sparkync
Senior Member
- Location
- North Carolina
Seems to be falling my lot, to follow up on a lot of do it yourselfers. Got a call last night from a lady who said her dryer wasn't working. Her X husband, had told her just to go out a turn the breaker off and on and it would start working. Just so happen this time it didn't so she called me. When I got there she proceeded to show me where the dryer was, when her minature collie ( I think that's what it was ) started barking and got ahold of my pants leg, just missing my ankle. I felt it's teeth brush against my skin
When I finally got outside to check the disconnect, I found a nightmare of wiring. The dryer ( 10/2 romex ) was on a 60 amp breaker. Under one leg of the breaker was the white wire out of a 16/3 drop cord. The black wire had been cut out, and the green wire was on the ground bar. He had another disconnect beside that, and had 12/3 uf cable feeding about 100 ft. to a garage behind the house. The wire was laying on the ground , parts of it still in "coil position". It also was under a 60 amp. breaker. The wires under the breaker were already melting, with the hot conductor having exposed copper.
As I went to check what was putting it under such a load, I noticed the wire laying on the ground had melted in quite a few spots, and was brittle in some places. When I got to the garage, I found another nightmare. He had a welder recpt. rigged to the panel he had set, and the panel was atrocious ( if I spelled that right ) I told the lady that I needed to disconnect the wire before someone got killed or a fire started. She said her husband was suppose to come back and bury the line. I told if I was her I would not let him do anything. Another wire was in the "melt down" mode beside these panels at the meter. I advised her the best thing to do to clear up this mess would be to change the service ( everything was rigged, even coming out of the meter ) The poor woman didn't seem to understand the actual danger there was there. I straigtened it up the best I could for the moment. Put a 30 amp breaker on the dryer, and disconnected the uf cable. There was more but don't have time to state it all now. Point is: Why don't the do it yourselfers at least ask someone what and how to do if there going to try to do it themselves? It seems to be getting a regular thing here. Like I said in another post. They know just enough to be dangerous, not just for themselves, but for their families and others also. Just venting. Steve
When I finally got outside to check the disconnect, I found a nightmare of wiring. The dryer ( 10/2 romex ) was on a 60 amp breaker. Under one leg of the breaker was the white wire out of a 16/3 drop cord. The black wire had been cut out, and the green wire was on the ground bar. He had another disconnect beside that, and had 12/3 uf cable feeding about 100 ft. to a garage behind the house. The wire was laying on the ground , parts of it still in "coil position". It also was under a 60 amp. breaker. The wires under the breaker were already melting, with the hot conductor having exposed copper.As I went to check what was putting it under such a load, I noticed the wire laying on the ground had melted in quite a few spots, and was brittle in some places. When I got to the garage, I found another nightmare. He had a welder recpt. rigged to the panel he had set, and the panel was atrocious ( if I spelled that right ) I told the lady that I needed to disconnect the wire before someone got killed or a fire started. She said her husband was suppose to come back and bury the line. I told if I was her I would not let him do anything. Another wire was in the "melt down" mode beside these panels at the meter. I advised her the best thing to do to clear up this mess would be to change the service ( everything was rigged, even coming out of the meter ) The poor woman didn't seem to understand the actual danger there was there. I straigtened it up the best I could for the moment. Put a 30 amp breaker on the dryer, and disconnected the uf cable. There was more but don't have time to state it all now. Point is: Why don't the do it yourselfers at least ask someone what and how to do if there going to try to do it themselves? It seems to be getting a regular thing here. Like I said in another post. They know just enough to be dangerous, not just for themselves, but for their families and others also. Just venting. Steve
