Interesting tool.

[mike johnson]

Had a service call come in about no power to their landscape lights. My guys fixed the problem and said the h/o was complaining about a gardening tool that caused the problem.

Well they cut into some burried uf wires leading to their post lights and so forth while using their new tool. The tool is pretty new and she ordered it off the tv.

I thought it was pretty interesting for someone to make such a loooooong auger to go underneath the ground so long as to make possible contact with gas pipes and electrical wires.

The auger itself is long enough but they had the nerve to add on a 18" extension bit to it as if the standard auger was not long enough.

She said the auger was cheap but happened to cost her a arm and a leg to fix her damage.

When asked where she purchased it she gave a website.

After looking at this product i can see why she was pretty furious.

https://www.buytheauger.com/index.asp

 

[480sparky]

Live 'n' learn. I wonder if the instructions made any mention about the potential for doing this sort of damage.

And whether she actually read them.

 

[SiddMartin]

I have seen this comm. on TV and it says "if you call now, you get a drill for free", ofcourse the drill they give you is a corded hunk of crap and you have to pay a fee to upgrade to the cordless hunk of crap that they show in the comm. It's a HO dream

 

[iaov]

Went on a call today where a guy with a stump grinder tore up a wire to a storage shed. 12/2 NM burried almost a whole 3 inches under ground!! Left him an estimate to redo the feed properly. He wanted me just to splice the wire back together. My guess is he waited until I left and redid it himself.

 

[Greg Swartz]

Rofl!!!!!!!!!

Rofl!!!!!!!!!

What an awesome tool!!!!

I think I am going to order 10 of them, just to get the Dewalt drill they were showing...

Seriously, I think I'm gonna order a kit though...

Greg

 

[Greg Swartz]

Went on a call today where a guy with a stump grinder tore up a wire to a storage shed. 12/2 NM burried almost a whole 3 inches under ground!! Left him an estimate to redo the feed properly. He wanted me just to splice the wire back together. My guess is he waited until I left and redid it himself.

Does it burn you when people do that?

It really ticks me off when I spend my time and my fuel to come out to meet a homeowner who really screwed up, and then wants me to fix their mistake for free. And when I give them an honest quote (again more time...) they look at me like I am the enemy, and politely ask me to leave... so they can splice it themselves... for free... (only because they ask me for the wirenuts to do the JOB!)

I want to ask them if they thought about doing it themselves before they called me or did it occur to them after they saw the quote. I want to tell them they could have saved us both the time and headache if they would not have called me... or any other contractor for that reason.

It makes me want to report them, to turn them in, to do something that would cost them their time and money...

Greg
(So, how do I really feel??? Don't get me started!)

 

[quogueelectric]

Ive got a motorized 8" and smaller auger 1 man I can really do some damage with that.

 

[bjp_ne_elec]

Isn't there an old saying - "Ya gotta be smarter than than the tool".

It does look like a neat tool, as long as you work to a proper depth. I think it's intended for small flowers and shrubs. It they're hitting a gas or water line, I'd have to figure that they're attempting to plant a tree with the darn thing. Don't think it was intended for that.

 

[ultramegabob]

It looks like somthing you would stir paint or drywall mud with.

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

I'm amazed at how many consumer contraptions are sold with the claim that it "takes the work out of ..." whatever you're doing. Was it ever really that difficult to plant a flower or a bulb? Man people are lazy...

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I'm amazed at how many consumer contraptions are sold with the claim that it "takes the work out of ..." whatever you're doing. Was it ever really that difficult to plant a flower or a bulb? Man people are lazy...

Did you all notice that the tool was digging in prepared soil or composted soil. I could scoop that soil out with my hands.

 

[jnsane84]

What an awesome tool!!!!

I think I am going to order 10 of them, just to get the Dewalt drill they were showing...

Seriously, I think I'm gonna order a kit though...

Greg

Forget that, I'm gonna order a couple dozen auger's and give em as birthday and Christmas gifts. If I buy em now I'll have all my Christmas shoppin done in May.......YIPEEE

 

[electricman2]

If that came in a 5/8" version, we could drill our hole for the ground rod and just drop it in.:grin:

 

[charlie b]

I own a tool that looks like that auger. I bought it at a local hardware store for about 5 or 10 bucks, I believe. I used it (in rocky soil, by the way) to dig holes for the bulbs my wife wanted to plant. It worked beautifully; it was fast and efficient. I used my reversable, corded, drill, and I got the job done in a couple minutes.

 

[petersonra]

Went on a call today where a guy with a stump grinder tore up a wire to a storage shed. 12/2 NM burried almost a whole 3 inches under ground!! Left him an estimate to redo the feed properly. He wanted me just to splice the wire back together. My guess is he waited until I left and redid it himself.

Can you really blame him? TheNM has been there for how many years and not been a problem. You want to charge him X thousands of dollars to replace something he sees as being perfectly servicable.

Its going to be difficult to explain why NM is not not the best choice for burying underground when it has worked for all this time.

Just curious, if it was UF and it was buried 22 inches deep instead of the code 24" deep would you be willing to repair it?

 

[aline]

Just curious, if it was UF and it was buried 22 inches deep instead of the code 24" deep would you be willing to repair it?

I would repair it and throw 2 more inches of dirt on top.

 

[Greg Swartz]

If that came in a 5/8" version, we could drill our hole for the ground rod and just drop it in.:grin:

Thanks for my next invention...
For only $19.95 (batteries not included) you can OWN the handy dandy ground rod hole digger. Save hours of BACKBREAKING labor and be the first person on your block to own one.

 

[Greg Swartz]

The Real Heart of the Matter...

The Real Heart of the Matter...

Can you really blame him? TheNM has been there for how many years and not been a problem. You want to charge him X thousands of dollars to replace something he sees as being perfectly servicable.

Its going to be difficult to explain why NM is not not the best choice for burying underground when it has worked for all this time.

Just curious, if it was UF and it was buried 22 inches deep instead of the code 24" deep would you be willing to repair it?

I have to think long and hard on that one... I know there are splice kits that are designed for underground use... I've used em. But always on a temporary run. Now you're asking if I'd be willing to do it for a homeowner in a permanent installation.

The real heart of the matter...
Am I willing to do something right OR am I willing to do it wrong?

Is the code book really so black and white that there are no recourses?
Am I willing to walk away if the customer asks me to take a short-cut?

Justification for doing it wrong:
No one will ever get hurt.
It really is safe.
There are kits designed for underground use.
The customer will save money, and maybe use my services again.

 

[mh1990]

Under the sidewalks?

Under the sidewalks?

I wonder how it would work for getting lines under side walks?

 

[big john]

Just curious, if it was UF and it was buried 22 inches deep instead of the code 24" deep would you be willing to repair it?

Maybe this is my ignorance, but I don't see a problem in the world with that. Given how often I see UG installations that are so shallow they're actually sticking out of the ground, I'm not going to lose sleep if someone else is 2" shallow of code.

What's the failure rate on those UG splices? They always looked pretty solid to me, and there's nothing saying they can't be beefed up with a few layers of Super 33+.

I would definitely push for GFCI protection on the line because that's a no-lose situation, but I think even without it that installation is reasonably safe.

-John