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 !

 

[Notsosmart]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I asked the old lady and she gave me number of the spark who was decent and explained that he`d ordered stock through internet and had got box of duff mcb`s. He Paid my bill and sent letter of apology to the lady.

Wow; an honest to God thoroughly decent bloke. If he is a member of this forum. he has my vote.

 

[Jason Smith]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

when to a call out with faulty immersion circuit,element shorted,checked supply side of switch no l-e no reading,zs test socket outlet same,fusebox ze test 763 ohms,oh dear this was on a tn-s supply no rcd just all re-wirables,fault on supply cable in road

was doing a central heating s plan,client said she was getting shocks off the sink,checked it out 90 volts sink-socket outlet earth,no gas or water bond,tt supply, old stlye voltage operated earth leage circuit breaker,you know the one with the yellow test button,hmmmmm,re-wirables,isloated circuit,turns out she had a lightning strike and it melted the cable,lol she said to me to touch the sink i said no ta thats why ive got a meter,on the same job some botchit and scarper had wired her a 4 way extension lead into the existing faulty circuit double socket with the 1.5mm flex as supplied,i had the pleasure of meeting said git,after politly asking client to get him back,he could not see what he had done wrong and even had on his business card electrcis/plumbing etc,unfortunatly i did not have my boxing gloves with me,but git said he would not do any mor sparks work,well i bleedin hope so.

Rob- Have met this bloke did the same with a dish washer circuit. He was warned the same from me, however this was a year ago, I hope that yours is not thesame bloke and more recent !

 

[robsparky1975]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

welcome to the forum jason,this geezer was 50ish,and the job was in freshwater about 4 months ago,could be same bloke,but there are more of his kind out there in fact 1000s

 

[Tester Steve]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Got called to a job yesterday. House owner said that when he shuts the front door, the lights flicker!! Kid was in the front room watching the telly (on full blast!) and all the lights were on. Shut front door behind me and the lights flickered and the telly flashed!!!! Had a look at the meter and CU, tails hidden in 25 x 25 trunking. Took the front off the CU, both tails loose. Told him I was going to switch off the supply at the isolator, kid moaned about his telly going off!! Turned off the isolator............................ nothing happened!! Lights still on, telly still blairing out!! WTF?? The conversation went like this...

me: this meter doesn't supply your power?
him: No
me: where does your power come from?
him: next door
me: next f***ing door!!!???
him:yes, last year when he had his house done up the sparky connected me to his meter
me:does he know about this?
him:no!!

So... put the cover back on the CU and turned the 'isolator' back on and told him to get someone else in!!!!

Steve.

 

[Jason Smith]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Rob........ We have spoken !!! I have spoken to you on the telephone. Eventually Mrs V.B called my colleague and I in to sort this out. We rewired the kitchen and New cu. I found the reason for the shocks from the sink in the first Joint box I examined, pure luck, the earth had melted into the phase from the original lightning strike. I will assume the lady and her elderly husband are still alive because the equpotential was doing its job. Shame there was not a RCD as she would of had to have had this fault fixed when it occured which I understand was years ago. I was very worried when I heard of this character as I am a qualified ( not heating ) plumber as well as Sparks.( domesticinstaller only ) However he apparently is in an unmarked vehicle, just a mobile number etc, no one seems to know his name. Regards, j.

 

[m4rkfish]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I got called to a house where their downstairs sockets had tripped, I asked if they had done any DIY work and they said no the sockets went off when they were watching TV, eventually found fault was a 5.5mm hole in the wall above a socket next to the window (where you would put a curtin hook) to my amazement 2 days later they phoned back saying it had happened again so i went out asked if they had drilled any more holes they said no but I found a 5.5mm hole above a socket on the other side of the window (ready for the curtin hook) UNBELIVABLE, I was charging by the hour and they didnt think that it would be cheaper if they told me what had happend. (and they did it twice)!!!!

 

[Neil]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I am a bit overweight sorry guys!

 

[galin]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I had one similar to yours In the time between the first and the second fix one of the builder's people made some changes to the electrics never letting my boss about them. During the second fix (which was 1 month later) i saw a suspicious cable which was not placed by me just hanging off the ceiling....just hanging unsafe (as unsafe cable i mean without any connectors blocking the access to the wires or any other type of insulation to prevent any "innocent victims" of accessing it). When I tested it...what a surprise it was live!!! Now I am testing every cable that I didn't placed during the first fix no matter of the builder's words how good his people are with the electrics

 

[Mr Brady]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Some years ago now, I was called to a hotel, where it was said that smoke and sparks were coming from a socket, and yes! they really were, it was quite impressive.
It was a brass socket with no earth link to the box, the screws (which were longer than necessary) had trapped the live against the metal backbox. The reason the cicuit breaker had not tripped? it was the lacquer the socket was coated with (insulating the screws), as the brick wall was recently built there was enough dampness about to start the show.

The smoke, was coming from the wallpaper which the sparks had started smouldering, luckily this all happened when there were people about or it might have ended badly.
It's the reason I use links to (metal) backboxes irrespective of any "fixed lugs" it may have.

 

[ChristianG]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

RCCB tripping when the bathroom light (2d 16W Flourescent) was switched off. The Bathroom light was on the main switch side of a split load board, but on a RCBO.

Turned out that a capacitor was missing from between the line and neutral. Some sort of surge knocking out the RCCB. When we took out the capacitor, the light switching off tripped the RCBO.

Added the capacitor from new light fitting to the old light fitting and it stopped tripping.

We still exchanged the old fitting for the new one though.

Also got told today by a customer that her old electrician couldn't fill the gap between sockets in her kitchen because they needed to be vented WTF? lol

If someone could explain exactly why the RCCB was tripping, I'd be grateful........still learning

 

[craig]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I should have informed his scottish cousin mouse of the dangers - coz I found him dead by the same cause !

 

[Alynelec]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Ha Ha!! Love these stories, I have two that spring to mind, one was when I first started. It was in a house rented by three teachers the socket ring had tripped and wouldn't reset. Being young and inexperienced and having no decent testers with me I proceeded to check all sockets, c.u. etc. nothing. They had the comsumer unit in a small cupboard low down in the lounge with all cables running up the wall and buried, right above the board there was a lovely picture of the Mona Lisa hung by a nail hammered into the wall, doh! Pulled the nail out and the RCD reset, asked the tennants how long had the picture been up 'Oh, we were putting it up when the power went off', so had to replace damaged leg, bloody genius's.
Another time I was asked to sort a fault in a tenants house, the RCD was tripping every now and again but quite often, so traced the fault to a leg crossing the landing, lifted the floor boards and spotted a dead mouse and a 2.5 cable with the insulation nibbled down to the conductors, exposing all three. They weren't touching so wouldn't have tripped on it's own, apart from when Mickey Mouse got zapped, scratched my head for a bit until I noticed the heating pipes above the damaged bit were wet and leaking into it.

 

[acvc]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

In the past few months I've been over-tightening terminations and connectons ...... screw heads come off .... conductors cut and fall out! What's going on? Anyone know of a hand-held srcewdriver with a max torque setting!!!???

 

[bugsy]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

You been having too much weetabix

 

[acvc]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

LOL!!!! It'll be the porridge then .... every morning!