How NOT to Wire a Garage Door Opener

[FredH]

Actually Looks just like the type of wiring that I use to encounter as a Volunteer Firefighter doing inspections . I use to work graveyard shift in town , thus as a volunteer , I could help the Chief do inspections during the day . We had map books in all the trucks and would note on pages that "x" house had exposed wires here or there , any kind of questionable safety issues were always noted .

We had one house that the old guy had not just one black taped splice but three splices in what appeared to be 12/2 wire going to his well , which was a 220/240 submersible , ( at least according to the control box that was laying on the ground inside his pump house ). The wire left the back of the house by the meter , ran into a tree maybe 15' to 20' away , dropped down the tree , then along the ground for another 90' to 100' into the shed . The splices were all on the ground . Chief casually mentioned them to the owner who said " Yea , one of these days I need to string up the rest of that wire so I don't keep whacking it with the Lawn Mower " .:confused2:

The thing was , We had to Balance being fire safe with also being neighborly polite . Many of the property owners in this area have been here for generations , retirement age now and set in their ways , so You could point out things , But you had to be politically correct or Casual in your reference to such things . And NEVER , NEVER , report things to the county planning or code enforcement . That would only start BAD JuJu between residents and the Fire Department .


Now with that in mind , Everyone here should understand WHY I disk a 12' to 15' firebreak around the outside of my property .:thumbsup:


Fred H.

 

[FredH]

Course I should not complain to loudly . After We bought our property from my In-Laws , I was attempting to wire a 110/120 sprinkler timer into a pump house behind the house . Figured for as little power as that and a valve would use , I could just come off the pump starter box on the wall by just tapping 1 leg of the 220/240 .

Much to my chagrin , When I opened the control box , there were only 2 wires ?????? And Both were hot , if I ran a ground for my meter to the well casing ????

WTF and How in The H*** is that working ?????

Ended up Shutting that well down for the summer . Pulled the 220' of steel pipe out using a come-a-long and a home made tripod . Replaced Pump , Control Box , Steel pipe with Poly AND the Electrical Feed from the Shop to the pump house with something like 10/3 , ( Can't remember exactly , but stuff was big , Direct burial type ) .

I have found a lot of interesting electrical puzzles around here over the years , Main Reason ............... My Father-in-law was COLOR BLIND !!!


Fred H.

 

[mjncad]

Now with that in mind , Everyone here should understand WHY I disk a 12' to 15' firebreak around the outside of my property .:thumbsup:


Fred H.

With our fire season starting early this year, one of the local fire marshals recommended a 50' defensible space around structures.


30-years ago I bought my Mom a washer/dryer for her birthday as she had been using a Maytag wringer washer since 1951 and was getting tired of hanging clothes out to dry, especially in winter.

I was checking the outlet my old-man installed, and about $h!t-a-brick when I found lamp cord behind the drywall feeding the outlet. I fixed that problem immediately.

 

[Mgrove]

Ok so he screwed up the wiring to the door openers, Now whats going on toward the end of the video with the water heater? Is that a gas water heater with duct tape and a plastic vent?
Mgrove

 

[BethesdaEC]

Ok so he screwed up the wiring to the door openers, Now whats going on toward the end of the video with the water heater? Is that a gas water heater with duct tape and a plastic vent?
Mgrove

Modern water heaters use PVC for the exhaust pipe. I have an old house with a state of the art Buderus boiler that runs at about 94% efficiency. It vents horizontal and you can rest your hand on the exhaust pipe and the pipe is pleasantly warm, not hot. By the time the exhaust gas comes out of the boiler every BTU of energy has been extracted from the fuel. As most of you know when you burn a hydrocarbon the result is carbon dioxide and water. Because of this condensation in the the exhaust pipe is a real problem so the pipe has a P-trap that dumps into the sump.

 

[schmism]

the really really sad thing.....

i probably worked fine just like that for the past 5 years :ashamed:

 

[JDgreen227]

Course I should not complain to loudly . After We bought our property from my In-Laws , I was attempting to wire a 110/120 sprinkler timer into a pump house behind the house . Figured for as little power as that and a valve would use , I could just come off the pump starter box on the wall by just tapping 1 leg of the 220/240 .

Much to my chagrin , When I opened the control box , there were only 2 wires ?????? And Both were hot , if I ran a ground for my meter to the well casing ????

WTF and How in The H*** is that working ?????

Ended up Shutting that well down for the summer . Pulled the 220' of steel pipe out using a come-a-long and a home made tripod . Replaced Pump , Control Box , Steel pipe with Poly AND the Electrical Feed from the Shop to the pump house with something like 10/3 , ( Can't remember exactly , but stuff was big , Direct burial type ) .

I have found a lot of interesting electrical puzzles around here over the years , Main Reason ............... My Father-in-law was COLOR BLIND !!!


Fred H.

Have done a LOT of home and outbuilding wiring, but never even thought of someone doing wiring when they were color blind...I can understand them making a mistake with hot and neutral if that was the issue. If I had the vision problem your dad in law had I would have used a voltage sensor to keep track of what was hot...

When I am wiring I like to repeat this ditty to myself...feel free to borrow it:

"Black and red wires mark the hot, while the white wires are not. And bare green is ground the world around".

 

[SixHoeBob]

If it was temporary to test the openers, the wires would be laying on the ground. How long before the door wears through the brown extension cord?

 

[Mace Canute]

Have done a LOT of home and outbuilding wiring, but never even thought of someone doing wiring when they were color blind...I can understand them making a mistake with hot and neutral if that was the issue. If I had the vision problem your dad in law had I would have used a voltage sensor to keep track of what was hot...

When I am wiring I like to repeat this ditty to myself...feel free to borrow it:

"Black and red wires mark the hot, while the white wires are not. And bare green is ground the world around".

Years back a contractor who used to run our underground residential electrical services hooked a service up wrong. 3 individual 1/0 aluminum cables with black and red insulation for the two hot legs and white for the neutral. He hooked the white to where a hot leg should go and either a red or black hot leg to where the neutral should have went. He couldn't explain why he had done that. He sure was embarrassed about it though! He was actually a highly competent man and his work was always excellent..except for this one time. BTW, he wasn't colour blind!

 

[JDgreen227]

Years back a contractor who used to run our underground residential electrical services hooked a service up wrong. 3 individual 1/0 aluminum cables with black and red insulation for the two hot legs and white for the neutral. He hooked the white to where a hot leg should go and either a red or black hot leg to where the neutral should have went. He couldn't explain why he had done that. He sure was embarrassed about it though! He was actually a highly competent man and his work was always excellent..except for this one time. BTW, he wasn't colour blind!

With cable that large it should be painfully obvious something isn't right, at a glance. Who caught the mistake? And hopefully it was fixed before the panel was energized.