Why I Hate Emergency Fault Finding Jobs - Electrician Life
Why I Hate Emergency Fault Finding Jobs - Electrician Life.
Join me on an emergency callout to commercial premises. This crêpe shop had lost power to some of their sockets. I walk through my fault-finding procedure and how I find the source of the problems. These jobs can be a bit of a nightmare and I usually regret going out to them! But it's all part of the job of being an electrician! You have to take the good jobs with the bad! Crawling around under a greasy kitchen counter to search for an electrical fault is not my idea of a fun day out, but I did get a tasty reward at the end!
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Golden rule, believe no one check and test everything That’s what 30 odd years have taught me
Always followed a similar... "Trust but verify"... People miss things, don't understand how details fit, miscommunicate... Let the meters give you your sanity back.
Yeah it's hard to extract information from people in a logical series of events- I find people think you're trying to pin the blame on them when I'm purely asking to gather evidence/ information to facilitate locating the fault, and preventing it from happening again.
My colleague went to the local pizza shop to grab some dinner and they said we are shutting as there is no power. He said let me have a quick look and restored power. They then pointed at the menu board and said whatever you want it’s yours.
Nice
Result!
This happened to me a year back, just not at any sort of restaurant. I was going out to buy some jogging shoes and after finding the shoes I wanted, the store owner rung me up. We had some small talk throughout the time I was finding new shoes and he seemed to be a pretty nice guy, enjoyable to talk to. Anyways, as he rung me up, at some point I had mentioned that I was an electrician. He said if I wanted to come back, he'd pay me to check out a receptacle that stopped working in the back of his store. I said heck, why not I'll help the guy out and check it out real fast for him, free of charge. He was a super friendly guy that was helping me out the entire time I was in the store, I also had my hand tools and meter in my personal car for whatever reason (can't remember why, but good timimg haha). Was a perfect opportunity to do him a good deed and just help him out if it was an easy fix, sense I was there. Turned out to be a loose neutral in a Jbox up in the ceiling. Didn't take me long to find, maybe 10 minutes, and another 5 to fix it and head out. He did end up trying to ask me how much I owe him for fixing it, even though I had originally told him I'd do it for free. I declined his $. As I was walking out he came up and gave me a new sweater out of the sales floor of his shop. This was a nice one though, probably a good $80-$100... I've warn that thing probably over 100 times this year haha, absolutely my favorite sweater I own. Not only that, he had me come back because he wanted to do some light remodeling inside and outside his store. Ended up being a fairly big side job. He loved my work so now he's referring me to other clients of his. It's crazy how little kind gestures can sometimes turn into something much bigger. That pretty much the craziest thing that's happened to me so far when it comes to doing a kind gesture for someone.
@@DJayAce4
@@DJayAce4 The IRS does not like that... can't do anything against it, but Uncle Sam is not happy for lost taxes! ;)
Worst thing about fault finding is when you start to lose the head and you stop thinking clearly.
Yep
Definatley, I find taking a 5-10 min break helps clear your good and get back at it, it's bad when you have limited access to accessories aswell doesn't help at all. Good job. 👍
@@goldengaming7499 As a Maintenance Electrician who has worked in factorys and electrical generation I totally agree, sometimes you need to walk away as you can be pulled down a rabbit hole an hour seems like 10 minutes and you can go on a wild goose chase. Walking away and not thinking about it generally helps re focus the mind.
Yep definitely walk away for a minute.
And usually your first gut thourght ends up being the issue! ......the amount of times ive said to myself when i arrive "hummm it's as if theres a hidden switch turned off" or......(rcd faults) "bet its an outside light" 🤣🤣
And after all the work, customer be like "you're charging WHAT just for switching a breaker back on????"
🤣
One thing I've learnt over the years is to ignore customers presumed diagnosis.. think for yourself and think clearly 🙂🤘🏻
I disagree! Sometimes I feel the customers are trying to tell you something.
@@omgthatsme2018 Ha. In my experience they just as often were hiding something... Like what the resident tinkerer had done or what faulty appliance had blown up then been whisked away. Even occasionally not owning up to the fact that a less skilled spark / doer of cash homers, had either caused a fault or ran away from a job because they couldn't handle it. Quite often I'd only find out once engaged on a job or when I'd solved the problem, that the customer (sometimes a main contractor) had only opted to call me in and pay a pro rate because their usual nitwit was stumped. 🤷🏻♂️
IT here. Never trust a customer/user that says they've done XYZ :)
@James From experience 9 times out of 10 the customer will either tell you they've done something when they have not, or completely lead you off in a different direction. It's always best to use your own troubleshooting to diagnose an issue. This isn't to be ignorant or rude, quite the opposite. This saves both yourself the customer time and money.
