Testing the bulb is slightly misleading at this point. It should be specified incandescents will read across the filament but compact florescents/LEDs will not. Great vid as always!
Agreed. But technically his demonstration for what he had was technically correct. Yes, he could’ve specified about the LEDs but that’s what the comments are for. This is just a UA-cam short. If he was trying to be more in-depth, he would make a video which he does make videos lol a whole channel in fact.
I'm a maintenance technician at an automated warehouse. I'm pretty new to the industry. My first real test came when a piece of conveyor wasn't working. Motors 480v AC but it was being supplied 37v DC. So I just worked my way to the soft starter to fix the problem.
I’m a heavy industry/mining and diesel mechanic but we had a Michelin retread facility also. Testing PLC was way above my pay grade but I had to do it. I learned thru trial and error sometimes and it took hours to learn a single circuit without schematics. Sometimes even as a veteran diesel mechanic I get frustrated and say to myself, “Don’t get complacent.” Or, “Think simple, stupid.” Sometimes all you need to do is walk away for a minute, drink a wattle of water, relax, and return to work. It’ll hit you.
@@yt-kingdavid2359 It's more for troubleshooting motors and VFDs. So the panels are already wired. I have seen wires not properly secured or come loose which creates problems that most people (including me) have overcomplicated the troubleshooting process on.
I love troubleshooting. It's my favorite thing to do at work, really makes you have to think and when you figure out the problem it makes you feel amazing
This is as simple as trouble shooting a circuit can be in a perfect world. Sometimes I run into customers that think they know electrical and end up making a simple problem into a bigger one.
So many homeowners look down upon tradesmen and think that they are smarter than a Tradesman because in their suburban life everyone knows that the skilled trades are low paying, low intelligence jobs. The level of narcissism and entitlement is higher than ever and getting worse by the day. These people will ignore every law, code & regulation on the books because it's my property and I will do what I want, yet you mention their HOA and they instantly turn into a mindless drone, doing whatever the HOA says.
45 years in and you’ll learn something new almost every time your in the field….work with a great teacher out in the real world….you’ll get 4 times the knowledge as you would in a classroom setting…know your codes, memorize you NEC, and keep up on all product offerings!
Back in the 1970s-1980s, when I served in the U.S. Navy as an Electronics Technician, we were taught the Navy's 6-Step Troubleshooting Method. It works on anything from what you're doing with a wall switch to radios, RADAR units, satellite systems, and so forth. You don't touch a piece of test equipment until you get to (usually) step-5. If you have a good input and bad output, you go half way; if that's good, then you check the last half, starting again half way, and keep going until you get down to the actual component (diode, transistor, capacitor, resistor, fuse, whatever). I've used that all my life ever since, even as a Computer and Electrical Engineer.
I love the challenge of troubleshooting, its usually not as simple as a light switch its usually because some hack has been there before me, so I have to trace things back and figure out what the heck did they do and then move forward fixing the repair.
@@BarrackObamna I'd be too nice to come all the way over and be paid just to reset a GFI. Unless they have no clue what it is i'd just tell them to try resetting it over the phone.
@@qrzone8167 no the call I’m thinking of is “I can’t get power to my equipment, I’ve tried resetting the breaker”, that would then be my first question is does it have one of the outlets with a button anywhere around there. They almost always never actually look and say yeah there isn’t one. Meanwhile I know that they’ve got to have one since they have a pool light and they tie in the auto cover to the light circuit. So this is literally always what we ask them is the light coming on and is the breaker or gfi tripped. You have to be able to think in order for me to help over the phone.
@@NJDFAN76Even better when customers tell you they won't touch anything electric and then you find out they actually did cause the fault all by themselves. What follows is awkward silence xD
Back at school, my favorite teacher was an electrical engineer. He taught us this: "Always eliminate what's working. Isolate your problem, and you will find it in no time." Now, in the field, I've always found my troubles in a 100% success rate. I'm so lucky to learn from him. Final conclusion: Troubleshooting is an art.
I learned to “follow the line” troubleshooting in injection molding. (Vacuum lines, plastic processing, machine programming) I literally use this with process of elimination for my whole Ash life! Well said and great video!
