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 !

 

[glynnis]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I did wonder...! I wasn't sure if I was seeing it correctly, but it did look a little dark at the bottom there.

I was also concerned that the main switch was on and the CU was open - Safe Isolation anyone? Maybe some one had pulled the main fuse, isolated it before this CU.
My attention was also pulled to the barrier-looking-like section at the bottom and wondering if it was a barrier or if it was a wiring diagram. If it's a barrier it's a little erm, jammed into the bottom of the CU isn't it?

Look at the incoming side of the main switch, RED into N, black in into L side then onto busbars on outgoing side, if you look closer, i think???

 

[doy1es1]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hello,
It's my first post so apologies if this has been covered before.
I have a Hotpoint vented tumble dryer that keep tripping all my electrical supply. I was originally getting a grinding noise but have replaced the bearings and it now spins ok and it heats ok but cuts out after a few minutes.
Could this be an issue with the thermostat?
Thanks in advance.

 

[High Tower]

Hello,
It's my first post so apologies if this has been covered before.
I have a Hotpoint vented tumble dryer that keep tripping all my electrical supply. I was originally getting a grinding noise but have replaced the bearings and it now spins ok and it heats ok but cuts out after a few minutes.
Could this be an issue with the thermostat?
Thanks in advance.

Start a new thread and you may get a few more reply posts

 

[Benny_Boy]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Just had a call to a house where the lights had magically just stopped working properly and purely coincidentally there were 3 nice new shiny switches in place in the hall and landing.
Unfortunately for the bloke who tackled it there were 2 sets of 2 way switches over 3 points all done in red singles with the 2 ways both wired differently.

I love it when they've had a go! (not)

 

[sythai]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Not an electrical fault as such... but thought I'd share it as it was my fault and I've stopped panicing now

Just finishing off a kitchen this morning, got a nice big piece of cardboard sat across the '£1300 SMEG ceramic hob/range' test gear sat on top of that.

Dead tests and 32a isolator done, go to turn breaker back on... walk back in the kitchen and smoked right out.

I'd left the 32a isolator in the 'on' postion and somehow the hob was also turned on!!!

Serious panic, me and kitch fitter spent the next half hour airing out the kitchen and scrubing the the burnt cardboard off the hob... all this whilst customer was upstairs, really dont how I got away with it. Tester was ok as well slightly warm though.

Wonder if my public liability would pay out for something like that if any damage had occured...?

Time for afternoon beer me thinks

 

[Wiredspark]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Had a guy (whos a handyman apparently) fitting his new outside light, phoning me up saying "My light doesn't work, I've got power on the red at the light but there is nothing at my switch and I have a spare red in the light. I've put both neutrals together and I'm still getting nothing"
You don't even have to look at this to know he has put his black (neutral) which is actually a switched live in the wrong terminal. and hasn't linked out the feed and supply to the switch. heeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaw what a donkey.

 

[ahop]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hope you like this 1.
Called to a fault today, apparantely shower was tripping the fuse in a hairdressers.
Got there and see the fault straight away there was 2 x showers triton 8.5kw the first had a pice of 1.5mm coming out going into 2nd shower which had another 1.5mm running from shower into a towel in the corner, unwrapped towel to find an extension lead with the showers plugged in. Apparantely plumber had wired it in.

Put a quote in so hopefully back there tommorow will get some photos.

 

[gutterball]

I think that's a fail.

 

[RogertheBodger]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I Went to a semi-secure shelter for alcoholics in Manchester some years ago, the Main Rcd was always tripping, shut the whole place down, (can’t remember why they had an Rcd on the main, something to do with the unpredictability of the tenants, but it had to stay) it would be off all night then reset instantly as soon as I got there ( how frustrating is that?)

Couldn’t fix it, couldn’t find a fault, looked at everything, tested everything, changed the unit, nothing.
It got to the point where, in the office in the morning my boss would just jerk his thumb in the General direction of Manchester and off I would go, we were all feeling pretty stupid about this, I thought much more of this and I’ll be getting a room here myself.

The breakthrough finally came when I got to talking to staff members about anything unusual happening? Any new damp patches anywhere, anything at all unusual to explain this, one nurse said “well there’s the damp patch on the floor in Mr……s room, so we had a look and sure enough there is a damp patch on the floor in a corner, the smell was overpowering and I said that smells like urine.

She said it is, we have a problem with this guy, when he’s drunk, which is most of the time, he thinks he’s back where he was before he was banged up here, and this corner is where the toilet used to be, so every night………………….

