What The Worst Electrical Safety Issue You Have Seen?

SuperiorBuilt

Curious what was the worst electrical safety issue you have ever seen?
I have 3 that come to mind.
#1- i was in an attic and i come across these large duct tape balls. When i look closer, i see the last HO used duct tape to wrap around the electrical wires instead of a electrical junction box with a cover. BTW there were no wire nuts just duct tape securing the wires together.
#2 high hat light on a 15 amp circuit using speaker wire to power each light.
#3 zip wire used by HO to run extension cord between electrical junction boxes on a 20 amp circuit.
Lets hear yours

TempestV

1: bathroom circut running off of one leg of the 220 breaker for the water heater.
2: In wall junction, wires twisted together, one connection bare, the other taped with electrical tape.
3: Bathroom circut that could not be turned off by any of the breakers in the panel
those were the ones that made me cringe the most

firemike

#1 Working in an attic at a local restaurant, I could see a faint orange glow across the area from where I was working. Looked like a small neon indicator light or something. Out of curiosity, I investigated furthur, found it was the spring of what was left of a wirenut. The single #12 THHN wire was feeding the plugs in a waitress service station. The plugs were feeding 2 commerical duty steamers, and a coffee pot, all on the same circuit. The other end of the wire was terminated on one side of a two pole 50 amp breaker!

#2 Got a call one night that they could smell something burning in the basement of another restaurant I service. When I got there you could smell the familiar 'burning Bakelite' smell. Followed the smell to the main distribution panel (Federal Pacific). opened the cover, and inside, one of the breakers was about 1/3 disintrigated. The bakelite had turned to powder, and you could see the metal inards. It fed a sub-panel in the kitchen. We carefully removed the cover, and for fun took an amp reading. All three phases were above 150 amps (1 was over 175) on a 100 amp breaker. No modifications to the system have been done in years, so lord only knows how long that has been like that. Once again it proves why everyone calls them "Federal never-trip" breakers.

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-Mike-

thom

On a restaurant in a rural area, two separate three phase panels off two separate pole mount transformers.

One 220V (2-pole) piece of equipment was run off two separate 110V (1-pole) circuits (with other equipment on the circuits) off the two separate panels (which were off two separate transformers).

The bun warmer would not work, never did. The hot was wired directly to the stainless steel cabinet.

Clock wire was wrapped round and round a conduit. It smoked and shorted while we were there working on other problems.

The reason we were there was to rebuild the exhaust hood duct system. It had two risers out of the hood, connected to a single horizontal duct in the attic, with a single vertical up through the roof to the exhaust fan. The ducting was standard "S and Drive" connected and leaked terribly. The attic was full of grease. The fire department was going to shut them down. There was a recent attic fire (grease) that extinguished itself with smoke. The horizontal duct in the attic had a 6" grease build-up in the bottom.

thom

Working in a truck stop. Large service with a 30" steel handle on the main. The handle was originally plastic but had been broken off and replaced with a steel one that had a ring with two large set screws that attached it to the breaker stem.

On of my guys walked past the breaker dragging an aluminum ladder (no he wasn't doing electrical work, he was doing drywall work). The ladder contacted both the equipment cabinet and the shut off handle and blew a hole in his ladder.

Apparently, the steel post that the original plastic shut off attached to was energized but the plastic handle insulated it. The set screws for the replacement steel handle penetrated the plastic stub, making contact with the energized post.



Same project:

The high dollar engineer from out of state comes out to check my work. He looks at the outside lighting system (fueling bays, parking lot, signs, etc) which is controlled by a solar switch through a 3 phase contactor (relay) that powers a 200A 3 phase panel. It's been working for 25 years and I tell him to leave it alone.

The contactor is set up with two 110V coils, one would hold it in the open position, the other in the closed position. He insisted the one holding it in the open position should not be there. I told him to leave it alone, it had worked fine for 25 years, he insisted on un-wiring it, said the springs in the contactor would do the job. He unwired the hold-open contactor himself when I wouldn't.

Next morning, I get to the job, one of the employees in a semi-panic tells me there is smoke coming from the electrical service equipment. I check it out, it was really smoking. The contactor, when the power to hold closed was shut off, did not open (there were no springs in it to hold it open). It relaxed enough to create an arc between the contacts on all three phases. The contactor was toast.

w6ire

I think the most common and dangerous electrical hazard is when a homeowner fixes a breaker tripping problem by replacing the breaker with a larger one.

