it persisted they would have no option other than to rewire the lighting cable in the loft in SWA, that'll give them something to chew over LOL

 

[nickblake]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Called out to a domestic property that had experienced some flickering on the lighting circuit on the top floor, they eventually called us out when the circuit failed completely, after moving the usual 100 boxes in the loft I was amazed to see a rats skull devoid of all flesh with its teeth still biting down on the lighting cable. Gave client the skull as a souvenier and told them that if it persisted they would have no option other than to rewire the lighting cable in the loft in SWA, that'll give them something to chew over LOL

oh thats bad for that you ll have to buy a forum pen lol

 

[Phil]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

think the socket was in the way of the wall so rather than move it, well the picture although grainy tells the story why would ya build a wall over a live socket.

 

[Phil]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

then i get a phone call "where are you today?" the cousins mrs has just drilled straight through a live cable. needless to say tea time was put back an hour tonight.

 

[m25maintenance]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

phone rang, er my cooker not working,went round,it was gas

 

[Phil]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

phone rang, er my cooker not working,went round,it was gas

now thats the sort of call i used to get. priceless some of them. i once had a call out for a massive branch of lights not working in a night club, as per norm at sill o clock when they had just opened and most people are just chilling out watching telly. got there meter out ect, pressed the switch all came on. red faced manager that had never seen the switch in over 12 months as one of the staff members normally turned them on.

 

[nickblake]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I drove from north wales to tame near oxford when the lights failed in a shop ,walked in reset the MCB job done back home they didnt even offer me a coffee ,tut tut ,8 hours driving fine but NO Coffee argghhhh ,should be made a criminal offence !!!,having said that did have a woman offer me a coffee once 2 hours after she came up gave me a mug with something hot in it big blobs of oil on the top gave it to her plant lol

 

[Ashley Williams]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

HI Guys

Just got back from holiday went with my parents and our aunty and uncle in two caravans to france. So we get to france arrive at the campsite. Plug the caravans in and then plug in the plug in checker to test for reverse polarity etc. It comes up with no earth. Go to the box open it up and press the test button on the RCD's and they trip. While I am doing this my uncle is connecting his gas but he couldnt get the gas to ignite so wondered across to look touched his regulator and got a belt. So we went to the reception and told them about it and they sent down the "electrician" He arrived on his scooter with a volt meter. Speaks a little english plug it in L - N and goes "look fine" We go that N the problem is earth so tell him to put it L - E which reads 110v. Again he says "look fine" we go no its meant to read 220 -230 ish. So he stands there and shrugs his shoulders and replies " so you want me to take the front off??" So he takes the front off the box and finds that the Earth wire isnt connected into the earth connector. So he attempts to connect it using his nice big bunch of keys.

A

 

[Guest123]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

So he attempts to connect it using his nice big bunch of keys.

A

Brilliant.

 

[nickblake]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Today i have walked away from a job , i dont do that very often ,as a passionate electrican ,i always try my best to make an installation as safe as i can ,well this one was just well ,, ive had a few weeks of them i can tell you , down lighters not working in a bungalow ,extension flat roof .you know the type 40 down lighters 12 volt ,not a transformer in sight, took a light fitting down , odd wiring . two lives in and neutral joined together ,odd , this was the case on every light fitting except the last L and N all i had to go one was the wire 6" inch from the ceiling when the fitting was removed tracked down to 2 circuits fed off a 2 gang light switch ,after 3 hours of testing and scratching my head and moving a box of Xmas lights the penny dropped ,they were not , oh yes they were ( sounds like a panto here lol) and yes they were 2 circuits of 20 lamps all wired in series , basically and industrial set of Xmas lights .i pointed out that she would have continuose problems with her lighting and it needed to altered with transformers on every light all 40 of them she was not prepaired to spend any money so it was bye from me

 

[TPES]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hi
I replaced a fuse board in an old vets surgery and the 30mA trip started tripping every couple of days, I told him the place could be doing with getting rewired as it was wired in singles. I have finished rewiring the entire building but the trip is still tripping. It could trip 5 times in the space of an hour or two then may not trip again for a week. I have narrowed it down to the downstairs sockets where he has plugged in a computor, two printers, card machine, and a small fridge.
As they leave these all plugged on at night it is hard to find the fault as it is tripping so erratically. I thought it may to do with earth leakage so I have run a clean earth to the sockets where he has plugged in the computer, printers, card machine etc but still tripping. Is there anyway I can put a finger on the problem or any way out of the job? Can anyone help?

If you've rewired you didnt need to run a new seperate earth to the sockets because theres earth leakage from an appliance, you wont solve this unless you move the appliances round to different circuits to find out which is the faulty appliance, or even better you should try ramp testing with appliance pluged in see what its trippin at..

Could be the RCD that is faulty, get your tester on it.

 

[Unswitched]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

This wasn't so much an electrical fault... but it was a stupid plonker mistake by me the other day. Was re-wiring lighting, cutting the old conduits with hacksaw under the floor. Last bit left going up to the landing switch, had saw upside down and got sawing. Oh yes, a black identical looking to all the other bits of conduit water main! Was there anyone to help me... surprisingly, yes .... Could I find the stop cock.... suprisingly, yes and did it work... again, suprisingly, yes! Wasn't so bad... 'that one'!

 

[philip962]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Finishing off a job had one cable to run through a wall so let the other guy sort that out while I started loading the tools away walked back in and heard do you no where the stop cock is he had put the sds drill straight through the water pipe customer and me not happy luck for him I had a pipe repair kit in the tool bag what a day

 

[Unswitched]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Ha! Its the mess. Had one a few years back - went through heating pipes yes two with a saw under a fixed wardrobe. Banged a hole in ceiling to make it all come out in one place. Went downstairs and I've never seen water so dirty, like an avalanche running down the stairs!

Found a perfect good quality black dust bin outside - that saved a hell of a lot of damage but spent the rest of the day carpet cleaning. Apparently it was a new carpet - didn't look like it! Anyway, when i'd finished it did look brand new. Didn't get a lot of electrical work done that day. And the pipes where in such an awkward to reach area to fix! I don't know whats worse, mains water which is like a bloody jet wne it goes off or dirty central heating which is not easy to stop! happy days!