I Had a customer that called and said his fan in his bath needed replaced. After arriving I notice the switche/s were new. He said he replaced all the switches and Rec/in the house. The exhaust fan was on a 3 way switch. He had cross the travler/s.

He did say that he could not understand why once in a while the fan would work.
The bath has a door leading to the back porch. He was smart enought to reinstall a 3 way switch with same. He proably got that advice from a salesperson. Oh course we Know what was happing.
any comments,
wayne

I did however take a look at the rec/ to insure that they were ok.

I seen a do-it yourselfer change all the plugs in his house once, he was smart he checked that the power was off to each cct. But when it came time to turn the kitchen breakers back on he took out his main. Funny what happens when you forget to cut the tab on the plug with a split cct.

What I've seen a lot is problems having to do with 3-way switches. Many people take out a 3-way and replace with a single pole. One of the 3 live wires usually goes on the green screw. For some reason the Breaker trips

Bill

it's a living.......

I saw this recently, and, unfortunately the original was an older, non-grounding switch, so the grd was not connected to the new switches grd. term., only the red wire was. Luckily nobody got hurt.


[This message has been edited by Redsy (edited 04-13-2001).]

Just finished a service upgrade where the owner did the interior wiring (he is an ex-home builder and cheap) and I did my standard test of all the circuits. After doing a visual check I then energized the breakers one at a time. Doing great till one of them tripped, so I rechecked the wiring and foun a light that had the hot and nuetral tied together. It happens. :.)

I've had "tradespeople" (I don't dare call them electricians) install 4 ways instead of 2 pole switches on new projects. Makes for some interesting noises when the power is turned on.

It really amazes me how many electricians and "tradespeople" as well as anybody who ever used a light switch never noticed that three and four way switches don't say "on" and "off" on the handle.

don'tknow;
even better are some individuals assessment of electrical situations.

even better are some individuals assessment of electrical situations.


and the interesting things they do with extension cords

Well we require conduit--boy you should see all the gem boxes and close radius and jake fittings in the walls--not to mention using green for hot and orange for neutral.

These are the same people that say they could do the electric if they didn't have to do the pipe bending part.

Had an instructor tell me this story. If you think about it, you will see that this could happen. His friend called him on the phone and told him that his shower head was shocking him. He said, "Go figure?" He "tools" down the street to check out the problem. He gets inside, and shortly after hears a loud, "Yow!" Friend replied, "My son must have adjusted the shower head." This instructor told me that he looked this house "from top to bottom", and could not find the problem. They went in the kitchen, and he noticed that there was a new dishwasher installed. "He made a mental note." They went into the back yard were he found that the owner had replaced part of his "metal" plumbing "service entrance" with PVC conduit (in his words, "It's cheaper you know.") On top of all that, the metal water pipe was not bonded to the electrical service equipment. They went back inside, and pulled out the dishwaher. He found that someone (the owner) had cut the equipment grounding conductor to the dishwasher, and that a bare spot on the ungrounded conductor was touching the metal frame of the dishwasher. The "hot" would only touch the frame during certain wash cycles, so the problem seemed to "come and go". You guessed it! The entire plumbing system of this house was being energized. The owner said, "That's why my sink shocked me the other day also." Do it yourselfers. Go figure?

HMEL 688

[This message has been edited by SlamTex (edited 04-17-2001).]

Speaking of dishwashers, went to a customer's home the other day to install some extra recept. and switches in her kitchen. I needed to come up to the counter on top of dishwasher. When I went to move it noticed it was hard-wired with lamp cord with the thumb switch attatched(diconnect?) and plugged to the fridge recept. She said she hardly ever used it(thank God) and a friend wired it. Yes, I did install new circuit for it.

hmmmmmm.
I doubt Mr. Webmaster could create a DYI slam section, there just isn't enough cyberspace!

Sparky,

We don't want to scare them all away, now do We?


Bill