I did a TON of electric work as a maintenance tech. It amazing how many people can’t do basic troubleshooting. It’s a process of elimination and understanding how things run. Most people give up because they are lazy. I saved my company at least $10k a year by just doing the troubleshooting. Fixing a problem is easy. Finding the problem takes patience and basic knowledge
Careful they'll fire you, because they're afraid you'll expose them, you'll know it's coming when you start to get accused of bizarre shit that never happened
May not even be laziness but a lack of knowledge. You may as well be the second coming of jesus christ to the factory boss if you can re-identify cut motor leads.
its not really people not being able to do troubleshooting, its definitely people not knowing because they don't care to learn. that's why people hire others that are professionals in that field. so its not that they dont understand, they just don't care enough to learn because that's an electricians job, not theirs.
My buddy decided that every light fixture and switch/plug device had to be removed from his apartment. It was wired by some guy back in the 70's. The main light fixture box (center ceiling) was a main junction point to 3 runs. One was a single 14/2 wire ran to the main light fixture, backfed down the neutral. Two other legs, one a main supply to a small addition and one wad the outlets/second light in the bathroom. Surprised the hell out of me, and reminded me why I am happy to have a quality auto ranging multimeter with NCV test capabilities (Southwire).
I've worked electrical engineering/design/installation/commissioning for 20 yrs now. All electricians are different. Some are great installers (running conduit, pulling cable, etc), some are great at terminating and dressing panels, some are great at troubleshooting. It's very rare to find all three traits in one.
As a union Electrician I can say that we train to do it all, installation, troubleshooting and even programming stuff like PLCs...The field is so vast that most guys seem to specialize in a thing, all can do everything, but most are masters of few specialized things, few are excellent all around, but it's all experience based, you can't excell at something you didn't spend alot of time doing! So far I am lucky to have a very diverse and well rounded training (alot of troubleshooting and service calls, and also alot of installation in big new construction jobsites) I concider myself very lucky
I am a trouble shooter and have people wanting me to wire their new home. I tell them others can do it a lot faster and less expensive. If they want, I will come back and do a pre-inspection for them.
@@yt-kingdavid2359 The IBEW training accross the country is very similar, except for some courses that area specific, for exemple some locals have wind and renewable energy courses, while us here in PA we have special PLC and automation courses because in our area there is alot of industrial work...The union apprenticeship is amazing and top notch.
An electrician wearing bags..... idk somethings fishy. Next, he's going to say he sweeps up his wire clippings 😂 love you, man. Im a carpenter and got to hate on the other trades. ❤😘🤣
OMG, the building where I work there are SO MANY wire clippings from all of the sloppy electricians over the years leaving them behind in every space where there's wiring. I'd guess that if I measured all of them it would easily be 200 feet of wire.
As a thought - This isn't just limited to electrocutions. As a coder, I troubleshoot in a very similar way. Identify the variables, the normal flow of things. and segment them into 'zones' that can go wrong, the test from top down. When i built my computer, and it wouldn't start, a very similar approach was taken, by testing and narrowing down the problem. Great video, really demonstrates the foundations of troubleshooting, which I used to think was a common skill, but I've since learnt that it's not!
1. Neutral to the load, 2. Feed the switch hot and everything that needs to be hot all the time. 3. Switch to what it controls. Made me a master electrician.😊
This is definitely one situation that the home owner should be able to do it themselves. If you own a home, you should definitely take the time to learn to fix simple things like this lol.
I know wholeheartedly that this is a well-intentioned video and meant for layman. As well as correct, no complaints, and thank you. Well done. However, as a licensed security/fire person going on 30+ years in feild, I still can not stand troubleshooting "minimized", as for instance an intelligent slc, certainlinly with multiple ground faults mixture of class a and b thrown in and etc in large commercial settings, and not having to explain. But residential wiring and problems are particularly hard to convince a homeowner of. Cheers...
I previously worked as an electronics tech (low voltage and data stuff). The maddening thing to me that electricians have to deal with is the biggest unknown: Not knowing what all is connected to a circuit and no wiring diagram.
Similar issues in programming: lack of documentation. Even a great system is hard to understand if it doesn't have the right documentation. A poorly designed system without documentation can be easier to replace than fix.
