Electrician help - Unbiased opinion on changing circuit breaker panel.

[ctwo]

...he tried to show me how to trip an outlet to make it easier to swap out instead of guessing what breaker. Well...that little outlet did not want to be tripped and my dad laughed. Turns out it was a 20a breaker and probably should be a 15a since it's in the kitchen.

There are ways...

I remember my physics professor described how to tell if the bulb, lamp or circuit was the culprit. See, if you remove the bulb, you can stick your finger in the socket by first touching and maintaining contact with the outer threads as you slide your finger in deeper to make contact with the center conductor at the bottom. You'll feel some tingling if the bulb was the problem.

Surely, everyone has a circuit breaker tester. And I have a DMM that measures up to 20A in continuity mode. Wouldn't go any higher than that

 

[Rtmac]

See, if you remove the bulb, you can stick your finger in the socket by first touching and maintaining contact with the outer threads as you slide your finger in deeper to make contact with the center conductor at the bottom. You'll feel some tingling if the bulb was the problem.

Oh pleeeease let me watch!!

 

[mean dad]

there is also in the barf lore, a dad that claimed that 3 cylinder engines were terrible and prone to spontaneous disassembly or other such nonsense. it's important to recognize when your parents might need to be questioned

On the rally this past weekend someone pointed there being a couple or three triples parked nose to tail in the parking lot. I commented that it was an inherently unstable way to park them and NOT ONE FUCKING PERSON GOT IT and I was a little disappointed in barf.

 

[Mike95060]

On the rally this past weekend someone pointed there being a couple or three triples parked nose to tail in the parking lot. I commented that it was an inherently unstable way to park them and NOT ONE FUCKING PERSON GOT IT and I was a little disappointed in barf.

You were right to be sad.

 

[mean dad]

Dude,

Dads don't know it all

Let it be known that I do not want Dub or Mrs Dub or the Baby Dub to be negatively affected by electricity

 

[ctwo]

Oh pleeeease let me watch!!

When I was 5, my alarm clock stopped working. It only needed a screwdriver to open it up...

Inside there was a transformer that looked like this, but with the white wires soldered to the terminals. I could not see the other side.

That's when I recalled my daddy showing me how to test a 9V battery.

It was OK because I no longer had an issue eating broccoli.

 

[Sharxfan]

There are ways...

I remember my physics professor described how to tell if the bulb, lamp or circuit was the culprit. See, if you remove the bulb, you can stick your finger in the socket by first touching and maintaining contact with the outer threads as you slide your finger in deeper to make contact with the center conductor at the bottom. You'll feel some tingling if the bulb was the problem.

Surely, everyone has a circuit breaker tester. And I have a DMM that measures up to 20A in continuity mode. Wouldn't go any higher than that

View attachment 599747

Or you could just plug in a lamp at the outlet turn it on and then start tripping breakers until the light goes off. Had to do that at our old house as nothing was labeled. I hate working on houses you never know what janky shit was done behind the sheetrock.

 

[Abacinator]

I found this a few months ago at the house my son is renting. His complaint was the lights were flickering when the microwave was running. Sometimes just pulling the cover off the panel and doing a good visual inspection can catch something like this before it becomes more serious. Waiting for the smoke is another option.
View attachment 599740

Well hell, maybe you should come inspect my panel! The whole house flickers when the printer kicks on in my bedroom

 

[Rtmac]

Inside there was a transformer that looked like this, but with the white wires soldered to the terminals.

I've been zapped more times than I could count (comes with the job). Usually it's no big deal... sometimes it really, really is!

Or you could just plug in a lamp at the outlet turn it on and then start tripping breakers until the light goes off.

A corded boom-box works even better.

Well hell, maybe you should come inspect my panel! The whole house flickers when the printer kicks on in my bedroom

That sounds normal.
If you ever need any help, let me know. I'm too old and crippled up to do any real work... about as far as I'll go is removing covers and inspecting. But I truly enjoy the troubleshooting aspect and I'm happy to give an unbiased opinion.

 

[Rtmac]

For the years I was a small time contractor, I always wanted to call my company "Dyslexic Electric"... but I figured it might be bad for business.
Looking back, I much preferred working for someone else. I used to talk too much, work too slow and charge too little.

 

[ST Guy]

I still have post and tube wiring in my living room, dining room and the original three bedrooms.

 

[ctwo]

I still have post and tube wiring in my living room, dining room and the original three bedrooms.

*Knob and Tube

 

[ST Guy]

I learned it the other way, but yea.

 

[PaulR]

My house built in 1980 is being required to replace the panel ….
This the one being replaced :
Zinsco/Zenko panels are one of the most notorious fire‑risk electrical panels ever sold, and the hazard is backed by decades of testing, inspections, and fire data.
Geez

PaulR

 

[Alan_Hepburn]

Or you could just plug in a lamp at the outlet turn it on and then start tripping breakers until the light goes off. Had to do that at our old house as nothing was labeled. I hate working on houses you never know what janky shit was done behind the sheetrock.

The house we currently own was built in 1996, and the owners did a $125K remodel around 2022 or so. About a year after we bought it we noticed that if we tried running a couple of appliances in the kitchen a breaker would trip. The wife got tired of having to wait to use the microwave until the electric skillet was done so we called in a contractor. Found out the kitchen was wired so that the refrigerator, dishwasher, instant hot water system, stove, 5 outlets, and the dining room lights were ALL run from a single 20A breaker! He split all that into 3 separate circuits and we haven't had any issues since. The remodel was done by a local general contractor who was very highly rated so even THEY can do some crazy stuff!

 

[augustiron]

Remodel doesn't mean they touched the electrical...

 

[auntiebling]

The house we currently own was built in 1996, and the owners did a $125K remodel around 2022 or so. About a year after we bought it we noticed that if we tried running a couple of appliances in the kitchen a breaker would trip. The wife got tired of having to wait to use the microwave until the electric skillet was done so we called in a contractor. Found out the kitchen was wired so that the refrigerator, dishwasher, instant hot water system, stove, 5 outlets, and the dining room lights were ALL run from a single 20A breaker! He split all that into 3 separate circuits and we haven't had any issues since. The remodel was done by a local general contractor who was very highly rated so even THEY can do some crazy stuff!

i'd bet $1 that the owners that did the remodel didn't want to pay for the electrical upgrade and often if the walls aren't opened you don't have to upgrade what's in them which is how knob+tube wiring can still be in use in an otherwise completely remodeled home. in your case, the previous owners probably only did a cosmetic job on the kitchen so the wiring didn't get updated and it's not necessarily the contractor's fault. it's easy to spend $125 on a pretty minor remodel these days. (i'm officially totally guessing, not a contractor never was)

 

[mercurial]

Also, people don't really know a damn thing about the trades, and will give high ratings to silver tongued bozos because they have no idea what a "good" job even is. I really don't trust any review from any friend, family, or acquaintance, unless I've seen the work with my own two eyes.

At 125k, that's a large'ish remodel and it would be pretty surprising that a job of that size wouldn't touch electrical at all.

 

[Rtmac]

I used to do some room additions and kitchen/bath remodels for general contractors. Normally I'd go for 1 day after the demo, rough in all the boxes and run the circuits back to the panel... then come back a second day after everything was done to trim out the outets and land the wires in the panel. A few times I'd never get the second call and they'd say "I went ahead and took care of the trim work myself"... That always made me feel very uneasy.

 

[Alan_Hepburn]

That $125K remodel saw the kitchen stripped down to studs and rebuilt, expanding it in the process. Since they spent major money on all high-end Cafe brand appliances it's hard to believe they would ignore the electrical, but you never know...