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 !

 

[Rampage]

Seriously though.
Same house, had to change a awlful Argos style chandelier. Removed it and found the origional ceiling rose (without the screw on cover) had been pushed into the ceiling with bare terminals and a piece of artic flex used to connect the chandelier. Also, the Neutral was switched, not the Line, leaving the light Live while changing a bulb!

What was going to be a 20 minute job turned into a couple of hours having to remove some nicely polished floorboards!

 

[Specialist]

Went to a house yesterday and found a CCU that the user was expected to insert little pieces of wire into and then screw it down at each end to act as the fuse.
Crazy Idea!

"Say what"

 

[Specialist]

Well that's what i would assume, but if there are 2 reds at the switch where did the black switch line come from? As you say there might be some joint hidden somewhere but It's all plaster boarded up, must admit i was a bit rushed when i was there, ran out of money and the van was in a pay & display, but to tell the truth even if i wasnt rushed i'd still be there scratching my head now! Checked at the fittings on the floors above and below to see if anything had come loose but nothing!!

Just realised what you said, if you've got a Yellow & 3 Reds in 1 block is there any power on these either L/N or L/E ? you said you've also got a Neutral, Black with red tape & Earth do these feed the actual fitting ? What you really need to find out first is whether you've dropped a Live or Neutral Connection. If the Black with Red tape is the switch return then there has to be a connection hidden somewhere as you said. Are you going back to try finding the problem ?

 

[Specialist]

Seriously though.
Same house, had to change a awlful Argos style chandelier. Removed it and found the origional ceiling rose (without the screw on cover) had been pushed into the ceiling with bare terminals and a piece of artic flex used to connect the chandelier. Also, the Neutral was switched, not the Line, leaving the light Live while changing a bulb!

What was going to be a 20 minute job turned into a couple of hours having to remove some nicely polished floorboards!

Don't you just love Cowboys.

 

[jamminuk]

Yes definitely, it seems weird how it was working and then it has suddenly stopped, surely must be able to fix it without ripping out the plasterboard to find hthe fault?? Must be a break somewhere though, either that or my tester was ****ing with me lol Thanks for your help though mate, much appreciated. I'll let you knwo the result if i ever find out

btw there is no pwer at the fitting accross any of these cables :-(

 

[Specialist]

Hi mate: Sorry it took so long to reply, yesterday was a bad day & I did'nt notice your post. You reminded me of a Fault I had a while Back: A hallway light suddenly stopped working, when I checked it there was no L/N 240v so I checked L/E & had 240v so proved Neutral was o/c. When i did a visual check everything looked ok, but when I started moving the wires the Neutral came away from the block. Turns out it had snapped where it entered the block, re-cutting & connect back up away to go.

 

[jamminuk]

Hi Mate,

I checked accross all L-E L-N N-E, loop and perminant feed, all dead as a door nail

Thanks anyway though, appreciated

 

[Specialist]

Anything been changed on that floor before it went out ? from what you've described, would have thought it has to be something like that. I know it's a pig fault finding in a building where you've got no info mate but keep at it & you'll win, bit of a long shot but these are'nt individually fed from a spur or something stupid like that are they ? Let us know how you get on.

 

[needasparks]

I had a good Fault to find today, will try to explain without writing a book.
sheltered housing building with 60 self contained flatlets, land lords supply three phase 100A with peak and off-peak boards, building only 5 years old all good install. Got call about a storage heater in hallway not working so checked the usual internal overloads all ok, tested heaters and resistance worked out ok so no problems there but found local isolators turned off so assumed someone turned off. turned on and left. got call next day still not working so checked again this time checked from DB also still no problem but found isolator off again so thought i would trick however was doing this so linked the isolator out for one night to proove it was working as could not be there at midnight to see. next day still not working. After looking closer at DNO equipment i bit the bullet and opened the off-peak contactor and sure enough L2 contact had melted and dropped off inside the Embray enclosure, never seen this before on this type, they normally last for years. If only they had mentioned the other 7 heaters that were not working and they may have had heating a few days earlier.