And then I saw the socket on the wall above the damp patch

 

[LukeD]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

View attachment 3386 !!! Spot problem(Chinese gang full refurb. on Belgravia)

I might have worked with them some years ago. I was shocked just how many Chinese gangs are working on £12 million + houses. AND NO BUILDING CONTROL WHAT SO EVER . ALL ILLEGAL. I walked off. Most are paid £40 a day.

But to be honest..... i liked them and admired how they just want to feed their kids etc yet get treated like poo all the time .

 

[Mark_Burgess]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Just build a stud wall where ever you like!

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

heres an odd one
not really electrical but worth relating
I had to replace an external lamp for a client, and she asked me to refit a pair of bathroom cupboard doors
the plumber had left them off
well i removed the doors and had a look at the door gear, but imagine my surpise to see an immersion tank resting on a thin wooden shelf designed to hold clothes, now this tank holds 120 litres of near boiling water and that weighs 120 Kilogrammes
so if it falls it will either scald you or break your back
but the muppet plumber had fitted a nylon ratchet strap between the top outlet and some other pipework, the bloody thing was rocking, and underneath is the consumer unit!
how can a tradesman be so stupid as to think you can suspend a tank like that on 6 thin 20mm by 12mm battens?
needless to say I got some decent timber and built a frame rather like a table and wedged it under neath and secured it with screws, the tank is now vertical and secure
but it goes to show every one goes one about the dangers of electricity but 120 litres of scalding water are probably fatal
and the oddest thing was a so called electrician had attended some time ago to wire the supply to it???
I am so glad I did a proper apprenticship

 

[sythai]

Re: Tell us about your faults !


Just finished CU upgrade today and then found this, spot the 3 issues !
..... kitchen recently fitted by a 'builder' Unbelievably everything else checked out ok

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

thats worrying
sheathing not in clamp
R2 and Rn reversed
and no sheathing
seems there are more stupid people out there
I have a weeks work repairing a bathroom after some mental case decided to move a wall and a door and a few other things!!! lucky I can plaster as well

 

[WDMDL]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

imagine my surpise to see an immersion tank resting on a thin wooden shelf designed to hold clothes, now this tank holds 120 litres of near boiling water and that weighs 120 Kilogrammes
so if it falls it will either scald you or break your back
but the muppet plumber had fitted a nylon ratchet strap between the top outlet and some other pipework, the bloody thing was rocking, and underneath is the consumer unit!
how can a tradesman be so stupid as to think you can suspend a tank like that on 6 thin 20mm by 12mm battens?
needless to say I got some decent timber and built a frame rather like a table and wedged it under neath and secured it with screws, the tank is now vertical and secure
but it goes to show every one goes one about the dangers of electricity but 120 litres of scalding water are probably fatal
and the oddest thing was a so called electrician had attended some time ago to wire the supply to it???
I am so glad I did a proper apprenticship

But let's face it, it's not apprenticeship material we're talking here, it's primary school science!

Simon.

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

But let's face it, it's not apprenticeship material we're talking here, it's primary school science!

Simon.

yes Simon, thats what is worrying me
this bloke is installing central heating systems as well!
but it does take a bit of experience to learn about correct methods of installation
I have seen a few people that have taken these re training and part P course
they sail through the exams and stuff ( I found them hard even for an old sparkie) and then they do very odd things
recent finds on a new installation
1. roof joists drilled for cables / the joists are thin and there is plenty of room to run the cables along the purlins then 90 deg along the joists
2.partial rewire and new C/U found 3 old single gang sockets on wooden pattresses, the client complained the sparked if you walked near them when anything was plugged in
3.BS clamp on incoming sheath of company supply cabel ( old as well)
4. ring and lighting circuit cables zip tied to a gas pipe
5. new C/U fitted with a gas main pipe 28mm running against it and through the tails
6.threaded rod used as earth electrode???
7.external commando socket fitted for a pool, but it was an internal socket and no gland or sheath
8. SWA entering a 2 way consumer unit, the sheathing was not earthed, not glands fitted and the method of entry to the C/U was stunning, I will try and post a picture

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !



total and utter muppetry
I only went to the house to check an outside light and examined the whole system
I will post anotehr pic of the other end of this cable
ps the garage roof was leaking so I have pinned a notice on the building do not use any electrical appliance here, and severed the supply in the house
I am going back next month to demolish the garage as we found rats nesting and its beyond repair, plus she hates it and it blocks the view
so 5 weeks work for an outsid light not bad!!

