The foreman wanted MC for speed but the specs called for rigid conduit near the dock doors. I went with conduit because of impact risk and it took me two extra days to bend and hang everything. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of callout where speed loses to durability?
Bought a no-name crimper kit off Amazon for like 80 bucks back in March to save some cash. First big job wiring up a new subpanel in a garage out in Riverside, the crimp die slipped halfway through and I had to redo 4 connections. Ended up borrowing a guy's Klein set and it worked smooth, so I dropped $150 on the real thing and it's been solid ever since. Anyone else get burned by buying the cheap version first?
I picked up a Fluke 87V with the i410 clamp last month for $600 total. Everybody swears by them but for residential work I honestly don't see the difference from my old Klein that cost $150. The display is a bit sharper but it didn't speed up my trouble calls at all. Anyone else overpay for Fluke and feel like it was wasted money?
Anyone else notice that high-end tools just degrade faster than the cheap stuff these days, or did I just get a bad batch of driver tips back then?
Everyone online says you gotta use a hand bender for 1/2 EMT on a service upgrade, but I saw a crew out there using factory elbows and couplings all the way through a 4 floor parking garage. They finished 3 hours faster than my two man crew could have bent it by hand. I get that bending looks cleaner, but if the inspector passed 40 fittings without a blink, why are we splitting hairs? Has anyone else seen industrial crews skip the hand bender entirely on big builds?
I always said my tape measure was fine until I had to map out 47 can light locations in a warehouse ceiling solo and the $60 Bosch laser had me done in 20 minutes flat, has anyone else caved on a tool they swore they didn't need?
Tried explaining voltage drop and load calculations to them for 10 minutes before they just nodded and asked if I could make the outlet in the bathroom look "more modern" for under $50, has anyone else given up trying to correct bad analogies on the job?
I had this house in Beaverton where the lights kept flickering. Pulled the switch out and found push connectors that looked fine but one had a tiny bit of corrosion inside. Swapped them all out with Wagos on that whole floor and the problem never came back. Cost me about 15 bucks extra but saved me a return trip. Has anyone else had push connectors fail on them like that?
I walked over and saw him hammering those plastic NM staples into a bundle of 12/2 MC. Had to stop him and show him the difference. Those staples pinch the armor and can actually damage the conductors inside over time. He said his last foreman never said anything about it. I've been doing this for 22 years and I see this mistake at least once a year on a new jobsite. How do you handle teaching the younger guys the small stuff that can cause big problems down the line?
Back in March I had an electrician friend help me install a top of the line Square D whole house surge protector at my panel. I paid $600 for the unit and another $200 for the labor and materials. Last week we had a pretty normal thunderstorm, nothing crazy, and when I went to check on it the green light was dead. No power surge took out any appliances, but the protector itself just quit. The warranty is a pain to deal with and I'm out the installation cost if I replace it. I'm wondering if I should go with a different brand like Siemens or Leviton this time. Has anyone else had a whole house surge protector fail that fast?
I was working a commercial job last Tuesday and the foreman on site told his apprentice "stop trying to fix everything with a bigger breaker." He was talking about a motor that kept tripping. It made me think about how many times I've seen guys just swap in a 30amp instead of actually troubleshooting the draw. I do commercial painting with lights and fans on temp power and I've learned the hard way that oversizing is just masking a problem. Anyone else catch themselves or others doing this kind of lazy fix?
I was called to a house in Portland last Tuesday where a ceiling fan had been flickering for weeks. Homeowner said it just stopped working. I opened the box and saw aluminum wiring from the 60s with no anti-oxidant paste on the connections. One of the neutrals had completely arced out and melted the wire nut. I had to cut back 4 inches of bad wire and pigtail with copper using Alumiconns. Whole house needed it. Has anyone else seen aluminum wiring fail like this without any warning signs?
I had a job last week in a house built in the 50s with plaster walls and no crawlspace. Needed to run a new circuit to a bedroom on the second floor. Normally I'd spend forever cutting holes and patching them back up. A buddy told me to try using a glow rod with a magnetic pickup head instead of a standard fish tape. I was skeptical because I've always just used steel fish tape for everything. But I gave it a shot and honestly it worked way better for navigating those old stud bays with fire blocks. It snaked right through in about 10 minutes where I'd usually be cursing for an hour. Has anyone else switched to glow rods for tricky runs or are you still loyal to the old fish tape?
