Service call from hell. - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

220/221 · 01-24-2008, 01:00 AM

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.

mdshunk · 01-24-2008, 01:07 AM

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 · 01-24-2008, 01:17 AM

I got a headache just looking at that crap!

220/221 · 01-24-2008, 02:07 AM

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?

cmec · 01-24-2008, 04:32 AM

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 · 01-24-2008, 04:38 AM

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

mahlere · 01-24-2008, 07:17 AM

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 · 01-24-2008, 08:02 AM

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

BuildingHomes · 01-24-2008, 09:12 AM

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

POOLMANinCT · 01-24-2008, 09:59 AM

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

220/221 · 01-24-2008, 02:42 PM

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.

Quote:

last time I saw holes in a cover like that apco dropped a primary line on a secondary

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.

Bubbles · 01-25-2008, 04:23 PM

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

Bkessler · 01-26-2008, 12:23 AM

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.