Tell us about your faults!

[telectrix]

big bollox.

 

[dan86]

Now you're just speaking bollox

 

[MDJ]

big bollox.

Yours or clean ones?

 

[telectrix]

well, mine ain't been close to a sheep. that's 4 sure.

 

[chcnorris29]

No one with new faults?

 

[telectrix]

women, they have many faults:

men have ony two:

everything they say, and everything they do.

 

[sarky spark]

A few years ago I was conducting a PIR inspection in a small joinery premises. There were two DBs in the building one being on all the time and fed the office small power,all lighting and alarms etc.
The other DB fed the machinery in the joinery workshop,this DB was supplied via a 3 phase RCD.
Heres the good bit, the emergency stop buttons in the workshop were wired so when one of them was
hit it created an N to earth short and thus tripped the RCD supplying the machine DB.
Apparently it had been like that for years.

 

[Andrewr3]

No one with new faults?

Makes a change to have a nice and easy one, a busted electric kettle trips RCD and takes out ring circuit and few other circuits with it.

 

[sajeel]

Had one the other day a live phase wire arching to metal backbox only when voltage applied remove excess wire fitted correctly did continuity and if tests before powering up and all good. According to client it has been like that for years.

 

[Andrewr3]

Makes a change to have a nice and easy one, a busted electric kettle trips RCD and takes out ring circuit and few other circuits with it.

Incredible, today had a fault almost the same. But this time it was faulty Coffee Peculator that tripped out the RCD and took out half the lights and power to the kitchen.

 

[Englishman]

Tuesday's fault, rcd wouldn't reset, customer had already unplugged al appliances and located it to fhe general areas ring. Tested the lot, IR, continuity, visual at every point I could find, nothing amiss anywhere (although know of a join below floor near CU), then neighbour knocks to tell me the underneath of his house had flooded and the cavity was full of water.

Put it on unprotected side for Christmas, will sort Monday when it's dried out a bit.

 

[Eddiesparks]

Found a ring main fault today. I was doing the testing after adding a socket on a spur. The signs of a problem started with open circuit on the ring neutral and then a N-E insulation resistance measurement that took just a little longer than usual to settle. But things had changed after deciding to double check appliance on the ring was isolated. I was sure I had ring continuity earlier. I finally found the fault in a switched fused spur to a washing machine. One of the ring neutrals connected into the load side of the switch, and the load neutral was where the leg of the ring should have been. It had been like that since the property was built in 1996. If the washing machine isolator switch was on then the ring sort of worked OK, but when it was off all was not well.

Two months ago in the same property I did a direct replacement of a DSSO on the same ring that had an overheated (charred) line (live) connection terminal. My first thought today was the was the overheating was caused by overload on the broken ring. But of course it could not be because the line ring was always OK. The only common factor between the loose terminal on the DSSO and the mis wired 13A Fused Spur was the installer in 1996.

I found this the other day. Load side of FCU going back to board as the 2nd 'leg' - i would like to think absent mindedness (or a hangover!!) rather than sheer incompetence caused this

 

[Andrewr3]

Pulled back one layer of insulation to find this. It was a live lighting circuit. Not even insulation tape around this one. Oh and the green/yellow sleeving is missing as well.

 

[nickblake]

Nice simple job I had , add 2 extra sockets in a 1970's house installed the sockets , the tested ,then opened the can of worms the install was one ring 10 sockets , out of the 10 1 had an earth tails out Ring tests all open circuit so started to work from the one socket , open circuit readings on the cpc , floor up located cable and re tested open circuit replaced cable cable cpc had broken half way down , new leg test no earth at the next socket open circuit on cpc skirting board nail through the cable , replaced test next socket other side of the wall no earth open circuit on cpc , yep skirting board nail through the cable , next socket no earth , open circuit readings on cpc L and N , not so easy to replace as it was in the kitchen , cupboard fixing screw through cable in 2 places , replaced leg , next socket open circuit readings no earth , return leg 3 holes through cable one filled with cement , replaced both legs , next socket ok but no continuity on ring located loose live and neutral , open circuit on cpc , found damaged cable , still no continuity on cpc's , located a junction box under the floor cpc's cut off fixed and all continuity's ok virtually rewired the ring !!! had a new consumer unit 10 years ago but had the RCD replaced with a main switch , i wonder why ,, obviously no testing had beed carried out as the original skirting board nails were through the cables and hole that were drilled into the cables were from the original kitchen so looking at it 40 years with no earth on the sockets nice 10 hours of fault finding and repairs to put it right !!!

 

[Dipzy]

32A MCB & RCD tripping, 1 half of kitchen radial in 2.5mm T&E from CU terminated at fused spur which is feeding 5 socket outlets in 1.5mm T&E and 12 downlighters + outside light and extractor fan in wall in 1.5mm T&E.
Gas cooker and gas oven ignition's into plug adapter, installation been like this for over 14 years, no certs.
Socket Radial IR 0.5MO; Lighting circuit 0.3MO. Gonna re-new the socket radial cables and as customer wants the downlights replacing so gonna re-new that circuit too.

Got rid of annoying message removal too lol :-}

 

[amlu]

spider pulled out to repair a door bell... wooden box above a mirror cabinet ,there was a unenclosed 50watt halogen sitting in that space too, plasterboard doing for its lid... £50k renovation job, come on :-(
informed the customer, been told that shes been helped with all her money+savings by them builders. charged £30 for call out and door bell repair and left home...

