How far do you go?....

[djcrzysounds@yahoo.com]

Person called me today saying they had an electrical problem today and they needed someone to come over and diagnose immeadiately, saying 'cost is not a problem'. I get there and they have me look at a gas fired steamer (kitchen appliance in a commercial kitchen) They wanted me to diagnose the problem, I'm an electrician was a reminder I gave about 5 times while they were asking 'can you fix it'... what would the rest of you guys do if someone did that to you? I gave it an hour and said that they would need to call an appliance person and then billed them $175.00 and they paid it (hopefully the check won't bounce)....

 

[iwire]

I would not go to far with a gas powered steamer. I would look for the obvious but not much more.

 

[mdshunk]

I'm curious why you rolled on a gas appliance call? Just on the off chance it was an electrical problem?

 

[djcrzysounds@yahoo.com]

I'm curious why you rolled on a gas appliance call? Just on the off chance it was an electrical problem?

They said they had an electrical problem and one of their appliances wasn't working, I've never done work in this place before and didn't think at 8am (just getting through the sports section) that it was an appliance I figured it to be part of the building. I don't do a ton of appliances, mostly my own when it comes to trouble shooting.

 

[mdshunk]

They said they had an electrical problem and one of their appliances wasn't working, I've never done work in this place before and didn't think at 8am (just getting through the sports section) that it was an appliance I figured it to be part of the building. I don't do a ton of appliances, mostly my own when it comes to trouble shooting.

Gotcha.

BTW, most of the time these steamers have one or several of the level probes so scaled up with deposits from the water, they quit heating. That's the first thing I usually check on a DOA steamer.

You did the right thing, though. "nothing electrical". Here's the bill, thank you very much.

 

[JacksonburgFarmer]

Depends on the application.

I do alot, I mean ALOT of service calls on grain dryers, and grain handling equipment. The heat sources for these are gas, either LP or NAT. Gas. The valves are electrically controlled, but to me GAS of any kind is not electrical....

I fix anything on these dryers, gas valves, of course electrical, modulating valves, and do the steel repair as well, (bearings, auger flighting, patching holes, ect.) I guess on the Agricultural work, I am more of a maintenance man. If I KNOW I can do the work, and they are willing to pay, I do it. If not, they will call someone else who will/can do the work. I am not advising to work on something you arnt comfortable with, however, work on all you can, the more the merrier!!! In my opinion....

 

[mdshunk]

Depends on the application.

I do alot, I mean ALOT of service calls on grain dryers, and grain handling equipment. The heat sources for these are gas, either LP or NAT. Gas. The valves are electrically controlled, but to me GAS of any kind is not electrical....

I fix anything on these dryers, gas valves, of course electrical, modulating valves, and do the steel repair as well, (bearings, auger flighting, patching holes, ect.) I guess on the Agricultural work, I am more of a maintenance man. If I KNOW I can do the work, and they are willing to pay, I do it. If not, they will call someone else who will/can do the work. I am not advising to work on something you arnt comfortable with, however, work on all you can, the more the merrier!!! In my opinion....

I think that over time, many electricians develop special competencies in things that aren't really truly electrical work. I think that's a good thing.

 

[JacksonburgFarmer]

I agree w/ your statement mdshunk. As succesfull electricians, especially in the service work area, you need to have at least general knowlege of other systems, not just electrical. Myself included, and my employees, I encourage to know what you are working on. IF one understands what the process is they are maintaining, your chances of succesfully improving it are significantly higher. Not everyone is up to this though....some are content(and better suited) to running emt and pulling THHN #12 everyday. NOT ME!!!! That is why I am a Master electrician and EC at the age of 23 though...

 

[hardworkingstiff]

I think that over time, many electricians develop special competencies in things that aren't really truly electrical work.

I think they also become better at it than others that aren't electricians.

 

[sparky 134]

One of the very first customers I had when I started my business was a guy who just opened a UPS store. I walked in to ship something and noticed the indoor temp was very high. I asked him why the A/C wasn't on and he said it stopped working that morning. He had called a mechanical contractor but they couldnt' come out until the afternoon. I offered to look at the unit for free and if the problem wasn't electrical I wouldn't charge him.

The problem turned out to be a jerry-rigged fuse on the control circuit. Five minute fix and he was happy. While I was in his RTU I noticed the air filters had collapsed due to lack of maintenance. I pointed this out to him and offered to replace the filters. Now I go back every 60 days and replace the filters in his RTU and the RTU of the nail salon next door. It takes me 20 minutes to drive there, setup my ladder, replace the filters and load up my ladder. Since then I have replaced incandescent lighting for fluorescent, fixed his exterior sign and recently fixed his RTU. He called and said he didn't have any heat. So I went there, found a high temp wire going to the flame sensor had melted due to contact with the burner element. I also found the roll out sensor was defective. Called the supply house I get the air filters from, they had the parts, picked up the parts, fixed the RTU and he was happy. Not really EC work in my opinion.

While I was on the roof the first time I checked the air filters in all of the RTU's. I stopped in and spoke to every tenant in this strip mall about having me replace the air filters in their RTU's and not a single one was interested. Some had filters, some did not, some were collapsed. Once again not typical EC work but easy enough to do.

 

[satcom]

mechanical contractor

While I was on the roof the first time I checked the air filters in all of the RTU's. I stopped in and spoke to every tenant in this strip mall about having me replace the air filters in their RTU's and not a single one was interested. Some had filters, some did not, some were collapsed. Once again not typical EC work but easy enough to do.

The mechanical contractors, make profits that grow like rabbits, by selling service contracts for that type of work, they have the building owners, signed long term contracts, that is where the real money is, hit and miss work will not build a growing business.