Dodgy trade pictures for your amusement! - 1 Million Views!

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I remember fitting a few around 1987-88 ish, they were quite good at the time and used to have a sticker stating they had a design centre award or something like that.
 
So long story short... got a call from an existing customer about an immersion heater in a rental property she owns. Gas man/plumber had told her she needed a new immersion. Checked immersion element, fine, thermostat, fine, mains in, fine, but no current flowing. CU was about 2m away, so continuity checked all conductors... line, fine, cpc, fine, neutral, nothing!

I'm thinking to myself 'I just don't get it', cable is about 3m long, no signs of damage, connections to everything fine. So starts pulling in replacement and then finds it shoots off down the other end of the property. I missed that on my initial survey as it was buried right in the eves.

Toddle off to the kitchen at the other end of the house where I find another immersion heater switch (for convenience I guess, having to walk about 5m is such a hardship). So I opens it to reveal this:-

View attachment 35696
 
Point is - were the neutrals long enough for re termination after testing? Strange though - will you be able to find out who did it?
Put your deerstalker on and get hunting!
 
Gas man/ plumber pulling a fast one - wanted a bit of work but . . . He wouldn't have been there in the first place unless there was a fault! The plot thickens dum dum dum!
 
What I failed to mention was the neutral was out on the switch near the tank as well, which I obviously fixed before I did a continuity check on the cable. On the switch in the kitchen however, the terminal screws were knackered and couldn't be undone... both of them! Coincidence???

Put a Wago lever in on the neutral in the kitchen as a stop gap while I sourced a new switch plate, now I have one I'm waiting for the landlord to get back to me to go and fit it.

As to who did it... god only knows. It was the gas man I think who got her to call me. Tenants reckoned they had been using it until a few weeks before, but the boiler condensate drain was blocked so that was off and they wanted a hot shower and found it wasn't working. They couldn't remember if anyone had been in other than the gas man and me, neither could she.

I'd love to know though even if just so if I'm asked by a customer for a recommendation on a plumber or gas engineer I can avoid giving the guy work. Not that I'm complaining it was easy money apart from the cost of fixing my mistake of pulling of the cable somewhat prematurely, which I didn't charge her for. Have to say it freaked her out a little bit, didn't do a lot for me either... wilful sabotage that could so easily have killed someone, and I'm there with one of the tenants, I'm thinking any minute now we're gonna get the Psycho shower scene in the airing cupboard :eek:
 
One more. Can anyone spot what's wrong with this? Apart from the obvious ratsnest chocblock fetish the installer had. I should add, it was dubiously concealed under the mass of insulation you see behind it. I went hunting after some basic checks threw up some interesting results during a quote visit for some lighting changes :)

View attachment 35698
 
SparkyChick said:
One more. Can anyone spot what's wrong with this? Apart from the obvious ratsnest chocblock fetish the installer had. I should add, it was dubiously concealed under the mass of insulation you see behind it. I went hunting after some basic checks threw up some interesting results during a quote visit for some lighting changes :)

View attachment 35698
Click to expand...

It's out of focus? :)

A cpc not connected?
 
Yeah, sorry about the quality... that was my not so smart smartphone and it's crappy camera from 2009 :)

Spot on with the fault. Tested Zs at a fitting the chap wanted changed and my MFT kept flashing CON... checked the leads, tried different combinations and I'm thinking warranty replacement time until I asked the chap if he'd had any work done recently... oh yes, he said, had the bathroom done... facepalm time! Broke out the ladder, crawled in the loft and found that above his bathroom :)
 
Name and shame! GH you've let the trade down! Obviously not a competent person carrying out in service testing.
 
Bad plug design - the user cannot visibly tell that the cord is out of the cord grip. Daz
 
Andy78 said:
It's entirely possible it could have been fiddled with in the past 3 years.
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Perhaps, this was one that got missed as it was stored in a loft, I did the testing in 2014 and there were loads of problems in plugs it was clear the company did not inspect inside any plugs. Even the client asked me why I was opening each one as during the previous tests that didn't happen.
gazdkw82 said:
What's on the other end? It's entirely possible someone has terminated the same way on the other end
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A heater was on the other end, the flex didn't look replaceable.
DPG said:
Bad plug design - the user cannot visibly tell that the cord is out of the cord grip. Daz
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The users at this location are not the sort of people to carry out pre-use checks.
 