@James stfu
Every business I have ever run gets cleaned thoroughly. There are no excuses and that even means cleaning right behind things and in the hard to get to areas.
You should do post commentary for all fault finding, it's much easier to digest. I felt like i was fault finding with you rather than being almost talked at. Good job
Thanks
Fully agree Doctor Electric has been doing the same recently and it works a treat.
I’m a budding electrician with no qualifications as yet… I really enjoyed the post commentary, felt like I was with you in your head! Scary 😂 it felt good!
Love the style of this video, you showing us your process, and even how the voice over matches your mood/thoughts at the time, great stuff
Thanks for sharing Jordan, I really enjoy the fault finding videos..... Everyday is an opportunity to see or learn something new 👍🏼 As a commercial refrigeration mechanic, I feel your pain in the tight spaces/grease 🤢, not everyday you get a free lunch and parking.... Go buy a lotto ticket 😄
cracking film - you've captured so much of the real world of a faulting engineer that's never actually shown on other videos Thumbs up !!!!!!
Good on you Jordan. You are tenacious in your problem solving and in exlpaining your reasoning to us the viewer. Here in the U.S at least on commercial and industrial jobs we label the cover plates in the field with the Panel Number and Circuit Number and a help for identification and trouble shooting. Those Kreppe units draw a lot of power and the circuit may have been overloaded. Only time and another call will tell. Hope you got well payed for your efforts . More than creppes. This story is full of potential for puns and I could waffle on. No pancake boxes anywhere in the mix just crap everywhere. I think Cory might still be there sampling so its best that you took one for the team. He is the Richard Attinborough of Electricians. Did you grab yourself a cuppa.
Excellent video. Full credit to you for not only doing your job in awkward circumstances, but filming it to a good standard as you went. Bravo!
Yep, Keep clients happy is the most important thing, especially food outlets. My local chippy always reward me with haddock and chips.😆
Liked this vid, thanks. I would never certificated/passed this on a new install never mind during a periodic. I personally don't mind working in that kind of environment love all that stuff especially fault finding, very satisfying when you find and fix it. keep the videos coming like watching your stuff.
I had a late night call when covering for a mates electrical business when he was on holiday, turned out to be a spa pool pump at a "Mens!!" club. Still scrubbing my tools clean. ( That was tools, plural).
I really do not get why places cannot be kept clean. My grandfather when running is cabinet making business years ago used to clean down all the tools, area and even hard to reach places every night so that it was clean for the next day. And every friday the place would get an extra going over.
@@bighands69 He was working for himself, I'd assume that most places employ the minimum amount of staff to run the shop, who clean just enough to hopefully be to standard
I love how you showed your work then added the voice over, very nice !!
Thanks
I agree the voice overs on the fault finding is so much more effective.
A moment of relief when you find the second board 😊 We used to get call outs to a local pancake place and it was always a fight to see who would get the job as you were always guaranteed grub, they never took no for an answer either.
Yep!
Great video. Actually felt like I was there thinking 'what could it be?' Great you found the hidden DB
Enjoyed video been there some many times . It would have nice to put a label on the sockets " fed from basement DB. Even wrote with a sharpy would have done .other pens are available. Keep up the good work nice to see some one that takes pride in their work.
Great job, thanks for sharing. Looked a nightmare situation.
Nice one. Thank you for sharing
I feel your pain, in commercials, I regularly used to come across electrical cupboards used to store wet mops' and buckets...what could possibly go wrong
Good video Jordan, I love jobs like this and I also prefer to watch other YT Sparks doing these sort of videos rather than just talking to the camera, maybe it's just my attention span? Look forward to the next one and hopefully catch up soon!
The master speaks your video commentary is top notch just mentioned you to Jordan that he should follow your lead👍🏾
This makes me glad to know that here every power outlet, junction box and every bigger appliance needs to be labelled with the corresponding circuit breaker and corresponding fusebox. When used in a commercial setting.
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ABC - Accept nothing, Believe no one, Challenge everything
Not volt pen ? 😂
@@busted4n6 yes, same as ‘Assume nothing, test everything’.
norwegian electrician here. why on earth didnt you start off searching the building for fuseboxes? - first thing i do is orientate myself with where all the fuseboxes are, even small hidden ones.