 

[RyanHunter]

View attachment 22101

Pulled back one layer of insulation to find this. It was a live lighting circuit. Not even insulation tape around this one. Oh and the green/yellow sleeving is missing as well.

Like this in the flat I am currently renting (but not for long!!). There are some right cowboys out there!! lol

 

[johnbyrne]

Worst I've found , mostly because I'm sure the customer did it himself An alarm panel supplied via an old Wylex switch fuse unit with four core alarm cable, the incomer fed from the meter terminals. 30 amp bs3036 in SF but tiny cable connected red live, black neutral, yellow CPR, who can accuse him of not caring.

 

[Sparky Pat]

Had a good one today, outside light wired in 1.0mm via junction box on ring main.

 

[Robotstar5]

What's going to happen when they run out of windows?

 

[High Tower]

Took the board cover off and ta-da!

Who needs din rails!

 

[telectrix]

there you go again. nit-picking my work before it's been taped up! :59:

 

[PEG]

Looks like a bit of topiary going on lower left,very pretty...

 

[GT1]

No continuity on live side of ring. Spent half a day searching until I spotted the coat hooks screwed into the wall above where the old wylex board was..

Been there about 35 years with only one leg of the ring going.

 

[GT1]

Today I have been mostly hunting buried junction boxes..!

This is actually the old metal light fitting, complete with lovely swept bends on the metal conduit feeding into and out of it.

Some clown had decided to not bother about the CPCs. All of them snipped out, short...!

And it's the same at pretty much every lighting point and switch, cpc snipped out.

 

[dazza1981]

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.

Ha great story..... i can definately relate to it. And it makes it ten times worst with someone standing over your shoulder. pmsl

 

[Carpe Diem]

20A junction box used to extend the line tail. BTW somebody ran out of red cable! Oh, and a little matter of forgetting to connect the earth bar in the fuseboard to the MET - must have run out of black cable as well then.

 

[Englishman]

Had a broken neutral on the kitchen ring in a block of flats that's been up less than 13 months.

Tracked it down and noticed it went up behind a wall unit, off it came, and this is what I found

 

[jay sean]

That reminds me of a new block of social housing flats I worked in, no continuity on the ring in the kitchen at all, opened all the spurs/skts, some idiot does not known load from supply!!!

 

[Englishman]

That reminds me of a new block of social housing flats I worked in, no continuity on the ring in the kitchen at all, opened all the spurs/skts, some idiot does not known load from supply!!!

Got a load of new build flats in Crawley and I'm hitting issues, mostly small to be fair, at nearly every flat.

 

[Andrewr3]

No CPC continuity at all in a domestic garage fed underground from the main house. Loss of continuity caused by a) loose gland nut on an SWA termination into a steel surface box. It was impossible to tighten the locking nut because the back box lug fouled the nut! b) the gland to steel box termination at the other end was corroded so no connectivity at all between the back box and the gland. Even if there was no corrosion present then there was no fly lead between the back box and the circuit CPC, co the connectivity would have relied on the front plate (plastic 13A socket outlet) screws only. The front plate screws were corroded and had extenders as well. Re terminated the lot using lug rings on the glands for the fly leads and suitable back boxes. The wiring had been previously untouched for probably 20 years or maybe 30 years like that. Including a CU change probably around 10 years earlier. I spotted the problem when an extra socket was required in the garage.

 

[Andrewr3]

Found this last week on a domestic Safety Inspection for a home buyer. What appeared to be a recent and nicely installed DSSO in a bedroom, trunking neatly along the skirting board for the cable. Decided I would take a look behind the cover and found a flex, looked further around the room and found there was a plug top on the end of the flex which in turn was plugged into 5 way multiway extension lead. It begs the question if I found this on a Periodic Inspection would I C2 (depending on the cable size and length) or C3 it. Or maybe highlight it as an advisory note only because it is not actually part of the installed fixed wiring. Responses not required on this thread as this post is more just to highlight that it is worth following up when you you seem something out of place.

 

[Badged01]

Found this last week on a domestic Safety Inspection for a home buyer

What on earth is one of these?

 

[Andrewr3]

What on earth is one of these?

Ah, yes, I should not have used capitalisation on safety inspection which may have confused you. The choice of words not ideal either. It was a priced quick visual (mostly) inspection offered to a potential buyer in to advise and quote for other work that might be necessary for example a replacement CU, a rewire or just a periodic inspection. A better description for the job would have been a chargeable visit to quote for other work.

 

[Carlosfandango]

 

[Carlosfandango]

Let's play follow the neutral links!

 

[Andrewr3]

Found this outside light wiring in a decking balcony/fence, hidden under a wooden strip. Also note how close the nail is to the cabling.

 

[DPG]

Jesus!. Is that mains voltage? Daz

 

[Andrewr3]

Jesus!. Is that mains voltage? Daz

Yes, all 230 of them. The woodwork (a handrail) was out in the open too. Been like it for many years but had 30mA RCDs fitted a year or so ago (for some other reason).

 

[Dan]

I'm just bumping some of the older threads in the general electrical forum that had a lot of replies. They might not be current topics, if they're not, just ignore them and they'll soon drop off the list. If you DO wish to add a reply and get the conversation going again, feel free to do so. Your input might help somebody else in the future.

 

[sajeel]

even if he wanted to close the cover he cannot look at this wiring

 

[Dan]

I'm just bumping some threads in the Electrical Forum, don't mind me while I do this, you don't have to respond to them. Although if they are still current topics, and you do wish to reply, you're welcome to. Keep the thread on-topic and make sure you stick to the forum rules though.