The “Good Deed”

GW

We have a customer with an early 2000s boiler. It’s been going in and out, every time we go the system is running. Or they cancel the call. They want a price for a new system.

I get there yesterday, they asked me about replacement: why it’s necessary. I say it’s not necessary, if the boiler is not leaking, we can keep on repairing it

I walk up to the boiler, no hot water in the indirect. No codes on the integrated control board. I jump the TT at the boiler, it fires.

I trace it back to a loose connection at the Taco; the wire itself is dropping in and out. I thought I’ll be the hero and get them going, even though my role was sales/estimating at that moment.

The low-voltage line gets away from me, drops right into the line voltage term—-Bang

The transformer hisses like I’ve never seen, like there was a serpent in there. I replaced the transformer, flip the tripped breaker back on, and another pop. The integrated control board gets hammered.

Great, I’m trying to help these people and I just throttled myself into the ground.

Thankfully, I’ve got an old friend/customer that knows circuitry very well. I call him up at quarter after five, he says come on by. He looks at it and says it’s gonna take me a couple hours, “I’ll call you when it’s done”

I go over there around 8 o’clock. Pick up the board. He says “I can’t guarantee it’s gonna work but give it a try”

Today I pop it in, it lights up like a champ.

Does anybody else have any “good deeds getting punished” stories?

I can’t believe I’ve been doing it this long and I’ve never gotten in trouble with a low-voltage to line voltage short. Lesson learned.

Mad Dog_2

I've got one too many "no good deed goes unpunished" stories. Guys like us always do the right thing and eat the cost. What I have learned to do in these situations is not touch ANYTHING until you are 100% clear with them, maybe in writing, that you are doing them a favor, but not responsible for any parts or labor incurred.

Don't beat yourself up Gary, we work in cramped conditions and its very easy to cause a dead short. Burned out plenty of transformer learning...Mad Dog

EdTheHeaterMan

OK GW…. there is this thing called a power switch that you can toggle off and on in order to make the chance of letting factory installed smoke out of transformers. They are very easy to operate. For the most part if the electrician did his job properly, you just toggle the handle to the down position before you put your screwdriver inside the control. here is an example of what the switch might look like.

Hope this helps you in the future.

Sincerely

Mr. Ed.

GW

Ed yes, I’m moving faster than I should at times.

EBEBRATT-Ed

I rather like working on things live myself.

GW

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1864034#Comment_1864034

yes, it was a fluke,

I can’t quite tell if Ed was being sarcastic. He went on and on about how to shut a switch off. Fantastic advice though

EdTheHeaterMan

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1864040#Comment_1864040

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words and I often try to use the most basic terms and use the original artwork to illustrate my point. Being that Gary has at times asked some questions herein, that require a detailed explanation, like how to design a bathroom, I didn't want to leave any room for doubt as to my instructions.

Spoiler Warning

Yes I was being sarcastic 🤣.

I have often worked on live wires. it is so much faster that looking for the circuit breaker.

109A_5

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1864034#Comment_1864034

Troubleshooting live circuits you will learn more faster, but there are risks.

The "no good deed goes unpunished" is minimized by shutting the power off as Ed states. It is a good practice adhere to.

mattmia2

There's the trying to guess if things are going to fall apart in your hand aspect to working on live things. Sometimes you guess wrong. Some of those people are the 3 fingered electrician that set a number of surge suppressors on fire when they disconnected the neutral of a multiwire circuit.

EdTheHeaterMan

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1864042#Comment_1864042

Some people have no sense of adventure! And many of my customers were shocked when they found out I was not a licensed electrician.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@GW

he's just messn with ya

JUGHNE

Are there many of the WM Gold GV boilers still around?

I have a complete one sitting in my basement, changed just to go Mod Con. Power disconnect switch included……☺️

Parts for sale…….CI will probably go to scrap.

GW

we see the Golds here and there. Still tons of GB142s too