I had a circuit with three groups of 4 recessed LEDs I installed recently. When turning one on of the groups it would immediately trip the breaker. The junction box for the lights had a resistance readeing of .5-.9 ohms. I went about searching for any discrepancies and eliminating possibilities. It ended up coming down to one of the hot wires in the first box somehow making contact with the metal housing. It was difficult to reach and I wasn't able to see exactly how it happened, but i got it sorted out. I enjoyed the troubleshooting part of it.
The first thing we do is we open the cover on the fuseboard, shake our heads and saying out loud "what in gods name was he thinking" meaning the previous electrician
Troubleshooting is my favorite thing to do. From the earliest homes of K&T with switched and fused neutrals all the way up to present day. Understanding how guys would have ran circuits in most homes and the different techniques and paths used due to raw material shortages of some eras, or running home runs from light to light because the boxes had more room to make joints than the receptacle boxes, all sorts of information is stored in our heads as the years go by. I usually start by a soft interrogation to gather as much intel as I can. What does the homeowner know is not working, did everything break at the same time (the one switch that has been broke for 10 years isn't related to the outlet that just stopped working), is anyone using portable heaters, where does the vacuum cleaner get plugged in, I look for things like ironing boards set up in a bedroom and not the laundry, any recent construction projects, was it raining outside, the list goes on. The amount of troubleshooting problems that are quickly narrowed down to a bad lamp post wire by turning the switch off and resetting the breaker.......very long list. Troubleshooting is a passion of mine, love finding the smoking gun.
As a auto technician, I have the same rough diag steps, as in most electrical issues, there's the control (computer or switch), wiring and intermediate connectors, and the load/sensor/actuator. I still have to break it down for customers who think the scan tool tells me what's wrong and what to replace. The DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code) is just a symptom of a problem, or as I like to put it, it's the computer saying "this isn't right, it's not working like it should" You have a O2 sensor heater code? It could be the sensor, or a broken wire, or corrosion in a connector, blown fuse, or even a bad driver/circuit problem in the computer. If you want to throw a sensor at it, more power to you, but don't cry at me if it doesn't fix it.
I repaired cell tower equipment, 12 layer PCBs, over 1000 chips spread across 4 boards. Our computer diagnostics would say "it's not outputting enough power" and it's up to me to figure out which board, and which component on that board. Hard job, but you can eliminate half of the chips because it turns on, another half because it's channel 2 that's low, another half because it's the transmit not the receive, etc. Pretty soon you are down to a handful, and can do a combo of multimeter, process of elimination, shotgunning, etc. Computers and scripts can help A LOT, but they don't tell you what to do, nor specifically what is wrong.
@@phillyphakename1255 Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately it's only going to get worse. The vehicles now are rolling servers cabinets. +30 computers, 5 or more different communication networks (including Ethernet, not the same as internet Ethernet either), some computers that are also hubs and act like routers, now also throw in cell phone, wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sat radio, sat TV... For example, Cummins diesel has 5 computers to run it and the emissions system, all running on their own separate communication network.
@@phillyphakename1255 Yes, real fun explaining to customers what and why their vehicle doesn't work, and the diag time. Horn don't work? Could be a fuse, bad switch, or a corrupted IHS CAN bus because of corrosion in a harness connector causing lost of communication between the SCM and the BCM. You know, simple things.😅
By MAKING an Check-in you Solve the Problen . First : analizing the Source of Power , Second : breaker and Third the bulb lamp,. Soon by Constating everything was Ok , EXEPTING the SWITCH from eliminating troubleshoots you find out the cause of eletrical failure.
Im not a sparkey by trade, but grew up doing electrical work and actually wanted to do it as a career, but went into cy er security. My new house i had built in 2019, my master bedroom had bad electrical issues. Thankfully i took pics of everythhg and knew where my home run was. And it turns out half way on thr line, the electrician hooked up the hot abd neutral lines to a switced outlet when it was fes direct to the box. So that means half way thru, the second half of my wire, the electricity had 2 highways to get aroubd and back. This caused all kinds of power surginf and lights pulsing and tv going out when boxfan turned on and rhe afci random flipping. Cut out that second hot leg in the circuit and boom. Its perfect now!!!
The golden rules of diagnosis: 1. Start with the easiest. 2. The previous guy did in fact, not check it already. Even if he did, you're there because he failed. 3. If it looks fucked, smells fucked, or feels fucked. It's probably fucked. I Can't think of more off the top of my head. But these go pretty far already.