 

[Specialist]

Now come on: You don't expect customers to tell you the whole story & make things easy do you ?

 

[jamminuk]

Hi all, hope alls well.

Experiencing problems with immersion heaters. Various tenants complaining of either no hot water or water not hot enough. In all cases they say the neon is on at the bottom element spur, but no hot water. I tried wiring the bottom element into the booster to see if the element is actually working and it is, test continuity accross element and thermostat both fine. Whole elements and thermostats have been changed, in one case today the lady had the whole immersion heater changed and shes having problems with water temp. I've even been back there during 2pm-3pm when the E7 kicks in for an hour boost to see if there is actually power at the element and there is. I'm saying that it's working electrically and passing it back to them as a plumbing issue but it's really bugging me, i want to know what's causing this.

 

[Ohmyword]

Seriously though.
Same house, had to change a awlful Argos style chandelier. Removed it and found the origional ceiling rose (without the screw on cover) had been pushed into the ceiling with bare terminals and a piece of artic flex used to connect the chandelier. Also, the Neutral was switched, not the Line, leaving the light Live while changing a bulb!

What was going to be a 20 minute job turned into a couple of hours having to remove some nicely polished floorboards!

Only the one light point faulty? Easy life mate!
Just carried out a PIR on a 3 bed terraced house locally. Every light point was connected incorrectly (thro' light to switch) and most of the cables in the switch points had their cpc's cut off. Tracing the lighting junction boxes in the loft and under landing floor the cpc's were either cut off or left 'dangling' outside the box. So no continuity, No R1 - R2. No nothing, really. The ring- main had good readings (except for one rogue single socket) but discovered that the twerp didn't have any green or green/yellow sleeving but he must have had an abundance of RED sleeving, so he used that, for every earth wire in every socket. (Strange that he never marked the switch wires on the lighting). God save us from the 'well meaning amateur'. Why do people do this??????????

 

[Specialist]

Hi all, hope alls well.

Experiencing problems with immersion heaters. Various tenants complaining of either no hot water or water not hot enough. In all cases they say the neon is on at the bottom element spur, but no hot water. I tried wiring the bottom element into the booster to see if the element is actually working and it is, test continuity accross element and thermostat both fine. Whole elements and thermostats have been changed, in one case today the lady had the whole immersion heater changed and shes having problems with water temp. I've even been back there during 2pm-3pm when the E7 kicks in for an hour boost to see if there is actually power at the element and there is. I'm saying that it's working electrically and passing it back to them as a plumbing issue but it's really bugging me, i want to know what's causing this.

Thermostat temp set too low for volume of water in tank or undersized element?

 

[Specialist]

Only the one light point faulty? Easy life mate!
Just carried out a PIR on a 3 bed terraced house locally. Every light point was connected incorrectly (thro' light to switch) and most of the cables in the switch points had their cpc's cut off. Tracing the lighting junction boxes in the loft and under landing floor the cpc's were either cut off or left 'dangling' outside the box. So no continuity, No R1 - R2. No nothing, really. The ring- main had good readings (except for one rogue single socket) but discovered that the twerp didn't have any green or green/yellow sleeving but he must have had an abundance of RED sleeving, so he used that, for every earth wire in every socket. (Strange that he never marked the switch wires on the lighting). God save us from the 'well meaning amateur'. Why do people do this??????????

How do you mean connected through the light to the switch ? Why do the they do it ? Cause they can & it's a quick buck, they don't give a damn that they're putting peoples lives / property at risk.

 

[Ohmyword]

How do you mean connected through the light to the switch ? Why do the they do it ? Cause they can & it's a quick buck, they don't give a damn that they're putting peoples lives / property at risk.

Yeh, I explained to the woman customer how potentially dangerous the installation was! I've been caught out before on that old chestnut. Turn off the lightswitch, the light goes out, you grab hold of the light wire and ZAPP! We've probably all done it at one time or another. These 'voltsticks' are handy little things (for your first line of defence)