Service Call From Hell.

220/221

Two switches not working...no problem.




Crap! Touch Plate system. Switches are al pretty clean and new. Crap.

HO says the relays are in a mechanical closet. Oh well, better the burried in an insulated attic.

Hmmmmm...............at first glance, maybe not too bad.

Take the cover off. CRAP



A dozen relays, transformers and a rectifier JAMMED into this box. PLEASE let the problem be in the other box with only 6 relays. ALL the LV wiring was BEHIND the isulated wall.




Identify and test relay for bathroom #1. relay working fine. Cut our wall board and start TRYING to trace LV wiring. Bad bed bad news. WTF?

Everything seems OK. Double check to see if I am on the right relay. Non contact meter shows voltage at bathroom sconce? What the.....crap, thumbswitches built into bottom of sconce. Turn on....see the light.

Turn switch a couple times...OK. Crap..well, at least they work. Show HO that the lights were just turned off....crap...now they are stuck on. I guess that someone had just turned them off because they were stuck on.


Go back to test relay again. .....works fine. relay on/ off, voltage in/out. Crap. In the fixture? 3 wire sw leg so it goes thru another fixture too. WTF?

Test relay ONE MORE TIME...it doesn't work this time...sticks on. Son of a .....intermittant failure. A couple hours in but at least I know what the issue is.


Switch # 2 is intermittant also according to KO. It's working now but figure I better change the relay also. What's the lead time to order these dinosaurs? I went to my warehouse and BAM....found some that I had pulled out of a job a year ago. Tested them and went back to install them.

Everything works and I stuffed everything back into place.



Check out the nifty burn marks on the panel cover.

__________________
Just because it's within code doesn't make it safe.

Just because it's against code doesn't make it unsafe.

mdshunk

What brand are those breakers? They're Westinghouse style, but I don't recognize them. What do you suppose caused the panel to get holes arced in it like that? Never seen such, except after lightning damage.

Magnettica

I got a headache just looking at that crap!

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220/221

Hell, I don't know what brand the breakers were. That was the LEAST of my worries. They were the type that don't feel like they click on if you know what I mean. Most breakers have a different feel when you turn them on as opposed to off. These feel the same way both ways.

The arc damage was very strange like lightning of a very high voltage fault.I saw nothing inside. Strange huh?

__________________
Just because it's within code doesn't make it safe.

Just because it's against code doesn't make it unsafe.

cmec

HI everybody
last time I saw holes in a cover like that apco dropped a primary line on a secondary, tho only differnce was it was a plug fuse panel and blew the glass off the fuses and arced and burnt the cover ,looks like thats why there are 3 kinds of brakers ge,murray/seimens and the origonal my guess is old ite before it became gould ite.

start sellin upgrades

carl

cmec

cover bottom right corner says bullite, simmilar to bulldog pushmatic I think bulldog was a seprate company before ite bought them out.

mahlere

it's an old GE panel (top center- see the name and logo?) got some Siemens CB's in there it looks like...not sure if the older ones are GE or not though...

mahlere

btw....where do i plug my laptop into the relay panel so i can run diagnostics?

GregS

Just how warm does that panel get with all those transformers?

POOLMANinCT

service call from hell.....

the title lured me in.
how was the homeowner? cheap? attitiude? great to work for? if a sparky showed me a fire brewing in my house... out comes the check book....

ray

__________________
......Less with the jaw & More with the paw.....

220/221

HO was cool. It took me four and a half freaking hours $85 T&M (yeah I know. I'm livin in the past man) so I think I just covered my salary for the day.

I have seen that twice. Once from a hole I had drilled (locators missed it). Another from an overherd line a mile away from the job. It comes out in CRAZY ways in sometimes odd areas. On those two jobs I saw MELYED meyers hubs, ground wires blown out of washing machine pigtails cords and wirenuts burned off in a smoke detector.

__________________
Just because it's within code doesn't make it safe.

Just because it's against code doesn't make it unsafe.

Bubbles

Did you walk around mumbling like homer simpson after that one?? That would give me nightmares. Way to hang though....

Bkessler

Unless I get a fix I do not care how much it costs vibe, those touch plate messes is one of the few things i walk away from.