@@Liffero exactly , no obvious damage to wiring quite obviously another DB somewhere or supply.
Very common to have more than one DB in a commercial / shop establishments. Once called to a Indian restaurant and in the kitchen the hand wash sink was all connected via flexible plumbing so it could be removed to access the DB. One of 4 !!!
I suppose with the benefit of hindsight, which of course is 20/20, it would have been worth having a quick look around the premises including the basement very early on. Don't suppose I would have thought of it, but maybe one to remember for next time.
I was just waiting for it to trip again once you put everything back together and were ready to leave.
🤣👍
❤️ I am doing a on line course 😌 This help 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Thanks for sharing 🎉🎉
I think I would have followed the same process as you, the only thing that raised a flag for me was a single phase board for a power hungry commercial install, I was expecting to see a 3 phase board at first, good find though and keep up the good work.
A place like that would not need three phase.
Most commercial installs have 3 phase supplies whether they need it or not... if you find a single phase you've not found the primary DB
Love these vids, fascinating seeing how untidy these installs are in shops.
You done well there. I do a lot of commercial work , and did a lot for Sainsbury’s .. there shops were ok. Clean and the Installations were good . But small supermarkets , restaurants and pubs , were a nightmare especially if the owner did not know were all the distribution boards were , junk every were I use to leave my tool box outside till I inspected the shop because many had cockroaches. And I did not want to take them home .. but good job as many now can see how not all jobs are nice and clean ...
It's always lovely beneath bar tops and I think the plumber seems to have had shares in a certain push-fit pipe fitting company
Haven't heard of you before, and don't know why I watched this, but I enjoyed it, and have 2 other videos in tabs ready to watch.
Thanks! Welcome to the channel!
Thank you mate!
Great video love fault finding👍🏼
well done ! always fun when you get these jobs come in !
Worked in one Indian restaurant kitchen and every piece of equipment and cupboard was on wheels and the floor and walls were tiled so that they could move everything and clean everywhere. Immaculate place and used the place ever since.
You’re right... that restaurant did look pretty “crêpe”. Always feels good once you’ve sorted the issue but I completely sympathise with you being in that kind of a setting whilst fault finding is not the best!
Thanks for an entertaining episode - can just imagine how difficult it was in a busy cafe. 😃👍👍👍👏👏👏👏
Great job and video like always
I hate commercial kitchens also! I bought some black rubber gloves early 2020 for the start of CV19. They come in very handy in those types of situations and for things like replacing cooker hoods, workling behind oven etc..
Nice to see you labelled it up for the next person :)
I would have been tempted to also put a coloured tape on the cable every now and again to differentiate it (for next time)
Love seeing videos like these, it also shows how horrid henry the hoover can be, taking the cover off the single phase consumer unit whilst you weren't looking 😛
I always like to ask the customer as many questions to find out where the fault could have potentially started to get a better understanding of where to look. Sometimes they can be helpful, sometimes I get the, “well your the electrician”! Either way, I still exhaust all the simple stuff before I begin with taking faceplates off etc. Great feeling when you eventually do crack it though....
Yeah totally
I enjoy these fault finding videos! It's great to see how you think things through. In the single phase board, at 7:06 I was just wondering why you missed out the MCB directly next to the left hand RCCB?
I think it was a lighting circuit which was easily identified by the 1.5mm cable.
Wow well spotted that was actually a mistake
Ah I was wondering the same thing!
During my working life one of the hardest faults to find would be neutral fault. i.e.. A break in a neutral loop especially with machinery where often the neutral would be linked from one contactor or relay to another. With hard wired circuits, often a cable would break exactly where it entered the terminal.
What a nightmare. Well done!
interesting, thanks for sharing!
I do Portable applience testing in commercial places. One place I did, all the sockets behing the bar were so well covered in splashes, the Sugar had glued all the plugs in place. Pools of Beer and soft drinks were under the tills. After a long talk to the manager, he got a team to strip the whole thing and clean it all. Not part of PAT Testing I hear you cry.!
I enjoyed watching this one, something a little different but really interesting viewing 👍
That was easy... When in doubt trace it out.. Did this for 42 years.. ❤️ it.