My two to add are "never overstate your confidence", and "previous repairer/manufacturer was probably incompetent". When you are asking for help or handing it off to next shift, don't say you did something if you aren't 100% sure. Hedging your language isn't a bad thing. "I think that was 37 ohms, but it's probably worth making sure". If it is 37 ohms, you look good, if not, you closed a rabbit hole before it sucked an hour or two from the next guy, which would have made you look like an ass. As for previous guy sucks, any time I see one thing that isn't up to a high standard, I instantly go on high alert for other issues. Incompetent oafs rarely touch just one thing on their way to "fixing" something.
Rank amateur. Gather round for the troubleshooting golden rules. 1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 2. If it ain't fn broke, don't fn fix it. 3. The better is the enemy of the good. 4. Tried nothing, now I'm all out of ideas. 5. It was like that when I got here. The 5 types of troubleshooters: 1. reset technicians 2. phone support 3. part swappers 4. trouble makers 5. lifers
Good video just felt like it was all over the place. You should always start at the source and work your way downstream from that. You can work your way backwards but I always find that takes longer if it's not something that's obvious (like the switch). Troubleshooting is such a funny thing that you get better at with experience.
That's basically how you troubleshoot _any_ problem. You have a thing that doesn't work. Whether it is mechanical, electrical, or software, or even something like plumbing, you have a flow of stuff. It has a start point, and an endpoint. You put something in, you don't get the expected result out. So you start from the source, and test everything on your way through, checking off possible things that could be wrong. It's a skill that sadly many people don't have, or have very poor skill in.
Seeing the bulb base fixture there brings a thought to add. Before you walk away from the socket, use the meter to check if there is power in the socket. With that style of socket, there is a small tab in the bottom for the power, and the threaded ring is the ground for the bulb. I have in the past, found several lamps, or screw in bulb fixtures that were actually still functional, but did not make contact with the bulb properly, especially if it is an aged socket. If you find that the socket still has power, but no bulbs are working; turn the power off to the socket and use a tool or a loop of wire to gently pry the metal tab outwards a little until it will press against the bottom of the bulb again.
And bulb size is important. If the fixture has a maximum rating, do not exceed it. It may work, but it can, and often does, damage the fixtures internal wiring when one exceeds it. Just yesterday I pulled burnt wiring out of a lamp that someone did this. It happens, it's ugly, and it's a fire hazard. This one had one inch of burnt conductor between the socket and the hanging bracket. When in doubt, use the size of the fixture as an indicator of how big a bulb to use. If the case is small like a desk lamp, it's probably going to use around 25-45w maximum. A ceiling or wall fixture will probably max at 60-75w. Anything above would take a fixture designed to utilize a 100-150w bulb.
Being so animated with your hands while talking that close to a live breaker panel could create a lot of other unknowns you hadn't counted on when waking up this morning!
That's not just you, sparky. That's how troubleshooting is done across the board. Like you said, you got to test one variable at a time. It hurts my soul to watch a guy who already knows what's wrong before he gets out of the truck, then start changing out 3 parts and then testing it. If it's a complex system, take some notes, and mostly, take your time. It takes patience and determination.
I'd check at the switch of bulb for voltage helping rule out 2 things at once. That's a class room explanation. Real life you need to be more efficient with troubleshooting Esp in industry if the production stalls, time is money.
I work on cell towers. It's basically the same process for us doing maintenance. One additional thing we do is use a "known good" to narrow down the issue. One radio is powered up and the one next to it isn't? Roll power between the two and see if the issue moves or stays.
Once you checked the power on the breakers , check every wires also , many times I’ve seen wire were actually not tied down , especially on the square D homeline tandem breaker where we can easily miss the connection.
You can have a “hunch” on what’s wrong and go right to that but generally you check the easy things first then if necessary you go progressively deeper. That’s how experienced electricians trouble shoot and how new ones should be taught.