Got called to help a young colleague find a fault one evening, the main supply was tripping. First thing I go to see what was tripping, odd that wasn't like that last month! Turns out someone had replaced the MEM 3phase RCD the day before, and since then everything was tripping every 5-30 minutes, the people there had tried to switched off circuits to try to reduce the problem, then we were called. The first thing I checked was the settings, the tripping current was set to 30mA, this is the supply for 30 'mobile' homes...
View attachment 35718
There are loads of other things, I'll let you lot find them, I'll give you one you can't see, the cables leaving left are 3M long and unsupported, and looking at the age/type of the seals on the meter and cutout I'd put money on it it was replaced live. I don't know where they got this unit from, I've never heard of the brand.
 
Well I've been waiting for the last few hours to see if anyone else was going to comment, but I'd like to know the answers, so here's my list.
  • Different live conductors through different openings raising the possible issue of ferromagnetic effects
  • Excess exposed conductor on crimps
  • Bad earth to the box (looks bad - would have been much better with a ring terminal crimp)
  • Conductor identification on the cables from the left is dubious at best and particularly poor as they've used blue inner sheath for a line conductor, they could have made this much better using some coloured heat shrink on the crimp bodies (which would also have mitigated their inability to cut cable to the correct length for the crimp)
  • No fixings in the box other than the screws in the keyhole slots from what I can see, so it could be lifted off those
  • Insufficient thought given to protecting the cables from mechanical damage where they enter the box
Not sure about the earth as there appears to be a junction which is in shadow, but at the very least that doesn't appear to be adequately supported, neither does the cable, and I'd say it should have a BS951 label on/near the junction.

If I could isolate it, I'd be inclined to give all of those crimps a tug make sure they are crimped properly and securely fastened to the studs, but as it's live with no visible means of isolation I'd be a bit reluctant (with or without appropriate PPE).
 
Is the yellow ring shape a current transformer? or an overload sensor? or something else altogether which you will name for me!
 
Was just looking at that myself. Is that the neutral going through it? Must be leakage detector rather than a current transformer then?
 
All live conductors are going through it, so earth leakage detection was my view. It's connected to the module on the right but you can't zoom in well enough to read the panel.
 
Yes for leakage, the coil and the little box on the right trip the MCCB. I would have thought the mention of 30mA would have given that away! :p The tripping current can be adjusted right up to 30A and a delay of up to 300 seconds IIRC.
 
Good point - it says RCD above. Mind you, 30A leakage current - nice :) Daz
 
SparkyChick said:
Well I've been waiting for the last few hours to see if anyone else was going to comment, but I'd like to know the answers, so here's my list.
  • Different live conductors through different openings raising the possible issue of ferromagnetic effects
  • Excess exposed conductor on crimps
  • Bad earth to the box (looks bad - would have been much better with a ring terminal crimp)
  • Conductor identification on the cables from the left is dubious at best and particularly poor as they've used blue inner sheath for a line conductor, they could have made this much better using some coloured heat shrink on the crimp bodies (which would also have mitigated their inability to cut cable to the correct length for the crimp)
  • No fixings in the box other than the screws in the keyhole slots from what I can see, so it could be lifted off those
  • Insufficient thought given to protecting the cables from mechanical damage where they enter the box
Not sure about the earth as there appears to be a junction which is in shadow, but at the very least that doesn't appear to be adequately supported, neither does the cable, and I'd say it should have a BS951 label on/near the junction.

If I could isolate it, I'd be inclined to give all of those crimps a tug make sure they are crimped properly and securely fastened to the studs, but as it's live with no visible means of isolation I'd be a bit reluctant (with or without appropriate PPE).
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I don't like tails in the metal glands much either, some marks on LHS already, and IP not special. And someone's nicked the cover :)
 
Seems to be a lot of dodgy installs down your way Freddo. My sister lives down that way and often mentions I should come down and expand my business some :D
 
freddo said:
Stick that up your earth electrode! (or should that be down?)

The madness today (sorry for poor pic quality):

View attachment 35724
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Hmm looking at that raggedy edge around the soffit vent it could be asbestos, so rather than drill a new hole there could be sense in that. I'd have cut a cable sized piece out of the vent [neatly] and put it back in place though. :)
 
I'm not going to say much about this as thinking about it is making my blood boil. Basically this system was working fine, a but dated, but fully functional. Recently the old fire panel was been changed and alterations made to detector circuits, the new panel does not have a fire output relay (it looks like the manufacturers forgot to fit the fire and fault relays in the PCB!) so various door releases etc. don't operate. The altered zone wiring has faults on it, apparently the company came to look at the faults several times before correcting the problems. By correcting I mean moving the EOL devices to the panel.:mad:

I can't put into words how appalled and disgusted I am that a company has charged for this work. We haven't ventured past the panel yet, but a full inspection is booked at the start of next week. This is the second system that we know of that this company has tampered with, they fu*ck*ed that one right up as well, requiring major remedial works to clear the S/C and O/C zone faults as well as many other issues.

View attachment 35809
 
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