Top tips, all hidden food prep areas are covered in grease, always wear disposable gloves saves your hands getting greasy and wipe tools down after use outside to remove all the grease etc, they also like it if you wear gloves they think youre being clean and not the other way around. Also where ever youre working in the above will usually be very busy so keep tools near you as they may well be tripped over. Always ask a member of staff to point out the fuse board and any other fuse boards before you start.
When I do service work in kitchens I quickly get a vibe for whether I will be eating in that establishment ever again based on how much crap i find in the voids between the appliances!!
Haha so true
Nice one pal good to see you doing the job yourself and not getting someone else who works for you to do it why did you not do a IR test on that radial cable and what do you think tripped the mcb
That's actually a very clean commercial kitchen!!! I didn't see a single roach or pile of mouse crap. I worked in Dallas as a sparky/refrigeration mechanic for years and I've never seen one as clean as yours mate.
Enjoyed this one Jordan. 😃😃😃
The funny bit when at college we weren't told that crawling in mice Sh***t was part of the game however in fault finding, it helps you keep your sense humour and focused. Great Job😉👏
Haha so true
I tend to get bitten by spiders when fault finding 😅 not good for someone who's terrified of spiders lol
Hi Jordan I always hate emergency fault finding jobs especially tight spaces
Totally
John; it's been a small guilty pleasure of mine for quite a while now to look for your comment on an artisan video and see how many times you would keep calling him Jondon. today is a sad day.
20:00 Man, I wasn't even looking at the video when you said this. Was like WTF ? LOL
I was looking, but more at the subtitles than anything else... same effect I guess? haha
I was called out to a restaurants outside socket without power 2 days ago. I could see where the cables entered the building and found a SFCU in the off position behind a tin of coffee - one click and the power was back on. They had accidentally knocked the switch off. Turned out to be an easy job.
Doing this for 30y + , fault finding and repairing is a way of life. mechanics, electrical, electronics or software,.... have done it all. Just going step by step and eliminating possible causes, amazing what your able to repair and recover if you put your mind to it. Personally in this case I would first have asked were the fuse box is, but well done
Awful job, but you sorted that very well I think. You earned your money just moving stuff out of your way. I am a retired electrician but luckily worked in mines and factories so didn't have do do that sort of work. Thanks for sharing your work.
You did a fantastic job, hope the breaker doesn't trip again. Great video.
Thanks 👍
I spoke to my pat tester who does the equipment in my business. He had to do a PAT test on a live call center, he had to unplug each one from working terminals do the test and then plug them back in for the operator.
Did you find out what had tripped it? I had the same problem in an office - the cleaner would come in about 6pm and plug their hoover into a socket which had already quite a lot of equipment on a 16A mcb I had a call about 2 days later saying it had gone again and then we worked it out - bet they will be on the phone again
I've done it dozens of times and that is listen to the customer who means well but throws you away from the search. When she said she had checked the DB and all were on, in your mind it means it's something else, who would have thought to ask if there was more than one. As much as information gathering is good it does send you down rabbit holes.
Totally agree
Hi Jordan. Do yourself a favour and get one of those signal generators that you clamp on the wire, you then use the "wand" to pickup the generated signal from that cable. Makes it easier to trace cables & identitfy which circuit is involved at the consumer unit if indeed any of them are... I know how you love new toys! Hopefully will save your customers money too.
Great video !
i stoped doing faults to shops years ago as wiring was always a mess, parking was a nightmare, and getting paid was a bigger nightmare.
Before I got a sweet Corp gig I was an IT tech on site and we had lots of restaurants POS terminals I supported. It's amazing how nasty the wiring gets in these places. Greasy, sticky, slimy, moldy, gritty all at the same time.
Radial circuits with multiple outlets in commercial kitchen environments are destined to be a problem. Practically everything seems to demand 3000w in them.
I would have added a note to the first DB to say that there was a 2nd in the basement. Remember it might be one of your guys who gets that job next time.
at least you got rewarded with something sweet fella 😍😍🥳🥳 in the description you wrote there instead of their 🙂🤭😜
Thanks
The description was correct - just missed out the apostrophe. Should be “there’s”, short for “there is”.
Very interesting. Thanks.
Nice one very interesting , I hope the three twin sockets were all on the same phase 💥⚡⚡
Cracking video, and interesting. I suggest all the sockets are labelled with where they are fed from, would have made your job much simpler.
