Electrical question

[John T]

One of my rental houses had a garbage disposer wired that way. You got a tingle if you touched the stainless steel sink with the disposer running

NOW THATS SCARY !!!!!!!!!!

Kitchen and Bath receptacles and devices/appliances NEED WIRED CORRECT with proper GFCI protection (which trip upon 0.005 amps of fault current) as it might take as little as 0.030 to 0.050 amps of current to cause fibrillation YIKES

YOU GOT THAT FIXED RIGHT (especially in a rental, free legal advice)

John T

 

[ratface]

I went up into the attic and removed the the tap line as well as the ceiling fan and switch. Examined all the wire BX ends and could not find anything obviously wrong. I broke a lead on the multimeter so have not been able to do further testing. Have been consumed with a funeral of a family member so slow to investigate. Will try and purchase a new meter today, maybe something with true RMS function, I have learned so much from this thread. Have an electrician coming tomorrow to do diagnostic testing on the main panel. I suspect the problem still exist somewhere in those circuits. Problem is it's going to get really hot and it's just brutal working in that space. Any retired electricians here can comment on working in unpleasant spaces or does that go with the territory. I can access in the mornings but would be a lot easier for someone who knows what to look for. I am sure I wired the switch correctly and there are no 220 lines in the house other than the garage. I am still puzzled why the energized line would only bite me when I caused movement to the line, I could grab that BX line and no bite, but move it just a couple inches and bite, bite bite.

 

[Jamisonj1]

(quoted from post at 05:57:12 08/16/23) I went up into the attic and removed the the tap line as well as the ceiling fan and switch. Examined all the wire BX ends and could not find anything obviously wrong. I broke a lead on the multimeter so have not been able to do further testing. Have been consumed with a funeral of a family member so slow to investigate. Will try and purchase a new meter today, maybe something with true RMS function, I have learned so much from this thread. Have an electrician coming tomorrow to do diagnostic testing on the main panel. I suspect the problem still exist somewhere in those circuits. Problem is it's going to get really hot and it's just brutal working in that space. Any retired electricians here can comment on working in unpleasant spaces or does that go with the territory. I can access in the mornings but would be a lot easier for someone who knows what to look for. I am sure I wired the switch correctly and there are no 220 lines in the house other than the garage. I am still puzzled why the energized line would only bite me when I caused movement to the line, I could grab that BX line and no bite, but move it just a couple inches and bite, bite bite.

ot going to be happy after spending all this internet time, sweat, electrician $ , only to fine out that your tingle was really just you being pinched by the movement of the bx metal. Mind tricks.

 

[steve_in_mo]

Yes, I did. Thank you very much....
I'm not that good with electrical things myself, and it took me a little bit to figure it out.
I had a plumber with me who had seen it happen before.

 

[steve_in_mo]

Like I said may have.
That rental had plastic plumbing and previous owner/owners
had left behind all kinds of safety issues.

 

[ratface]

My scheduled electrician was a no show today, that is so frustrating when a contractor does that. In the meantime I purchased one of those plug in gismos that diagnoses issues and every single receptacle I plug into says open neutral, I'm talking the entire house not just the two breakers I identified earlier, Does that point to a problem in the service panel?

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 16:09:04 08/17/23) My scheduled electrician was a no show today, that is so frustrating when a contractor does that. In the meantime I purchased one of those plug in gismos that diagnoses issues and every single receptacle I plug into says open neutral, I'm talking the entire house not just the two breakers I identified earlier, Does that point to a problem in the service panel?

f truly open neutral, then nothing you plug into those outlets would receive any power. Is that the case? Lamp light up?

 

[MarkB_MI]

> My scheduled electrician was a no show today, that is so frustrating when a contractor does that. In the meantime I purchased one of those plug in gismos that diagnoses issues and every single receptacle I plug into says open neutral, I'm talking the entire house not just the two breakers I identified earlier, Does that point to a problem in the service panel?

Those outlet testers are pretty dumb devices, but if everything is correct they'll say so. But they can't detect all faults, and they don't necessarily correctly handle the condition of MULTIPLE faults. I suspect the neutral and ground are not properly bonded together, which can cause some bizarre and dangerous symptoms.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> If truly open neutral, then nothing you plug into those outlets would receive any power.

Only if everything is turned off on the opposite leg. In fact, his symptoms sound very much like an open neutral.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 16:36:48 08/18/23) > If truly open neutral, then nothing you plug into those outlets would receive any power.

Only if everything is turned off on the opposite leg. In fact, his symptoms sound very much like an open neutral.

hat would be two good tests...turn off every breaker on L1 and observe, then L1 back on and L2 all off and observe. Probably difficult to accomplish with ganged 240 breakers, however.

This post was edited by JMOR on 08/18/2023 at 02:19 pm.