 

[Giovanni]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

yes Simon, thats what is worrying me
this bloke is installing central heating systems as well!
but it does take a bit of experience to learn about correct methods of installation
I have seen a few people that have taken these re training and part P course
they sail through the exams and stuff ( I found them hard even for an old sparkie) and then they do very odd things
recent finds on a new installation
1. roof joists drilled for cables / the joists are thin and there is plenty of room to run the cables along the purlins then 90 deg along the joists
2.partial rewire and new C/U found 3 old single gang sockets on wooden pattresses, the client complained the sparked if you walked near them when anything was plugged in
3.BS clamp on incoming sheath of company supply cabel ( old as well)
4. ring and lighting circuit cables zip tied to a gas pipe
5. new C/U fitted with a gas main pipe 28mm running against it and through the tails
6.threaded rod used as earth electrode???
7.external commando socket fitted for a pool, but it was an internal socket and no gland or sheath
8. SWA entering a 2 way consumer unit, the sheathing was not earthed, not glands fitted and the method of entry to the C/U was stunning, I will try and post a picture

How do you know the guy that carried out the work didn't do a 'proper apprenticeship'......I have worked with both, time served and more recently 'fast-trackers, and in all honesty I can hold my hands up and say the fast-tracker was streets ahead of the time served, as I always say, it's about the individual, there are good and bad in both.....I am sure you have also been on jobs as I have and picked up after a 'time served' jack --- has been in an bodged it up, I did one last week, a 16th edition 'retired' spark had done a complete re-wire for the couple about to sell their house.....and supplied test results....They thought they were covered, to top that one week after the install all the kitchen sockets stopped working............A time served, 30 years under my belt, old time spark....I rest my case your honour. Rant over ;-)

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

yes you are right
I have seen some tradesman who did a full course and learnt nowt
you cant educate pork as my old boss said??
he also said some people aint got the sense god gave a chicken
we had one employee called jobber he took loads of different course over the years and usually gained 100 percent in them
but I would trust him about as far as I would trust a dwarf to throw a piano
some day I shall tell you about his antics

 

[Mr.Si]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I've finally gotten around to investigating a bit of my new house and found a few minor* faults

1. Spot the fault!




2. Now, I know CPCs are all joined together at the CU, but when they're separate radials for electric heaters and bonded together, surely that's bad practise!




3. These wires were just randomly left in from when the previous electrical heating system was de-commissioned... well, at least that's what I thought:






It turns out that one of them was disconnected at both ends and just laying freely in the ceiling of the ground floor kitchen. So when I was pulling on it, it just kept coming and coming and well, it just fell out:




I decided to investigate, from the main consumer unit, which circuit was which so in pulling the fuses, found that the yellow 20 amp circuit was for a decommissioned immersion heater, which is long gone but the circuit was still live and in a switch plate, screwed in to a double gang metal back-box shared with another switch, which was for one of the electrical heaters that are no longer used either (this circuit was not live).
Then It came time for pulling the fuse for one of the 30A circuits... Oh, I didn't think that was supposed to happen...: !






Now, these are probably all boring faults to you, but they amused me.
I'm looking forward to re-wiring my house once we're married and have the money to do so.

My Main earths and bondings are little on the small side too:





*In my view, all faults are potentially serious, but you know what I mean.

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I went to s ahouse today, rewired to ago to 16th
turned off the mcb marked downstairs showers
tested it still live?
turned off the MCb marked cooker and the shower was safe
god help a home owner if they failed to test it
then I checked the lights up and down reversed
and the 2 rings reversed?
why do some people bother to get out of bed in the morning?

 

[Mr.Si]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Cooker circuit - speaks volumes for Rewirables "protecting" 6mm2 cable...

 

[Konrad]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Something from the field.

1. The pub


2. Take away restaurant

 

[ringer]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Are you sure that's a takeaway? Where is all the grease you usually find on every surface?

 

[Martin Bradley]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

i was asked to remove and relocate all this in one night, but to maintain lighting LMAO left photo is 1 end the right is the other end, distance between ends erm about 15M, then relocate circuits in new not yet fitted containment, they had no circuit schedule so all needed to be tested, and circuits to be traced as to what was what, well well i said, then told them have a nice night.
the box had also been started by who? as it was cut.

 

[Konrad]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Main bonding conductor after periodic inspection - continuity test. Left for several months not connected.


