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c/electricians

23

ray613•1d ago

An old timer at a supply house told me to stop using wire nuts on aluminum and switch to Alumiconn connectors after I had a call back on a house in Decatur

He said the oxidation creep was going to keep causing loose connections no matter how much Noalox I used, so I swapped over last month on a 12-outlet rewire and everything torqued down solid first try - has anyone else found those push-in connectors actually hold up better long term?

3

rosepark•3d ago

Wish I had tried the ziptie trick for pulling wire through tight conduit years ago

My neighbor who does 30 year old rewires showed me how taping a ziptie to the head of your fish tape stops it from snagging on every single coupling, and it saved me 45 minutes on a crawlspace run yesterday, has anyone else got a weird trick like that for old conduit?

16

hunt.hayden•3d ago

Learned the hard way about aluminum wiring in a fixer-upper in Phoenix

Bought a 1970s house last year and was rewiring a bedroom when I found all the outlets had aluminum wire. Thought I could just pigtail it with copper like normal, but after a month the connections started getting hot. An old sparky from the supply house told me I needed CO/ALR rated devices and antioxidant paste. Has anyone else dealt with aluminum wire remediation on a tight budget?

0

the_mary•6d ago

That time a knob and tube splice nearly burned down a garage in St. Louis

I was doing a service call at this old house in St. Louis last Tuesday, and the homeowner said the garage lights kept flickering. I popped open the junction box and found a knob and tube wire spliced into some old romex with just electrical tape and no box cover. The insulation was crumbling off the hot wire and it was touching the bare ground. I shut the power off immediately and told the guy we had to rip it all out right then. He was not happy about the emergency cost, but I showed him the scorch marks on the wood and he changed his tune quick. Has anyone else run into sketchy old splices that were just waiting to fail?

18

corap61•8d ago

That moment I realized I was over-torquing panel lugs for years

I was on a service call in a strip mall last Tuesday, swapping out a main breaker that kept tripping. The homeowner's buddy, a guy who used to work for the utility company, watched me for a minute and asked if I always crank lugs down that tight. I said yeah, you want them snug right? He pulled out his torque wrench and showed me the spec in the manual, I was probably 30 percent over. I never even thought about it, just went by feel. Has anyone else had a come-to-Jesus moment with a torque spec?

9

henry150•11d ago

Took 6 hours to wire a 3-way switch that should have been 45 minutes

Old house in Denver, knob and tube everywhere, no neutral in the boxes. Had to pull all new Romex through walls that were packed with old insulation from the 1920s, crawled through an attic with 6 inches of clearance. By the time I traced every wire and got the travelers running right it was dark out. Has anyone else dealt with these pre-1950s switch loops that somehow have a hot on the wrong screw?

-3

kim_mason55•12d ago

I finally ditched my $200 laser level for a $40 torpedo level

Everyone raves about those expensive self-leveling lasers, but mine kept throwing errors on dirty jobsites. A basic magnetic torpedo level has been faster for my rough-in work on residential houses in Austin, and it survived a fall off a ladder without breaking the bank. Anyone else think we over-rely on gadgets?

17

the_robin•13d ago

I finally stopped using wire nuts on everything after a job in Houston last month

Spent 10 years twisting nuts onto every connection until a master electrician pulled me aside and showed me how much faster Wagos are, so now I only use nuts on 10 AWG and bigger, anyone else make the switch late?

26

abby_fisher•14d ago

Warning: nearly lost a finger on a 3 year old panel in Phoenix

Last Tuesday I was swapping out a breaker in a house built back in 2020. The panel was a cheap brand, I won't name it, but the bus bar had corrosion I didn't see at first. I went to snap the new breaker in and there was a short that blew the end off my screwdriver. My hand was about 2 inches from the arc. I've been doing this for 12 years and that was the closest call I've had. The homeowner said the panel had been acting up for months but nobody wanted to replace it because of cost. Now I'm telling every guy I work with to check those bus bars before touching anything in a panel over 2 years old. Has anyone else seen corrosion this bad in newer panels?

22

rowanw91•14d ago

Appreciation post for the old timer who taught me about load balancing

I was wiring up a new panel for a restaurant in town last Tuesday and this retired electrician walked by, about 70 years old, and just stopped to watch. He pointed out that I was bunching all the heavy draws on one leg of the panel, like the fryer and the AC unit. He said, "You're gonna have flickering lights and a hot neutral if you don't spread that load out." It hit me different because I'd always just followed the prints without thinking about the real-world balance. So I moved a few breakers around and sure enough, the amp draw evened out perfect. Has anyone else had a random older sparky drop knowledge on them like that?

17

fionanguyen•15d ago

Shoutout to the guy who showed me how wrong I was about wire nuts

I was on a job last month over in Maplewood and this older sparky pulled me aside while I was twisting a bunch of 12s together. He said I was putting too much torque on them and risking wire fatigue. I thought he was just being picky but he showed me how to strip just the right length and twist them by hand first before capping. Turns out I've been cranking them down so hard I was probably weakening the copper near the cut. Now I see guys on other jobs doing the same thing I used to do and I want to say something but I don't want to be that guy. Has anyone else had a basic habit like this totally flipped by someone with more experience?