Second Look

I looked at a house for sale that had a light switch which could easily be operated while standing in the bath tub. The same house had 5 circuits with 20 amp breakers and #14 gauge wire.

__________________
Second Look home improvement www.SecondLookHome.com
Handyman and Home Repair Specialist in Rhode Island
RI Licensed Lead Safe Remodeler/Renovator, RI Registered & Insured Contractor

mdshunk

That's always been legal, and is still legal today. For instance, the picture below shows a legal install:

tcleve4911

HO replaced an instant Hot Water Maker. The fittings didn't fit quite right and formed a pissing stream of water going directly into a duplex outlet under the sink. Wife came home and was both surprised & shocked when she tried out the new fixture as 120V went shooting up her arm.

__________________
Back in Maine
Dubbin' Around
Doin' good stuff ......

w6ire

If I were an inspector I would shoot that down based on 404.4
But yeah, the codes related to receptacles and switches near tubs and showers are extremely questionable...

mdshunk

Then you would be wrong. If you call the area outside of the plane of the tub a wet area, then you've got a lot of other things to worry about. Nice try, though.

I agree that it's a dumb installation, but totally legal if it's outside of the plane of the tub.

skyhook

My neighbor is a nuclear electrician. On his home, he had a breaker weld itself to the bus bar. He was standing in a puddle of water trying to remove it from the live 100 amp panel with a pair of pliers......

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mickeyco

How about if you hooked up a permanent shower head instead that one laying in the tub.

Is that a standard 5 foot tub?, it looks like a midget tub, might just be the camera angle.

Magnettica

This week:

1) Timer switch for a hydromassage tub inside the tub (it had to be relocated so the new sliding glass doors could be installed).

2) No GFCI protection for above switch.

3) Electronic dimmer switch requires a grounded (neutral) conductor, not grounding (bonding) conductor. Just because it works doesn't mean it's right. Poor plumber will get knocked on his ass for doing something like this!

On a lighter note... I asked a new helper to bring me in some #12 THHN/ THWN. I told him I needed a white and any other color. What did he bring in? White and green.

__________________
Electrician service in Rahway, Cranford, Clark, Westfield, Mountainside, Scotch Plains, Fanwood, Roselle, Roselle Park, and New Jersey | Same day electrical service and repairs | Licensed and Insured Electrician in Rahway

w6ire

404.4 does not include any language about "the plane of the tub". It says switches "shall not be installed within wet locations in tub or shower spaces". This code section refers to tub spaces, these switches are undeniably within the tub space. It would require a partition to make it a different space.

mdshunk

Thanks for your opinion, but you're still wrong. If that was the case, that floor right below the switches would be rotten, and the drywall would be mush.

w6ire

Wow, why are you so snotty? You're really wound up. Since you value my opinion so much, don't try this snotty act with real men in real life, it could have unexpected consequences. ROFLMAO!

mdshunk

Thanks for that tidbit. Surely you know that electricians are prima donnas? Consequently, if you want to puch me or something "unexpected" like that, PM me and I'll give you my home address. I'm a real man too. I'm not as much wound up as I simply don't tolerate incorrect information very kindly, particilarly from someone who operates in California.

The switch location in the photo is NOT a wet area, or many other building code matters related to wet areas would have come into play.

Geminijoe

On the commercial end far too many to list, but I would say the biggest safty issue on any project without even looking into it is any Job we walk on that has fed pacific equipment...scary stuff.

just one example
I once tryed to trip a ckt (could not find the ckt in panel, no schedual, kinda lazy) hit it on a steel beam, sparks but no trip, hit it again and it stuck on the beam and start humming, the conduit start banging. I yanked it off the beam, and went to get the tracer, found it was on a 15amp 1pole ckt.

pulpfiction32

Ive found a million of junctions buried in the walls of homes. But the worst things I have ever seen was a home owner who nailed single gang boxes to his baseboard and ran romex around the room stapling it directly to the baseboard. we also do service work for a hotel where the electrical nightmares are endless. the housekeepes are to lazy to unplug their vacuums so they yank them out of the recep one pulled so hard it the recep arc d against the box. has anyone used those new in wall splices i saw them in the supply house the other day how can they be legal