c/electricians

22

morganmartinez•3d ago

Hit 1,000 service calls at my shop yesterday and it felt wild

I pulled into the shop parking lot after my last job yesterday and checked my work phone. Turned out that was call number 1,000 for the year. I just sat there for a minute honestly. Started doing residential service work back in February and never really kept count. But seeing that number pop up made me realize how many kitchens and bathrooms I have been inside this year. From a lady in Santa Fe who had a light switch wired to her garbage disposal to a guy in Albuquerque who wanted three phase put in his garage for a CNC machine. It has been a lot of miles and a lot of panel swaps. Anyone else ever hit a weird milestone like that and feel kind of surprised by it?

3

mileslane•10d ago

Finally got that old panel swap done at a local diner

Been dreading this job for weeks. Old 1960s Pushmatic panel in a downtown diner, had to swap it out before their health inspection next month. Took me and my apprentice about 9 hours total, but we got it done without cutting power to the kitchen for more than 45 minutes. The owner bought us lunch, a bacon cheeseburger that actually hit the spot. Anyone else have a panel swap that took way longer than you planned?

20

sarahpark•10d ago

Had a foreman chew me out for using too much wire nut torque

I was trimming out a new residential build over in Arlington last spring and the foreman walks over and yanks a wire nut off a splice I just finished. He held it up and said I was over-tightening and risking breaking the copper strands. I honestly thought tighter was always better for a solid connection. He showed me a dozen failed joints he'd seen where the strands snapped right at the nut from people cranking down too hard. Now I twist until the conductors start to bind together, then stop. I also switched to using the pre-twist method he recommended before capping. Has anyone else had a bad habit they had to break after someone pointed it out on the job?

20

morgan.jason•11d ago

Just found a trick for running conduit through studs in tight attic spaces

I was working on a rewire in a 1960s ranch house in Phoenix last Tuesday and kept fighting with the low pitch in the attic. Couldn't get my drill in straight to bore holes through the top plates. On a whim I grabbed a 18 inch long 1/2 inch flexible bit extension from my Milwaukee kit and it let me angle the drill way back while still getting a clean hole. Saved me at least 45 minutes on that part of the run. Any of you guys ever use those long flex bits for awkward spots like that?

1

wood.uma•11d ago

Serious question, has anyone used Wago connectors vs wire nuts on a big job?

I did a full house rewire last month in Austin and decided to try Wago lever nuts on half of it and old school twist nuts on the other half. The Wago side went way faster, like probably saved me 3 hours total just from not having to twist and tape. But I'm wondering if anyone's seen them fail long term. The old timers at my shop swear they're garbage but I'm sold on the speed.

7

xena582•11d ago

Pro tip: The old timer at Lowe's who showed me how to strip wire with my linesman's

I was at Lowe's picking up some 12/2 last Saturday and this older guy maybe 70 stops me. He saw me struggling with a pair of strippers and says 'kid, you're overthinking it.' He grabbed my linesman's and stripped a clean inch off in one motion no nicks at all. Now I save maybe 10 minutes per job and my hands don't hurt as bad at the end of the day. Has anyone else gotten a trick from a stranger that actually stuck?

28

julia_carter61•11d ago

That cheap GFCI I installed 2 years ago just saved my basement from a flood

I was skeptical about spending extra on those diagnostic GFCI outlets for the sump pump circuit, but after finding one tripped due to a tiny nick in the wire insulation during a storm last night, I'm a believer. The water never even got a chance to rise because the outlet caught the fault before the pump could short out. Has anyone else had a cheap component fail in a way that cost them more in the long run?

1

felixm29•13d ago

Tried the Milwaukee M12 cable stapler on a new build last week

Everyone in my crew swore by the hammer tacker for Romex. So I dropped $280 on the M12 stapler thinking it'd save time. First two floors went fine, then it jammed so bad I had to take it apart on a ladder in a 95 degree attic. Learned that tool is great for open walls but useless when you're working in tight spaces. Anybody else had better luck with theirs?

12

nina_hall48•14d ago

Showerthought: Why do so many new construction homes have the breaker panel in the worst possible spot?

I was wiring a house up in North Carolina last week and the panel ended up behind a bathroom door that swings inward, making it a real pain to work on, and has anyone else noticed builders doing this more often lately?

2

abbyp61•15d ago

Spent 3 hours chasing a short that was just a wire nut I forgot to tighten

New construction house, kept tripping the breaker on a lighting circuit. Finally found it after ripping open three junction boxes, just a loose neutral that was barely touching. Anyone else had a simple fix turn into a half day headache?

17

jessica921•16d ago

Overheard a supply house guy say MC cable is easier to strip than NM and I had to try it

I always hated dealing with MC but he showed me this trick with a roto-splitter and now I'm actually faster on my rough-ins in Fresno. Has anyone else switched up their go-to cable just based on a random tip like that?

4

emma455•19d ago

Changed my mind about aluminum wiring after a sit-down with an old timer

I always told homeowners to rip out all aluminum wiring. Then I had coffee last month with a retired electrician named Don who worked on houses from the 60s and 70s. He showed me photos of solid copper connections he'd seen corrode worse than any aluminum splice he'd fixed. Said the problem was never the wire itself, just bad installation and dissimilar metals. He had a point. I still prefer copper but I'm not as quick to condemn the aluminum stuff anymore. Has anyone else worked with houses where the aluminum wiring actually held up fine for decades?

