Today's "how did that happen"?

[ProDave]

Called to a rental property. Reported fault was "plug sockets are hot"

Actual fault (tenant not present, suspect English may not be first language) was "sockets tripped"

So only one of the two rings was tripping the rcd. Didn't take long to find it was an extension lead. Not PA tested so assume it belongs to the tenant.

As I went to pick it up, water ran out from it. Now here is the thing, there is no source or water nearby, the carpet where it was sitting was not wet, it didn't smell of cat piss. So how does an extension lead become full of water without making the carpet wet?

I couldn't see the rogue traders hidden camera anywhere.

 

[Andy™]

stored in the fish tank when not in use?

 

[ProDave]

no fish tank in property.
 

 

[Jono Pashley]

Muppets probably had it outside in the rain then just brought it inside....had dopey roofers up a scaffold in the rain with a mains grinder asking why it kept tripped jus the other day

 

[kerching]

Divine intervention

Water turned into wire 

 

[Blue Duck]

I have had plenty of old dears watering extension leads.  

 

[phil d]

It's those pesky fairies again, you know the same ones who alter the wiring at switches, you get called to the job where the lights don't work properly, open a switch to find it could never have worked the way it's connected. You ask the householder if they've done anything, they swear they haven't and it's worked fine for the last 10 years, but, " I tried to turn it on last night and it wouldn't work". Personally I think it's time something was done about these pesky creatures.

 

[datadiffusion]

Always satisfying when you catch out lying ******s though.

Last month I had plumbers working in the loft when 'the alarm just went off all by itself'. Denied all responsibility, but 'happy' to pay repair bill.

Enjoyed putting photo of choc block they'd tried to hide the cable they'd cut through in with the invoice, copy to customer.

I'd have been happy just to put it right, had they not lied through their teeth about the whole episode.

 

[Andy™]

get jobs like that often. cables damaged etc. mistakes do happen, but then some try to hide it and deny all knowledge of it. often ends up costing them more because instead of going straight to the fault and fixing it, you first have to find it

of course (on my alarms anyway), if they do cut a cable and 'fix' it themselves, they cant re-set it...

 

[datadiffusion]

Oh don't worry, they couldn't reset it, hence the 4.59PM panicked phone call asking for the engineer code -LOL!   

 

[ProDave]

It's those pesky fairies again, you know the same ones who alter the wiring at switches, you get called to the job where the lights don't work properly, open a switch to find it could never have worked the way it's connected. You ask the householder if they've done anything, they swear they haven't and it's worked fine for the last 10 years, but, " I tried to turn it on last night and it wouldn't work". Personally I think it's time something was done about these pesky creatures.

I had one of those last year. The landing light would trip the rcd, (new split load dual rcd board) clearly a borrowed neutral.I told the landlord it would take some time to fix as that circuit needed rewiring. I heard nothing.  I had to go back to that property again recently so asked the tenant how did (a.n.other) fix it? "Oh he moved the lighting circuit breaker to the other side of the CU"  headbang

 

[datadiffusion]

That's almost as good as coming back for the annual service to find a 1980s vintage 100mA RCD to fix the 'occasional' tripping on the 4 year old 30mA one! (Alarm customer of mine, I was aware of the power fails as it's monitored)

 

[Lurch]

I had one of those last year. The landing light would trip the rcd, (new split load dual rcd board) clearly a borrowed neutral.I told the landlord it would take some time to fix as that circuit needed rewiring. I heard nothing.  I had to go back to that property again recently so asked the tenant how did (a.n.other) fix it? "Oh he moved the lighting circuit breaker to the other side of the CU"  headbang

TBF I think you are both wrong here. If you put both lives in the same MCB it is no longer a borrowed neutral. You shouldn't have left it and the other guy shouldn't have moved the MCB.

 

[ProDave]

TBF I think you are both wrong here. If you put both lives in the same MCB it is no longer a borrowed neutral. You shouldn't have left it and the other guy shouldn't have moved the MCB.

I was called initially to look at it, I found what was wrong and I quoted to fix it. He declined so how could I not "leave it like that" short of doing the job for free? I left it just as it was before I was called to investigate.

The a.n.other didn't but both lighting circuits into one mcb, he put them into two adjacent mcb's on the same side of the split CU.

 

[Lurch]

I was called initially to look at it,

Ah, it looked like you had changed the board.

The a.n.other didn't but both lighting circuits into one mcb, he put them into two adjacent mcb's on the same side of the split CU.

Yep, got that bit, which is why I said it was wrong.

 

[datadiffusion]

The best 'borrowed neutral' I ever found was on an EICR prior to new DB. It was literally a 15m length of 1.5mm singles run from a socket to a loft light or something idiotic like that.

 

[kerching]

The best 'borrowed neutral' I ever found was on an EICR prior to new DB. It was literally a 15m length of 1.5mm singles run from a socket to a loft light or something idiotic like that.

That's not borrowed it's RENTED!

 

[datadiffusion]

Took us ages to find it, owner was on holiday with a full remit for us to do 'whatevers needed'. Unfortunately this meant removing the fitted TV cabinet to get to the sockets behind, which in turn revealed a rather interesting video collection

 

[phil d]

I got called to a job a few years ago, big posh house over in Rainford, one of those with a massive garden and balconies outside each bedroom window. Anyway it was a queer set up, owned by this woman ,her husband and an aunt and uncle.

They were having a dinner party and this woman had plugged in a hostess trolley, after about 15 minutes there was a bang, smoke poured from the wall and all the sockets went off. I removed the socket and found it wired in some fabric covered flex ( iron flex) the next socket was wired in orange 3 core flex, in between it was joined with terminal block and changed colour several times. The walls were covered with 8foot x 4 foot wooden panels and I had removed 2 of these already trying to locate the burnt cable,she rang her uncle who had done the work and he denied knowing anything about it, "listen you stupid old ***********************" (insert your own expletive as she used them all, "this electricians ripping the boards off the walls trying to find the fault and I've guests coming to dinner in an hour, sort it out", she slammed the phone down and 10 minutes later he rang back. He couldn't swear to it but there may be something iffy under a certain board, I removed it and there was the fault! Incidentally they'd been complaining about the heating not keeping the house warm, the heating engineer had been and said there was nothing wrong with the system.Removing the boards had revealed he'd removed all the plaster from the walls before attaching the wooden panels and the blocks had gaps in allowing the cold air into the house.

I got everything back before her guests arrived and went back the following week to sort out the rest of the dodgy electrics, the uncle was there and we got talking, he asked if I had a nickname amongst my mates, I said that all the lads called me Sparky, because I was an electrician. "that's funny" he replied, " I was a woodwork teacher before I retired, but all the lads down the pub call me Tex, I've never worked that one out". I hadn't the heart to tell him it was probably something to do with his diy skills.

 

[kerching]

I worked with a lad nicknamed Tex I thought it was because he was slow and "TEX his time"........northern thing

nope, it was after Texas Longhorn!......draw your own conclusions