I had an interesting conversation regarding cookers this morning, my neighbour had purchased a new cooker from a well known retailer of domestic appliances and computers, he'd also paid the £50 installation fee. The van arrived with the cooker in it and the men to fit it, a young lad in his early 20's and an older bloke in his late 40's, they took the cooker in and that is when it began to get interesting, they wouldn't disconnect the old one as it was gas, so the neighbour asked me to help, I disconnected it and did the required tests, so far so good.
I then notice that the older chap has a length of 6mm T&E in his hand, I made a comment that it wasn't strictly correct to connect an appliance that was going to be pulled in and out for cleaning, in that sort of cable and pointed out that a heavy duty flex was more suitable. At this point the older guy looked at me and replied, "not really my problem mate, we get given this stuff and told to use it. end of". I was a little upset by this to say the least so I informed him that while it may have been someone else telling him to use the T&E, it was him connecting it and that contrary to whatever he thought should anything go wrong at any point it would be him as the person who installed the cooker that would end up in court.
He then went into a sort of panic,it was quite funny really, all of a sudden he was asking the customer if he really wanted them to do the install, now the customer had paid his money and obviously wanted the job done, but he wanted it done properly!
As I left he asked me if I had any of this 'special' cable and if he could have a piece, I popped into my shed and cut a couple of metres off a coil I had and gave it to him, he took it back for the guy to install the new cooker with. Apparently the guy is going to have words when he gets back, he's not prepared to carry the can if anything does happen, after all he is only doing as he's been told, although interestingly enough I believe he didn't perform an earth loop test on compltion of the install either!
I can see a very interesting situation developing later with his boss, but it is also very concerning that these people are not only carrying out installations which are not as they should be, but also appear to be doing no testing afterwards.
I had a similar issue with a BG engineer a few years ago, I was working on a property and he came to service the boiler, he plugged his socket tester into the nearby socket that fed the fused spur to the boiler, the little green light said the earth was fine (no measured value however), when I asked him how this proved the earth was good on the boiler his reply was, "well simple, the boiler is connected to the spur, the spur is fed from that socket and my tester says the socket has a good earth, therefore the boiler must have a good earth since it is working"
I didn't know quite what to think at this point, which was worse, the fact that the customer thinks it's safe because it's been 'tested' or the fact that the 'engineer' clearly hadn't a clue! Be honest we've all seen stuff that 'works' but isn't safe and how could this guy be 100% sure that the earth between the socket,spur,boiler was indeed intact, he couldn't. It's all very worrying when you think about it isn't it.
y street dance ensemble