10

eva_moore•19d ago

Changed my mind about those fancy arc fault breakers after a 3-month apartment rewire

Did a full rewire on a 12-unit building downtown. Installed Siemens arc faults on every circuit like code says. Had 8 nuisance trips in the first week. Tenants were pissed, landlord was calling me every day. Spent hours swapping them out for regular breakers and adding AFCIs at the panel instead. After that, zero trips in 3 months. I get the safety thing but these things are way too sensitive for older wiring. Anyone else find a brand that actually works without false tripping?

5

williamhenderson•19d ago

That $40 digital multimeter from Amazon that nearly fried my panel

I was in a rush last month wiring a subpanel in a garage remodel and figured my old Fluke was fine, but I grabbed a cheap no-name multimeter I'd bought online for a quick continuity check. It read 120 volts on a line I knew was dead, so I touched the bare wire and got a nasty tingle that threw me back into the drywall. Turns out the meter's leads had bad insulation and it was giving false readings. You have any horror stories from bargain bin tools that almost got you killed?

15

stellat46•21d ago

Debate: Should we use wire nuts or lever nuts for residential work?

I used wire nuts for 10 years straight, thought they were the only way to go. Then I did a service call in a condo where the homeowner had swapped everything to lever nuts. At first I thought it was lazy, but after fighting with a tight box that had 6 wires in it, I realized how much easier they made changes. Now I'm torn because wire nuts are cheaper and I trust them more for solid copper, but lever nuts save so much time on rewiring. What do you all use day to day and why?

3

karen_carter•21d ago

Lost $200 on a fancy tool that was totally useless for residential work

I bought this brand new automatic wire stripper last month thinking it would speed up my rough-ins. Paid $200 for it from an online supplier. First job I took it to was a kitchen remodel in Denver and the thing kept jamming on 12 gauge romex. It stripped the insulation wrong half the time and actually nicked the copper on two runs. I spent more time fiddling with it than just using my old strippers. Called the company and they said I can't return it because it was used. So now it's sitting in my truck, a $200 paperweight. Has anyone else fell for one of those fancy tools that just made things worse?

0

abby_martinez•24d ago

That job in Tucson with the old cloth wiring really changed my mind about rewiring whole houses.

I was ready to quote a full rewire on a 1950s bungalow, but after tracing every circuit and finding the insulation was still flexible and the splices were solid, I just added AFCI breakers and a new panel, saving the homeowner about $8,000, so when did 'replace everything' become the only right answer?

8

adams.vera•25d ago

Warning: I lost a whole day's pay on a 'quick' panel swap in Tacoma because I didn't check the main feed first.

The homeowner said the old Federal Pacific panel was just buzzing, so I quoted a straight swap. Got the new Square D Homeline in, went to kill the main, and found the utility's overhead service drop was so corroded it started arcing when I touched it. Had to call for an emergency disconnect, wait 4 hours for the power company, and eat the labor cost. Has anyone else gotten burned by not doing a full service check before even giving a quote?

21

troyknight•25d ago

Saw a new kind of conduit setup at a tech office in Raleigh

I was doing some work at a new tech office downtown last week and they had all the data and power lines running through these clear plastic conduits. It looked cool, but I could see every single wire inside. The foreman said the client wanted it for a 'modern look' and to make changes easier. Has anyone else run into this and know if it's up to code for commercial spaces?

3

lucast81•27d ago

Got absolutely owned by a phantom voltage on a simple outlet swap

Was replacing a standard duplex in an old house, figured 30 minutes tops. Spent 3 hours chasing a 50V reading with my Fluke that turned out to be induction from a buried cable running parallel in the wall. Anyone got a reliable method for confirming real vs. ghost voltage besides just a solenoid tester?

22

mark_green•28d ago

Spent three hours tracing a phantom voltage in a 1970s house

Got called out for a flickering light in an old place in Tacoma. Checked the switch, the fixture, everything looked fine. Finally found a loose neutral in a junction box behind the kitchen cabinets that someone had buried. It was only making contact sometimes, which is why my meter kept showing weird readings. Anyone have a good trick for finding these hidden boxes in plaster walls?

12

eric_adams11•1mo ago

Found out the first electric chair ran on Westinghouse AC to prove it was dangerous

I was reading up on old electrical history (you know, for fun) and saw that the first electric chair in 1890 used a Westinghouse AC generator. The guy who made it, Harold Brown, picked AC on purpose because he was trying to show the public it was more deadly than DC (which Edison pushed). They had to buy the generator from Westinghouse under a fake name because the company didn't want to be linked to it. Kind of a wild bit of trade history, right? Anyone else come across a weird fact like that from the early days?

30

the_sean•1mo ago

Vent: A whole week of nothing but aluminum wiring calls

Got flagged down for five separate jobs in the same neighborhood, all built in the early 70s. Every single one had aluminum branch circuits that were overheating at the outlets. One kitchen outlet in a house on Maple Street was so hot it had started to melt the plastic faceplate. Spent the entire week just doing pig-tailing with Al/Cu connectors and torqueing everything to spec. Has anyone else had a run like this where one specific, old problem just pops up everywhere at once?

9

ericw93•1mo ago

Just realized I was using the wrong size hole saw for a 4-inch can light in a client's kitchen remodel last week.

I was cutting into a ceiling joist and the wobble made me stop and check the specs, which saved me from a bigger mistake, so what's your go-to method for keeping your cuts clean and true in tight spots?

24

rodriguez.mia•1mo ago

My old multimeter finally died after 11 years on the road

The screen went blank checking voltage on a panel in Tucson. What's a solid replacement that can handle being bounced around a truck cab?