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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 244
W
wewire2 Offline OP
Member
Just curious if I'm the only one who's mistaken a Delta for a Wye. Many years ago I was working at a restaurant adding a circuit. I assumed it was a Wye service. I'll never forget the gurgling sounds made by the coke dispenser. Luckily the beverage guy came right over and replaced the parts for free.

Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 265
W
Member
I fried a control transformer with a high leg. Hooked it up and the rotation was backwards, so in the process of getting rotation correct I put the high leg on the phase that feeds the 120v control trans. Instant smoke when I closed the disco. End result: 1 new transformer, 1 new fuse, alot of grief from the wittnesses.


Jimmy

Life is tough, Life is tougher when you are stupid
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 5,445
Likes: 2
Cat Servant
Member
While I have not, I did have a customer who ran a few circuits in his industrial rental and couldn't figure out what was wrong with a few of his receptacles laugh

Way back then, I posted pics of his 'interesting' electrical work. He was one of those sorts for whom everything was 'common sense' and couldn't be bothered to actually learn anything. He also felt no need to even try to imitate the usual ways of doing things. Romex to a kiln, #14SO (but it was orange!) to a water heater, etc.

Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
Many years back, the water cooler company thought they had a defective batch of bottle type coolers. Seems the electrician added a receptacle for the 'new cooler' adjacent to a electrical panel. He didn't check the panel, check the outlet, read the warning label on the panle, etc. A basic 'hit & run' install!

Three water coolers later....the owner called!


John
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
It wasn't really the stinger but we did have a recurring problem of blown power supplies and strange problems in one system. The guys who installed it had never heard of delta and assumed everything was always 208v (the factory default). When I got there to figure out what was going on I saw the 240v right away on my Drainitz (actually closer to 250) and explained delta to them. That was also the same place where we had all the phase balance problems.
We retapped all the power supplies and balanced the single phase loads. Things suddenly got a whole lot better.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 362
Member
Was on a job while I was an appentace, with a journeymann didn't know anything about a high leg. Was a great learning experiance for me. Not so much for him I'm afraid. was removed from the job. Ballasts were popping and one of the mechanics said" I thought the vacuum was going to suck my leg up".

Ob


Choose your customers, don't let them choose you.
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,233
H
Member
Years ago in ancient history, I was working as an apprentice and hooked up a receptacle to an open breaker. I didn't know that it was a delta system. The owner of the area I was working in plugged in his clock into my newly installed receptacle. Let's just say, I got a new meaning "See how time flies!" The clock was racing around and he told me that he thought something was wrong. Luckily, nothing was damaged. smile

Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 745
E
Member
Oh yes I have and I'll never forget it. I was installing a sub panel in a lighting showroom as a young and stupid apprentice. My boss said "watch out for that wild leg". My interpretation of that was the hot brunette salesperson who worked there. Anyway, I set a 100A fused disconnect, bugged it in (hot of course) in the trough, and ran my feeders to the new panel. Naturally, I ran LOTS of MWBCs with a common neutral to the ceiling tracks used to hang the display fixtures. Checked everything for shorts after hanging them up, went back to the disconnect, threw the handle and ***poof***. Bulbs were shattering, smoke was coming out of LV fixtures, you name it. Quite a show for sure.

Not only did I have to change out the sub panel to single phase (all done with EMT of course), but had to pull additional neutrals for just about every set of MWBCs. I was NOT happy, nor was the customer, nor was my boss.

Life's lesson #1: The term "wild leg" has nothing to do with attractive women!


---Ed---

"But the guy at Home Depot said it would work."
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
On a related note, did you ever get into the 277 when you were looking for 120?
We had that happen in my office building once. The "building electrician" (aka janitor with a screwdriver) hooked up a 5-15 for a new computer and took it from the lights.
Fortunately the only thing that blew was the monitor. The power supply in the system unit was autoswitching and survived until the breaker popped on the power strip.
The monitor was spectacular tho. You could see scorch marks out of every little slot in the case. The girl who plugged it in said it looked like one of those air bursts on the 4th of July. It was a good thing she turned it on from the strip so she wasn't really close.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,233
H
Member
Greg,

I almost fried a helper with 277 volts. I was the lead journeyman on the job with 2 helpers. We were working on renovating an office area. I was working on the 277 volt lights and I put the apprentice on removing receptacles. I showed him each and every receptacle that I wanted removed and I told him, "DO NOT TOUCH THE SWITCH!" Then when I was ready to turn the power back on, I yelled to both apprentices, I am turning on the lighting circuit! Are you guys clear of the wires? They both yelled back YES!, well when I turned on the 277 volts, he took a hit. He was OK but he learned a valuable lesson. Listen to the people in charge and pay attention to what you are doing.

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