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Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 6
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Ran into something yesterday that made me pause and think.-- Got a call from a customer that lost half the electric in their house. Turned out to be a bad 200Amp Main - Unfortunately it was a Pushmatic panel. After replacing the panel we went through testing out the house- just routine to make sure everything is working ok. Discovered that several circuits in the remodeled basement all had the polarity reversed.- I brought it to the attention of the homeowner. I told her it was not right and should be addressed. She asked me if it was dangerous because it had been that way for years.- I was a little unsure what to tell her.-- Yes it could be dangerous for anyone working on the system but beyond that not sure what the danger would be. Afterwards I thought about several other dangers- light socket shells being energized certain equipment or appliances being damaged or worse having cases energized etc. So my question- what all dangers are inherent in a reversed polarity circuit? Should I have been more forceful in encouraging the customer to get this fixed immediately?
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,382 Likes: 7
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IMHO, you covered most of the bases on reverse polarity. One question, when doing the panel swap, did you notice anything?
John
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,273
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As for myself, I could never walk away from a reversed polarity situation.
If the neutrals were correctly landed at the panel...
I'd identify the offending circuits PDQ and untangle them.
A hand full of circuits sounds like short work.
Tesla
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Joined: Jul 2007
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thanks for the feedback- no I did not notice anything out of the ordinary in the panel. Yes all neutrals were landed properly in the swap. The issue is defintely in the wiring. I actually took one receptacle apart- black and white clearly reversed on the receptacle. I assume that is the case on all the other circuits I tested out as well. - I think in hindsight I should have been more forceful- I quess I was just feeling bad for them - they already were looking a significant- unexpected bill- for the panel swap, I didn't want to rub salt in an open wound so to speak.
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Joined: Jul 2007
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One other thing- fixing the problem would not be short work. If for not other reason than finding all the offending receptacles would involve moving a LOT of furniture and junk. Probably a solid days worth of work.
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 947
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I've seen reversed polarity that changing the polarity resulted in switched neutrals. Then, you have to decide whether reverse polarity is worse than a switched neutral. It's the sort of thing that you never know about in advance. If the customer won't (or can't) pay for the repair, you can't do it for free. I like the drive thru oil change solution. Tell the customer and note it on their invoice. You have to trust that they will promptly have it fixed.
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Posts: 2,749
Joined: October 2000
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