Mysterious Electrical Noise

Merry Christmas
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sfav8r

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San Francisco Bay Area
Ever have one of those calls that you knew was going to be "different" from the very beginning? I took a call today from a customer who was concerned because the light in their shower started "buzzing and making funny noises." The part that concerned me is that they said it sounded like when you can hear electricity running through the high power lines. Hmmm, not that desirable in a shower.

Because we were so busy, my plan was to get them safe by having the owner turn off the appropriate circuit breaker to the fixture, and then go by tomorrow (it made the noise whether off or on). I was thinking that the problem was most likely not the shower fixture since the noise happened with the fixture off, but I figured knowing which circuit breaker stopped the noise would be helpful anyway.

To make a long story short, none of the circuit breakers would make the noise stop. Not feeling comfortable letting it go overnight, I rearranged things and headed over there.

Well, the noise was VERY noticeable just like the customer said. I walked around the bathroom trying to determine the location of the noise. It seemed like it was definitely coming from inside the shower. It seemed like it was actually coming from the space above the ceiling, although it didn't sound like the fan was the problem. I turned my head several directions to try and zero in on the sound and that's when I saw the culprit out of the corner of my eye. I immediately started laughing and then reached over to the soap dish and picked up the electric razer that was sitting there buzzing away. It looked like a regular straight razer, but it was electric. Apparently the battery is pretty good in those little buggers because it had been several hours.

Anyway, I had a good laugh and thought I would pass this invaluable troubleshooting tip along.

Cheers.
 
Was it one of these things?


gf_power_razor.jpg
 
sfav8r said:
Ever have one of those calls that you knew was going to be "different" from the very beginning? I took a call today from a customer who was concerned because the light in their shower started "buzzing and making funny noises." The part that concerned me is that they said it sounded like when you can hear electricity running through the high power lines. Hmmm, not that desirable in a shower.

Because we were so busy, my plan was to get them safe by having the owner turn off the appropriate circuit breaker to the fixture, and then go by tomorrow (it made the noise whether off or on). I was thinking that the problem was most likely not the shower fixture since the noise happened with the fixture off, but I figured knowing which circuit breaker stopped the noise would be helpful anyway.

To make a long story short, none of the circuit breakers would make the noise stop. Not feeling comfortable letting it go overnight, I rearranged things and headed over there.

Well, the noise was VERY noticeable just like the customer said. I walked around the bathroom trying to determine the location of the noise. It seemed like it was definitely coming from inside the shower. It seemed like it was actually coming from the space above the ceiling, although it didn't sound like the fan was the problem. I turned my head several directions to try and zero in on the sound and that's when I saw the culprit out of the corner of my eye. I immediately started laughing and then reached over to the soap dish and picked up the electric razer that was sitting there buzzing away. It looked like a regular straight razer, but it was electric. Apparently the battery is pretty good in those little buggers because it had been several hours.

Anyway, I had a good laugh and thought I would pass this invaluable troubleshooting tip along.

Cheers.
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When pagers came out with the vibrate feature, I went to bed thinking the pager was off. It was on "silent." It went off... it must have been a sight to see me creeping around the house with a bat looking for what sounded like mothra trapped under a coffee can!
 
Speaking of pagers, I remember when they first came out and I got my first one. It was on silent vibrate mode and I wasn't really used to it. I was doing a trouble call and had just reached inside an outlet box to pull the device when it went off. It startled me so bad I threw my pliars and jumped back. The HO was there and asked "are you alright? Did you get shocked?" I was embarrassed to say "no, I just got paged."
 
My hands were in a panel when mine went off for the first time and the same thing happened. I was standing there trying to figure out why I was still getting buzzed even though I had jumped back two feet. : )
 
Driving back from the airport after a trip several months ago, I kept thinking I was hearing some soft buzzing noise in the back of my car. When I got home, and brought in the bags, I was sure I heard the noise. At that point, I was wondering if the TSA had put some sort of tracking device inside one of my bags. When I opened them all, I discovered that my electric razor had been bumped somewhere along the line, as was running.
 
My foreman did a service call, for an irate customer. "My recess light is buzzing!" He thought they might be crazy, but he went to take a look. Sure enough, it was buzzing. He removed the trim, let the bee out, replaced the trim, and said, "$125, please" :grin:
 
sfav8r said:
I immediately started laughing and then reached over to the soap dish and picked up the electric razer that was sitting there buzzing away.
Click to expand...

Razor stories. I go to a home where the complaint was the GFCI protected receptacle in the bathroom keeps tripping.

Check out the receptacle with a tester. It's good
Bring in a heavy drill and plug that in. Works fine.

So I ask the homeowner exactly when the receptacle trips. In the morning when I shave he say's. I asked to see the razor. You could see bare copper all over the place on the razor cord. The dog had been chewing on the cord. Homeowner hadn't noticed the damage. It's a good thing those bathroom receptacles are required to be GFCI protected. :grin:
 
When I opened them all, I discovered that my electric razor had been bumped somewhere along the line, as was running.
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Had the exact same expierence, it was driving me crazy finally stopped and emptied the truck, found my electric tooth brush had turned on.
 
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I had a very similar experience in an office setting. The people kept hearing a buzzing sound every so often, and thought it was electrical. After spending an hour in the room listening to it and tracking it down, I found a pager on a bookshelf that had been set to vibrate.

I charged them a service call to tell them they had a page the day before at 11:38am.
 
Saw this on another board but this would be an interesting noise to find,
there was no other information besides the pictures. but not a find I would like to come across,
 
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I had a customer complain once that there was a loud buzz that would come from his panel sometimes.

Eventually I figured out it was the alarm buzzer.
 
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