3

brian_hart•16d ago

Job in a basement last Tuesday turned into a disaster

Panel was labeled wrong on 6 different breakers, spent two hours tracing circuits that shoulda taken 20 minutes. Found out the last guy used white tape on every neutral instead of paint markers. Anyone else run into panels where the labeling is just completely useless?

9

the_laura•17d ago

Switched from wire nuts to Wagos on my last big commercial job

Used wire nuts for 15 years. Tried Wago 221s on a 200 amp panel last month and knocked out the terminations in half the time. Anyone else made the switch and had issues with inspection?

26

lisab32•18d ago

20 years in the trade and I just realized I'd been stripping Romex with my linesman's wrong

A 19-year-old apprentice watched me nick the copper for the 10th time in a row and asked why I didn't just use the shear cut notch at the top of the jaw, so now I'm sitting here wondering how many service calls I caused over the decades.

17

jesse_smith10•19d ago

Hit 500 panel swaps this week and it got me thinking...

Some guys say volume is all that matters for getting fast, but I've seen guys who do 100 a year take way more care than me at 500... does speed really beat quality in the long run, or are we just lying to ourselves to get more jobs done?

20

brooke448•20d ago

Stop daisy-chaining power strips on job sites, it's dangerous

I was on a remodel in Austin last Thursday and saw three power strips linked together to run a saw and some lights. One strip was already hot to the touch, and the breaker never tripped because they used a 15 amp cord on a 20 amp circuit. That setup can start a fire if the insulation melts, especially with dust around. Why do people still think chaining strips is okay for temporary power?

9

sanchez.julia•21d ago

I think the whole 'green wire as ground only' rule is overhyped

Last Tuesday I was rewiring an old house from the 1950s in Sacramento. Had a buddy look over my shoulder and he got all worked up because I used a green wire for a switched leg instead of ground. Look, on that job the ground was already running through the armored cable like it always was back then. I trust my connections and the panel was bonded fine. Has anyone else run into old timers who insist on strict code even when it makes zero sense for the situation?

0

martinez.paul•21d ago

Talked with an old timer in Dallas and he made me rethink my whole approach to bending pipe

I was on a commercial job over by Love Field last Tuesday and this guy who's been doing it since the 70s watched me struggle with a 90 degree bend. He just walked over and said 'you're fighting the springback instead of working with it' and showed me a different way to calculate the take-up. I had been doing it by the book for 4 years and never really thought about adjusting for the exact brand of bender. Anyone else ever have a old hand show you something that made your basic method look totally different?

18

kevin_williams•22d ago

Appreciation post: That foreman who yelled at me for not torqueing面板 joints

Three years ago on a job in Phoenix, I was zipping through panel terminations on a 400 amp service. Foreman stopped me and made me torque every single breaker lug, took an extra 2 hours a panel. Has anyone else found that skipping the torque check on residential panels ends up causing nuisance breaker tripping down the line?

24

mila_murphy•24d ago

Tried a dimmer switch on a ceiling fan and learned why that's a bad idea

I swapped out a standard switch for a dimmer on a ceiling fan in a rental house last weekend. 15 minutes later the fan started humming loud and the light flickered. I called my buddy who's been doing this 20 years and he laughed. Said dimmers are for lights only, not motors. I had to swap it back out for a proper fan speed control. Cost me an extra trip to the supply house and $12 for the right switch. Has anyone else made this mistake or know why it messes with the fan motor so bad?

15

michael803•24d ago

Warning: Chase nipples on a 4 sq box can hide for an hour

I was roughing in a kitchen remodel in Austin last week and spent damn near 90 minutes trying to find a buried chase nipple in a 4 square box. Turns out a drywall screw was holding the wire tight against the back corner where the knockouts were. Has anyone else lost time to a simple box hunt on a trim out?

8

val974•27d ago

I was totally against using WAGO connectors until a job in Minneapolis changed my mind

I used to swear by wire nuts for everything. But last month I was wiring up a panel in a basement with barely any room to work, and the old timer I was with pulled out a box of WAGO 221s. He showed me how they handle stranded wire and the lever locks tightened up solid. Now I keep a few packs in my bag for tight spots, has anyone else made the switch and regretted it later?

11

angelamurphy•27d ago

Old timer on a job site told me to stop using the impact driver for tightening breakers

He said I was putting micro cracks in the plastic bus bars from the hammering action. Now I torque everything by hand with a screwdriver, it takes 30 seconds longer but I haven't had a callback in 5 months. Any of you guys seen broken bus bars from impacts?

30

blairm77•27d ago

Picked stranded over solid for a 30 amp run last week

Had to wire up a new dryer outlet in an old house in Denver. The conduit run had three 90s and I figured solid 10 gauge would be a nightmare to pull. Grabbed stranded THHN instead and it went through smooth in about 20 minutes. No kinks or fighting the wire. Anyone else make that call and regret it later or was I just lucky?

10

rose_clark81•27d ago

Rant: I think residential solar installs are getting way too sloppy with their grounding

Went to a house in Chattanooga last month to fix a fence issue and saw a solar crew wrapping ground wire around a rusty bolt on a roof rack. They told me it was fine because they had it bonded somewhere else. I've been doing this 12 years and that's just asking for a fire hazard. I know solar is booming and guys are in a rush, but skipping proper grounding bonds is dangerous. Anyone else seeing this junk work on new solar jobs?