Thanks yeah you’re right
In theory, they should all be labelled (CB-5, S/B-2) or similar and many start off with good intentions and practice... but... the fact is many of these older commercial units have been chopped and changed over the years to suit the current occupiers needs, that most bear no resemblance to the original system at all- of course each new addition should be labeled up as well, but as they often DIY or get 'the cheapest guy' in, it usually doesn't happen... (add in walls installed and taken out, false ceilings added and when these are done, often cables are cut, shortened, extended or 'pulled to the side'- a cable often does not run where 'commonsense' dictate it does...) The worst I have seen was a single circuit, that ran the entire length of the shop- FIVE TIMES, before coming out at a single (vital for the new shop fit-out) outlet... Which was running right at the outlet limit to boot... It had obviously been moved a considerable number of times over the years, and often they just 'added a new length' whenever it had been moved, until the total length of the cable was far longer than the property itself!!! (it had so many junction boxes (and even just BP connectors in the ceiling sans junction box) that the voltage was flickering up and down under load- combination of so many joins and aging screw connectors, and a run that was now right at the limits re voltage drop/conductor size- you wouldn't have thought it would be an issue normally, but the sheer length of this run was approaching over 150m!!!! in 2.5mm.... A fault in one of these can be a real test of your diagnostic and 'outside the box' thinking- and your flexibility (mental and physical lol)
Another informative video Jordan--
Thanks
Knowledge is power
Hats off mate looked like a nightmare. Free parking in Cambridge 😂 👍
Done loads of commercial kitchens in my 40 years, the best ones are the ones where the whole front of the CU including the MCBs/RCDs are thick with grease 😂
Change your camera from 60 to 50hz. That should stop the banding and flickering from certain lights. Like when you were checking the consumer unit.
Love fault finding !!!!
I once worked on illuminated signs above a huge wok stir fry place, everything covered in grease residue 😵💫
Lucky that basement isn’t full of damp most are around there. I Spend most of my time on the downing site behind grand arcade doing remedial’s. Absolute nightmare!
Worked in the kitchen of a local restaurant once....never went back to that restaurant and never worked in a commercial kitchen again. Spent hours cleaning the grease off of my tools, tool boxes and power tools etc. 🤢
13:38 oops you left the cover off the other board bit naughty that mate since it was live
Damn man, you started at the end and worked your way back...
I've been doing low voltage for for the past 5 years, i was taught to start at the control panel and work your way out to the field. He did the opposite lol but still arrive at the same conclusion.
@@Lewdacris916 +1 Always start at the beginning. It's only single phase not rocket science
Have you ever tried a Dead Circuit Tracer like the Socket&See? I would assume that would have been a safe and quick way to eliminate other sockets and circuits and would have instantly helped you realise that the cable wasn't on the first dis board.
A few yrs ago i worked ( on a sunday) in a local chinese restaurant that was super clean & smart in the main dining area, but the kitchen was an absolute disgrace with food & jars etc all left out with flys buzzing around everywhere, i also discovered that they had a 10mm swa fed from the incoming side of the main meter to various outbuildings!!!! No pancake rolls for me that time.
Artisan food review! 10/10 would watch
I had a troubleshooting session in an underground car park last week. A lighting circuit kept tripping the circuit breaker. The fault was within one of the 25 fluorescent lamps. You are welcome to guess in which... Exactly, the last one I checked. The through-wiring in the lamp was laid directly along the ballast. The insulation has become brittle due to the heat and has caused a short circuit to PE. Troubleshooting is always fun.🤣
What you are looking for will always be in the last place you look - logic.
Great work, What you would a charge be for call out like this mind me asking
Hi there, the video with the squirrel damage, should all the light bulbs have been removed before doing an insulation test? Great video BTW!
Very good skills!! Can you explain to me how can I make the socket circuit ring please, basic I'm add 5 new socket on existing house ones and now , when I connect the wire for the new socket the breaker switch off,
15:00 The Wiha Speedy II would have come in handy here😉😉
Ha
Great video
You have the patience of a saint mate!
Haha not sure about that but thanks
Great videos,I've watched so many of yours and didn't realise I hadn't subscribed to it lol Quick question ... this year is the year we are thinking of going towards and electric vehicle but I'm questioning whether our house needs some rewiring doing. A few years back we were getting a smart metre fitted but the engineer stated he couldn't fit one as the electric board needed wiring and so the smart metre wasn't fitted. Any help or answers please 😃
Thanks! I would recommend that you get an EICR done - that will determine whether you need a rewire or not.