Be careful out there! Zzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaapppp (PAH)

Dave Yates (PAH)

File this under dangerous lies.

Call for a fan motor that won't shut off on a furnace (yeah, I know - that's the first mistake(G)). Upon arrival, our mechanic starts trouble shooting the internal controls. Eventually this leads to the fused disconnect & he spies the white wire being interrupted by the switch & fuse - black wire goes straight through?!? Off to the main panel & the furnace breaker has the white wire while the black wire is firmly attached to the neutral bar. All other breakers are properly color coded with the black on the hot & white on the neutral. (Not talking 220 volt here, just the single phase single pole breakers.)

Our guy reverses this screwed up install & does same at the fused disconnect and furnace junction box. Next comes the tracing of internal wiring (all of them black BTW) & he attaches little sticky numbers to the wires so the next tradesperson isn't faced with a spaghetti-like mess of unmarked wires (no ladder diagram on the doors or frame either & no literature to be found showing one). When finished blower motor cycles as it should. Evidently it was backfeeding through reversed polarity at the furnace junction box.

Customer is upset with our bill for three hours time. She's been a long time customer, so I give her an hour's credit towards the next bill (this was already paid). This still doesn't satisfy her, so she calls in the electrician who installed this main panel two years ago. He says, and I heard it straight from his mouth over the phone, "That was a pre-existing condition and I am obligated by the electrical code to leave it the way I found it." Say what? You find something wrong and it's only a thirty foot run to the furnace. You never stopped to think about placing others who one day would work on this furnace (thinking black = hot) and placed them in harm's way? You never stopped to inform the homeowner this was wrong and could/should be easily corrected? "No, it has to remain that way. It's a pre-existing condition." Now the customer wants me to credit the entire bill! Does he know new equipment is polarity sensitive? "A competent plumber would find that out in less than a minute or two." OK, now I'm ticked off(G). When I point out how stupid what he just said was, he tells me I'm pissing him off! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

But......... the fat lady has yet to sing.

I have a good friend who is an electrician and, as luck would have it, is also a certified electrical inspector. I'll be receiving the correct information by letter from his office & that will be forwarded to the customer along with my letter indicating she should be taking up the request for reimbursement with the chowder head (Sorry Scott! But then that'd be chowda head anyway!) who claims to be an electrician. Dumb jerk coulda killed someone.

That'd be like one of us finding a gas line run in polybutelyne tubing with hose clamped fittings and claiming it has to remain that way because it's pre existing!!!


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Mark A. Custis

Dave: Thanks

How can I help you with this problem?

Sparky's not culpable, says he.

Any one hurt, besides their proffesional pride?

I would give your guy a raise for seeing whar he say and letting you know.

Just my opinion.

Sure wish I could spell.

Mark

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Keith_3

Electrician gone haywire (pun intended)

Dave,
The codes don't say that you have to change a pre-existing condition but they don't say you can't. How does this electrician explain code changes which tend to come about sometimes due to problems with previous installations. Keith

ScottMP

Dave

Dont you have an electrical inspector in your area to bring on to the job ? Let him cite the guy and tell the homeowner whats the deal.

By the way I believe "Chowdahead" is a registered trade mark .

Scott

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J.C.A.

Chowderhead indeed !

40 lashes with a piece of 12 gauge stranded wire for that bonehead . RAT HIM OUT ! I wouldn't usually do this but if he wants to hurt someone , it's time to get him out of the basement. BTW ..I love the "electricians" who only had 1 color of wire that day , makes troubleshooting sooo much easier .

I believe the rule is "now you have the right to hit, punch, kick and beat about the head neck chest and groin area of this certified creighton". Chris

hot_rod

thy will be done

You don't need to be licensed to be an electrician and the house wiring gets a cursory inspection from the inspector, who typically is another electrician & they too don't need to be licensed or pass any type of test. In fact, the only trade needing a license in my area is plumbing! You want to be a builder - go ahead, an electrician - shockingly simple - just say you are one, a mason, cramic tile, carpeter - go ahead - make someone's day, A/C work - no one checks (ok, they're supposed to heve a fed cert, but even that gets by passed by many) or hydronics???? Hell, anybody can do that for themselves or as a "professional". But not plumbing pal, not if you're licensed because they're the ones the inspectors keep a close eye on. Not the hacks and trunk slammers though - they've never even busted a single one, so the abuse is rampant. Interesting it is that the plumbing inspectors have no need to take and pass any sort of test or have even a smattering of experience in the trades (in my area). They're simply appointed!