All about installation of o/s light


and something about IP codes for this light:


Both cases are effects of works "carried out" by "professional" electricians hired by big company.

 

[Ohmyword]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

View attachment 3705

total and utter muppetry
I only went to the house to check an outside light and examined the whole system
I will post anotehr pic of the other end of this cable
ps the garage roof was leaking so I have pinned a notice on the building do not use any electrical appliance here, and severed the supply in the house
I am going back next month to demolish the garage as we found rats nesting and its beyond repair, plus she hates it and it blocks the view
so 5 weeks work for an outsid light not bad!!

I'm 'one of those' - "been in the trade 40+ years" and I can't remember ever seeing a Wylex unit with cables entering the front cover by that method before.
I wish we had had the technology (photographs on your mob. phone) like we have today, back through my career in the trade.
I explained to people that "I am never surprised anymore by what I uncover" because I think I have witnessed most things in my time.

Just recently doing a consumer unit upgrade I found out (the hard way) that the diy builder (owner of said property) had inadvertently joined two existing lighting circuits together (in a ring main).
Each circuit feed was connected to a separate 5A. fuse way. When you pulled one fuse............

Need I say more?

God save us!

 

[madmatt]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Hey all, had an annoying fault today which has occurred apparently out of the blue...some display cabinet / shelf efforts with a mix of fluorescent back lighting behind white perspex sheets and some overhead 12V halogen G6.35's capsule lamps have gone out randomly upon stripping the shelves and cabinets etc.. I found a few j.b.'s and eventually a couple of pvc's one t & e which fed in from opposite side of shop cabinets not yet stripped but weird readings on my meter of @ joint box .. Live to Earth = 237 V, Neutral to Earth 238V also and Live to Neutral 0V with switch in on position... then I go tracing back to mains in on a luminaire male / female plug socket affair and readings there were ... Live to earth 240V, Live to Neutral 17V and Neutral to Earth of 67V ! I am thinking I have an issue along a neutral somewhere ? anybody else had anything along these lines of strange voltages ??

 

[ringer]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Sounds very much like a disconnected/floating neutral. But this post would be better placed, and answered, in its own thread. This thread is intended for those 'I can't believe what I have just found that some numpty of an installer has done and that I just had to fix' type of faults.

 

[pennywise]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

bloke said he had it rewired, apparently earths must be for just stripping the cable then lol

 

[Mr.Si]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

bloke said he had it rewired, apparently earths must be for just stripping the cable then lol

View attachment 4916

ouchness!

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I have been rewiring a house locally origionally local authority owned but then bought by the tenants, tarted up over a few years and sold on at a profit
all the wiring looked ok, I was asked to fit a decent light in the attic, so I tested the Ze nada nowt nothing
the CU was a split load to the 16th and the incoming earth was an old braided cable, looks like the tenant rewired it himself, in the roof I found the joists were steel in pairs bolted with wooden blocks between, on top of these were laid cables and over the top of them a floor!!! you can imagine the rest
the funny thing is the incoming supply had been replaced with a new radial cable and was PME with a nice low resistance, however I told the client its a total rewire of the place will burn down, frankly I wish it had
I finally found the water stop cock hidden behind some units and a braided wire wrapped loosely around it
that was the earth??
I will post a fw pics if it lets me
whatever next

 

[Bonse]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Im properly ratty first thing in a morning

 

[Bonse]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

Miceone

 

[london_uk]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I messed up a 3 way switch because ....i messed up (loud music is not for electricians , especially if you don't like it)

I forgot to switch the main power on

I have a long list ...

 

[london_uk]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

If I was a customer - I would never get somebody like myself to do the electrics , the wife can do better sometimes hehe

 

[london_uk]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

I am joking , yeah ? I work for robuild, they are really good

London Builders Painters Plumbers Electricians Roofers Refurbishments

robuild. co. uk I don't know why it shows like that

 

[RWJ]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

The bonding to the water in the house kept "coming away" from the clamp???
Very strange we thought! Until we questioned the owner who said....

"It affects the television reception with it connected!"

WRONG PICTURE... SORRY.... LET ME FIND THE RIGHT ONE

We connected it another couple of time, documented it on the EIC and job sheet... I'll put money on it's been removed again.. so he can watch channel 5 or whatever!!!

 

[Jurassic Sparks]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

if he admits to watching channel five the chap should be sectioned!!
or tell him to get a frontal lobotomy

 

[bugsy]

Re: Tell us about your faults !

On some occasions I drink too much!