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 !

 

[Lucas]

Jesus christ that is poor! How on earth does someone do that?!?!

 

[rich.250]

Wasn't best pleased when I pressed this test button......
Monday morning wake up call. Should of been looking really.

 

[Strima]

Just use a paper clip to push it in... :lol:

 

[Resu]

Had a call-out today, lighting mcb tripped when en-suite lights were switched on and now wouldn't reset. Upon some digging we unearthed this fine specimen. Was attached to one of Screwfix's finest non fire-rated halogen downlights and buried under 2 feet of insulation.

The second T&E lying on the floor was baked so it literally fell out the block when I touched it. (It wasn't bent in such a way when I took it out, I was demonstrating the brittleness to the customer!)

 

[Swicade]

That reminds me of a job afew months back...

24 of those horrible non fire rated downlights in a kitchen fitted by a kitchen firm during a kitchen install about 3yrs ago. Small kitchen + double garage coverted to big kitchen diner with utility room. People selling the house now but no certificate to sign off for LABC so i get a call. After checking out the install found 4-5 cable's looking like post #965 BUT not only that all 24 lights fed by a single 1.0mm radial which terminated into a JB in the loft......same JB was the end of the 6.0mm cooker circuit on a 32A mcb.

Kitchen ring was also run around the loft and spurred off via a JB to each socket in the cupboards.


Re-wire of ring back to consumer unit (dedicated kitchen ring 32a), changed all 24 lights to fire rated and added 2 10a lighting circuit's in 1.5mm and disconnected cooker circuit (gas range being used so ignition spurred off new ring).


Cert sent to LABC, building regs sorted, house sale going ahead so now one happy customer.

 

[imago]

Changing a CU as part of a house referb, stripped the old board out and fitted the new board with basic circuits for work to continue, and tested the remaining circuits ready to couple up. A quick check prior to the couple up showed line-CPC fault on upstairs lighting circuit. Great! Newly plastered ceilings, walls etc boarded loft, tiled bathroom, laminate floors.

Ho hum, out with the Fluke and round I go trying to narrow it down a bit using the 'getting warmer, getting warmer, colder now' resistance test. Pinned it to the landing light being nearest (thankfully not in the walls) and went into the loft. Second board I lifted and there it was. Could have been worse I suppose :-/

 

[Guest22]

What HP is it Ethan?

I've only worked on small induction regulated motors, up to 50HP. Never did like them.

Yeah tony these are well over 5 ton and the HP im told is about 450 :0
These are just a pain nowadays

 

[Strima]

Changing a CU as part of a house referb, stripped the old board out and fitted the new board with basic circuits for work to continue, and tested the remaining circuits ready to couple up. A quick check prior to the couple up showed line-CPC fault on upstairs lighting circuit. Great! Newly plastered ceilings, walls etc boarded loft, tiled bathroom, laminate floors.

Ho hum, out with the Fluke and round I go trying to narrow it down a bit using the 'getting warmer, getting warmer, colder now' resistance test. Pinned it to the landing light being nearest (thankfully not in the walls) and went into the loft. Second board I lifted and there it was. Could have been worse I suppose :-/

Couldn't have got closer to the centre if they'd measured it!!!

 

[hassman459]

How any power plant shut automatically leaving behind darkness...

 

[Strima]

Not reall a fault but a **** poor design. Bloke I play golf with had ordered a new LED 3D all singing all dancing TV for his bedroom. John Lewis were going to charge him £50 installation fee so he decided to do it himself.

His Cambridge flat is roughly four years old and has TV points in all rooms, according to his 'house manual' he needed a splitter and jumper cable from his living room point to connect up his bedroom point.

The living room point is similar to this:


Basically the coax feed comes into the living room and is terminated there, then a separate coax runs from this plate to the bedroom and requires a splitter and cable to connect them up. Why on earth do people design installations such as this?

In and out in fifteen minutes including a brew and my next round of golf paid for including a sausage and egg buttie!!!

 

[rich.250]

Spot the problem.......
Problem is they sent cfl lamps!! Lol

 

[Resu]

More an accident than a fault. Customers socket ring tripped (joiner cut through ring!). We resolved issue later in day when no one was home and were about to leave when we heard the mcb trip again, eventually found this at other end of the house, which was still on fire. Turns out customer was using the hair dryer when it tripped and forgot to switch it off when she bunged it back in the cupboard. Was a close call to say the least!

 

[rich.250]

Bloody women

 

[Plonker 3]

Db change today fo my girlfriends parents, installed new bonding cables yesterday. Only 6 circuits, RFC, cooker, Shower, immersion and up and down lights.Only 17 sockets in the whole house should be done by 2 o clock with a bit of luck. Nope first circuit the RFC has a low IR reading (0.4M). Took every socket front off. finally took last one of and it is damp was hell, think they call it sods law

 

[Paullestrange]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Imagine the scene,Friday afternoon about 3 oclock,office gets a call,a 2KW heater gone down in the securitys site office,(cant have the security guards getting cold,they wont be able to fall asleep)anyway i get the job to go and replace said heater,site was around an hours drive from where i was,i eventually get there report to site manager,then have to show my cscs and get inducted on site,all the usual rubbish.No risk assesment no method statement,site manager reluctantly lets me get to work,its around 5 oclock now and not even got my screwdriver out,site manager standing over me,i guess he wanted to go home,im rushing around like somebody possessed,isolate heater circuit and disconnect heater from SFU fit new heater to wall wire it up energise circuit test heater nothing aaaarrrrhhhh.Lots of colourful language by this stage,site managers pacing up and down,i ask him any chance of a brew. Well didnt get brew tested SFU,its not swiching no probs run to van get new SFU safely isolate again,but now have to dissconnect circuit cables,CPC and N touch taking out whole site,ask site agent for keys to CU,their on the way to liverpool,site sparks got them in his pocket.When a very angry site spark returned i set main switch and everything was fine.I left site at 19.30.The moral behind this story is rushing gets you nowhere fast.Istill didnt get a brew,but the guards were nice and warm.