I was reading through some NFPA stats last night while waiting on a service call and saw that 70% of residential electrical fires actually start in the bedroom, not the kitchen or garage like I always assumed. That shook me because most people I know have extension cords and power strips all over their bedrooms for phone chargers and lamps. How do you handle bedroom circuits on new builds or remodels, do you run dedicated 20 amp lines or stick with standard 15 amp?
I keep seeing guys on here grabbing compression fittings for basic residential runs in dry locations. Two weeks ago I did a 200 amp panel swap in Houston and the homeowner wanted everything exposed in the garage. I used set screw connectors on all my EMT and saved about 60 bucks on materials alone. Compression has its place outside or in wet areas, but why pay triple the cost when set screws hold just as tight on a dry wall? Who else thinks the trade over-specs compression where it isn't needed?
I was reading the 2023 code book last night and found out that over 60% of nuisance tripping on AFCI breakers comes from appliances with universal motors like shop vacs and hair dryers. I had a job in Phoenix last month where a homeowner called me back three times because his living room lights kept cutting out. Turns out his kid was plugging a cheap vacuum into the same circuit. But the code says we gotta install them in bedrooms and living rooms. Do you guys replace them with regular breakers on the sly or just explain to customers that their appliance is the problem? I'm torn between following code and not making people mad.
Went to a supply house in Phoenix last week and the guy behind the counter swore by them. Said he uses them on every job now. I still think a good twist-on connector and tape is faster and more reliable. Anyone else ever had one of those push-ins fail on a hot circuit?
I got called to swap out a single GFCI in a warehouse built in the 70s over near the rail yard. Figured 20 minutes tops but the box was packed with decades of dust and the old wires were so brittle the insulation just crumbled when I touched them. Ended up having to pull new wire back to the junction box because both the hot and neutral snapped clean off inside the wall. Has anyone else run into those old wire jobs that turn into a whole afternoon?
I bought a no-name multimeter off Amazon for $25 back in February. Used it on a job in Phoenix testing a 480V motor starter and it showed the circuit was dead. I reached in to land a wire and got hit with 277V to ground. That meter was showing 12V when there was still live power. Threw it in the trash and spent $200 on a Fluke the next day. Anyone else have a cheap tool almost get them hurt?
I had this problem for weeks where a new GFCI breaker would trip every time it rained. Kept swapping breakers and checking wires. Then an old foreman told me to check the neutral bar for paint overspray from the builders. Sure enough, there was a speck of paint causing a bad connection. Cleaned it off with a wire brush and it's been solid through two storms now. Has anyone else run into paint or debris messing up their neutral connections on new builds?
I put in a new Lutron dimmer switch for the living room lights last month. The LED bulbs would buzz and flicker on low settings no matter what I tried. After swapping out three different dimmers I finally checked the bulb compatibility list. Turns out the cheap bulbs from the hardware store weren't rated for dimming. Switched to some Philips dimmable LEDs for $12 each and now it works perfect. Anyone else waste time chasing a ghost when the bulb was the real issue?
Had to choose between a Klein CL800 and a Fluke 323 at the supply house two weeks ago. I went with the Klein cause it was $80 cheaper and it's been fine for residential work so far, but am I gonna regret this down the road?
I was on a job last week in a 1940s house near St. Paul, and the framing was so out of whack the laser level was basically useless. An older foreman told me he used to do it all with a torpedo level and string lines, and it got me thinking. On one hand, lasers save time and are spot on for new construction. On the other, maybe we lose some feel for the work when we rely on them too much. What's your take: do you grab a laser for every little job or stick with the bubble level sometimes?
Said he watched three YouTube videos and figured $600 was too much for a permit, so how many of you have had to fix a panel that was never inspected after someone went cheap?
I was at a commercial job in Austin last week. The main panel had zero labels and we lost 20 minutes tracing circuits in a panic. Has anyone else started using a label maker after a close call like that?