M
Mike Jackson
I'll start with one about 4 months ago.
Pain in the neck job, relocate boiler from kitchen to airing cupboard above new cylinder. I drained and removed the old cylinder and boiler. Fitted the new boiler in the airing cupboard, fitted the cylinder and got the heating up and running. This was all done before refilling the cylinder as I wanted to heat test the new pipework under the cylinder.
On the third morning I reconnected the secondary side of the cylinder and turned the water back on. The cylinder filled an I heard the tell tale rush of water as it filled and heard the water running from the hot taps in the bathroom downstairs. I casually wandered downstairs to shut off the taps and was greeted by a waterfall emerging from the boxing over the bathroom door.
After shutting the water off I set about investigating the problem. It was a bit of a mystery as the boxing was a good ten feet from anywhere that I had been working. As I pulled the front off the boxing I got a face full of dead wasps, out with the henry to suck all the dead wasps up before the custards dog trod on one. As I pulled the rest of the boxing off I noticed something sparking within the boxing, off with the power.
There was a compression fitting within the boxing but that was fine, the water appeared to have come from where the pipe passed through the wall from the bedroom above. To get to the other side of this I had to move most of the furniture in the bedroom. I removed the boxing in the bedroom and cut out the suspect pipe. There was a 1/2" hole in the side of the pipe and the culprit was obvious as I pulled the pipe out.
Behind the pipe was an electric cable that used to feed the washing machine socket. Well actually there were the remnants of two cables one had been chewed completely in half and the other had the insulation chewed off exposing the live conductor. The scorching to the two cables showed that there had been a great deal of arcing taking place for quite a while. The hole in the pipe was adjacent to the exposed section of live conductor on the almost intact cable.
I assume that as I moved pipes in the airing cupboard it brought the pipe close enough to the cable for it to arc to the pipe and blow a hole in the pipe. Because flux tends to wreck my hands I wear gloves when I'm working a lot of the time no and I wonder if this saved me from getting a shock from the pipes. Amazingly none of the fuses had blown.
Pain in the neck job, relocate boiler from kitchen to airing cupboard above new cylinder. I drained and removed the old cylinder and boiler. Fitted the new boiler in the airing cupboard, fitted the cylinder and got the heating up and running. This was all done before refilling the cylinder as I wanted to heat test the new pipework under the cylinder.
On the third morning I reconnected the secondary side of the cylinder and turned the water back on. The cylinder filled an I heard the tell tale rush of water as it filled and heard the water running from the hot taps in the bathroom downstairs. I casually wandered downstairs to shut off the taps and was greeted by a waterfall emerging from the boxing over the bathroom door.
After shutting the water off I set about investigating the problem. It was a bit of a mystery as the boxing was a good ten feet from anywhere that I had been working. As I pulled the front off the boxing I got a face full of dead wasps, out with the henry to suck all the dead wasps up before the custards dog trod on one. As I pulled the rest of the boxing off I noticed something sparking within the boxing, off with the power.
There was a compression fitting within the boxing but that was fine, the water appeared to have come from where the pipe passed through the wall from the bedroom above. To get to the other side of this I had to move most of the furniture in the bedroom. I removed the boxing in the bedroom and cut out the suspect pipe. There was a 1/2" hole in the side of the pipe and the culprit was obvious as I pulled the pipe out.
Behind the pipe was an electric cable that used to feed the washing machine socket. Well actually there were the remnants of two cables one had been chewed completely in half and the other had the insulation chewed off exposing the live conductor. The scorching to the two cables showed that there had been a great deal of arcing taking place for quite a while. The hole in the pipe was adjacent to the exposed section of live conductor on the almost intact cable.
I assume that as I moved pipes in the airing cupboard it brought the pipe close enough to the cable for it to arc to the pipe and blow a hole in the pipe. Because flux tends to wreck my hands I wear gloves when I'm working a lot of the time no and I wonder if this saved me from getting a shock from the pipes. Amazingly none of the fuses had blown.