But, as for my friend the electrician who also is a certified (meaning that he, unlike so many other electrical inspectors, has taken and passed an inspector's exam - he's looking to become a full time inspector when our new building codes go into effect) inspector is concerned? He's one sharp cookie & we coached T-ball together for a few years. Been friends ever since.

I wouldn't normally "rat him out", but this bum told the customer a bald faced lie and has her thinking we're the bad guys here. If you look at it from her perspective, you can understand why. She's faced with deciding who's telling her the truth - a plumber who re-wired the main panel or an electrician who says it was kosher and that the plumber was wrong. She wants me to give a full refund for all of our time. She's a long time customer, so if in the end - after she has the electrical inspectors report and ours in hand - if she still wants a full refund, she'll have it.

When I was talking with him on his cell phone the first time, she was standing right next to him. I knew he was lying, but didn't yet have the proof to argue. He claimed the blower motor had probably gone into constant run due to a bad winding. If I'd had a clearer head at that moment in time, I'd have asked him if he megged the motor to determine that? Funny, but it behaved itself once we corrected the wiring.

When I called him back and offered him the opportunity to set the record straight because I now had the concrete proof he was lying to our customer, he said I was stirring things up that had better be left alone. So, I was hopping mad about the derogatory plumbing remark earlier & now I was a steam plant passing the 15 Lb mark! I told him I would be hand delivering the letters next week, which sent him into a four letter tirade - I hung up the phone.

Next week's shop safety meeting will center around taking an extra measure of caution when servicing customer's electrical components & an admonition to be wary of any wiring that has this bums sticker on the panel.

I wonder now if he's the one who wired the steam boiler LWC with 18/2 and utilized 120 volt power??? I found that out the hard way! Or that Spanish church monster of a steamer that was cracked late one bitter cold night & they had no money so I managed to get the old beastie patched to limp through the winter - they had one LWC using 24 volt on its end switch, while the second one was 120 volt - both plugged shut with gunk, which explained the dry firing - again using 18/2 wires - covers missing on both - zzzaaapppp! Kneeling in the mud pit(dirt floor) and wanting to curse like a sailor, but the priest is looking over your shoulder(G). I've been hit with 120, 220 & even managed to get whapped by an ignition transformer - just once. Worked right next to 440 3-P bus bars running gas lines overhead in a foundry (had to move the ladders for the cranes occasionally - very nervous working up there. Work on 440 3-P water heaters & commercial chillers & trouble shoot their miles of wiring and components.

Last year our town lost one hell of a nice plumber who was approaching a condenser unit - it was raining - to see why the folks had no A/C. He touched the casing and was electrocuted.

About a decade prior, another mechanical contractor friend was running metal ductwork in an attic. Knob & Tube wiring. The leading edge of the sheet metal sliced through the wiring's insulation and he too was electrocuted. He was one of the nicest guys you could ever ask to meet.

That's why I'm going to rat out this jerk.

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clammy

i know the feeling

seen it a million times i truely belive most electrians cannot wire equiptment if they do stay clear most can not even wire control cicruits and when it comes to service they pull crap apart don't fix and leave they still bill the custermer and get paided yet the cust. usally excepts you to fix it up get it running for nothing.i know alot of times you install stuff knowing your married to it but to have these idiots come and do the things they do and walk away and get away with it is to much good luck nailin to the cross

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

It's hard

to be criticized for correcting somebody else's mistake. It was wrong of the homeowner to refuse to pay the bill and it was wrong of the electrician to refuse responsibility for his mistake for not telling the homeowner about the problem.

It's easy to get angry at people who don't see it the same way as you and you owe it to yourself to get your message across. You also owe it to yourself to not stay angry; at some point in time, you've got to let go and move on to better things.

"Keep on the sunny side of life." Anon.

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keith_7

the shabby electrican

go for it dave the turd needs put on notice.

hot_rod

good advice my friend

My Irish is/was up on this one. It helps to have a place like this where I can blow off steam and get positive feedback.

This guy is fortunately the exception to the rule & I don't mean to paint all electricians or inspectors (plumbing wise) with a broad brush. The majority are simply trying to be the best at what they do, as are we.

When I grow up, I'll be much more subdued(G).

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