House with potential fire issue

[growler]

Yes, the plumber was very lucky. It is a symptom of a very serious problem.

Yes the plumber is lucky and he is not responsible for the fire "but" he should know that all metal water pipes in a house are required to be bonded . Should they become accidentially energized there should be a ground path. If they don't wish to bond the pipes they should inform the owner to get an electrician.

You see plumbers cut metal pipes all the time and replace sections with PVC and the only way to get those pipes properly bonded is then to jumper them out.

The guy that bootleged a neutral to a water pipe should be shot but he probably didn't have any idea what he was doing or he wouldn't have done it ( talk about creating a death trap ).


In many ways they are lucky they had a small fire and that someone didn't get electrocuted.

 

[kwired]

The guy that bootleged a neutral to a water pipe should be shot ..

I think he should be electrocuted

..In many ways they are lucky they had a small fire and that someone didn't get electrocuted.

Agreed

 

[dronai]

Update

Update

I was able to open some walls and trace the suspect wire to another switchbox, and it was grounded to a clip on the side of this box ! So that means this was a ground wire after all, and somebody needed a neutral wire, in the last remodel in that room, and got a reading off that wire, and thought it was a neutral !! I still can't find where he got the hot from in the box where the bootleg was found. I think there is a buried box somewhere in that wall. I capped the hot, and ran my new wire to that outlet.

 

[templdl]

There's another issue that may of some concern. It used to be a common practice to use hot and cold electrolytic unions in order to isolate the water heater from the supply lines. The unions as I recall are made of galvanized steel with a fiber washer which isolates the two parts of the union from one another.Their intent was to reduce the incidence of electrolytic action which was blame for rt he corrosion of the tank thus increasing water heater life.
If you look closely at where the two parts of the union joint together you should be able to see this insulating barrier.

 

[GoldDigger]

There's another issue that may of some concern. It used to be a common practice to use hot and cold electrolytic unions in order to isolate the water heater from the supply lines. The unions as I recall are made of galvanized steel with a fiber washer which isolates the two parts of the union from one another.Their intent was to reduce the incidence of electrolytic action which was blame for rt he corrosion of the tank thus increasing water heater life.
If you look closely at where the two parts of the union joint together you should be able to see this insulating barrier.

It may be a little more complicated than that. If the two threaded parts of the union are each connected electrically to the pipe on their end, the coupling will not provide electrical isolation between the pipes. What it will do is make the two contact points copper to brass and brass to galvanized rather than copper directly to galvanized. Or iron pipe to galvanized and galvanized to copper in the case you describe.
A true galvanic isolator will actually insulate the two pipes systems from each other. In that case the coupling nut would be isolated by an insulating washer from the flange that it is forcing against the other side, and that flange will also come up against an insulating washer rather than make direct contact to the metal of the other half of the union.

 

[templdl]

It may be a little more complicated than that. If the two threaded parts of the union are each connected electrically to the pipe on their end, the coupling will not provide electrical isolation between the pipes. What it will do is make the two contact points copper to brass and brass to galvanized rather than copper directly to galvanized. Or iron pipe to galvanized and galvanized to copper in the case you describe.
A true galvanic isolator will actually insulate the two pipes systems from each other. In that case the coupling nut would be isolated by an insulating washer from the flange that it is forcing against the other side, and that flange will also come up against an insulating washer rather than make direct contact to the metal of the other half of the union.

And I have 2 brand new "true" galvanic isolators that actually do as you had described as they do provide electrical isolation. I fail to see that there any other types that have a fiber type isolators , mine happen to be maroon in color, that doesn't electrical isolate. Interesting
Yes, it is very simple, each threaded part of the union thread together and the isolator insulates the one pipe from the union itself with a custom fiber washer/sleeve. I had used them many many years ago until I gained an appreciation and understanding of safe electrical practices and procedures. Even though I still have (2) electrolytic unions on my plumbing shelf which I haven't even had any need to look for in years I still can't bare to throw them in the trash as new and shinny as they still are.