Nice work, like troubleshooting machinery, it’s called sequence of operations everything has an operation it has a sequence you follow the sequence, and then you find out where there’s a break in the sequence
This is known as ATS (acronyms), used KT’s Analytic Troubleshooting workshop several times at work to help troubleshoot circuits and processes that can be used to solve many problems.
done maintenance work before..(not a pro but learnt well) .......I usually always knew if it was the fixture or the switch... easy to figure. minus the bulb/breaker switch.... was told once "turn that breaker off before you change that (bedroom) light fixture" I said why?... there's the light switch right there. .......in off position... THAT person learnt that one on me.
I would nearly always test from the panel first, see if the contacts on the breaker arent stuck, there's power going out, test for a short if there is no power, test between phases. And go from there.
@@explod329 Some people refer to Leg A and Leg B as A phase or B phase, even in residential. At least that’s what I’ve heard in the past when I did residential.
@@explod329 at least in canada theres 2 phases on a "single phase" residential service. 120V on phase A and 120V on phase B, 240V between them. Im not sure why its called single phase really. And if you didnt know there's 2 phases why are you trying to correct people lol?
@@explod329 On the secondary of a center tapped step down transformer the two legs are 180 degrees out of phase of each other. In other words the legs are two different phases.
I like them requiring a neutral in the switch outlet now which also explains why it’s run that way. The older style was to run the power straight to the light and then the switch dropping the neutral to the lighting outlet in that box and then running any other lights or in this case the receptacle outlet out of the lighting outlet. It accomplished the same thing but nowadays you need that neutral at the switch a lot of times
I like to take out the bulb and use my noncontact voltage pen and see if there's voltage going up. If the indicator is that voltage is, I will grab my meter and confirm 120.
It really is common sense but you would be surprised (maybe surprised) how many people lack the skills to use common sense…. Good video it should help someone
With how close you staple that romex to the boxes, I bet your inspector loves you for not making him take out a measuring tape every other box...That's a great tip I got early. Don't push the 12" maximum unless you wanna annoy your inspector.
Here's what I find amusing a lot of electricians like to take insulation put over the wire and write with a sharpie what it goes to. Here's the problem that sharpie will not last for more than 4 years and it will start to fade and be impossible to read. However there is a solution that is using a labeler and printing a label sticking it on the insulation and then running a piece of clear shrink tube over top the label so the label will never come off. This is something that I have worked on extensively as a structured cable engineer labeling is extremely important in network cabling. When you have a RJ45 on the end of a network cable and you need to ID it.
I like this method! Other then checking the breaker I just start replacing shit! I start with the easiest thing first and then keep going until it works again.
Bad place to be asking and im sorry but my microwave at home is completely dead. There is no electricity coming from the outlet that the microwave is plugged in. Every single time we turn the power off to get the microwave back up and goin, it will shut off within the first second. Just wondering if you had any ideas will definitely use that info that was shared on the short fs. your content is awesome man. keep up the hard work.
Yes, but if you have a wiring hub it might not be wired correctly, or a cable may be short circuited if it is damaged by doing some other work. These problems are a bit more complex than what you described.
I'm a maintenance technician. What i usually do is, I test where the problem is, if there's no power, I go all the way to the other end to test the circuit breaker. Most of the times something happened and the breaker is tripped therefore, there's no power to the equipment. Of course after that I work my way up all the way to the equipment to figure out the problem.
With such an open wall, you really have no problem checking the wire if it is broken! I personally only check things when I'm sure there's no live electricity in any of the lines and the fuse is off.
Tradesman here, automotive and electrical engineer. The simplest, most time efficient and effective way to begin and follow a diagnostic problem is to start with the simplest things to check. The one that is the quickest and easiest, then work your way backwards to the most time consuming and hardest things to test. Don't cut corners. Is it plugged in? Is the power on? Throw away all presumptions, you're not that smart, trust me, I'm not. But 9 times outta 10 I'll always find the problem before the other guy. And I'll be able to say exactly what the problem is, not "I think it's..."
A friends neighbor had an electrician come to the house to figure out why several outlets weren’t working. After a while spent troubleshooting the electrician told the man he needed the house rewired at an expense f $15,000.00. My friend called me for advise. After about 45 minutes I figured out that the man needed to reset his GFI outlet in the garage and, POOF, everything was working again. Made a new friend and saved him 15 grand. Not all electricians know what they are doing.
Same intelligent process I teach to my computer programmers. So they can "debug" a program. Same basic process as repairing radios, TVs, etc. But, it's called "signal tracing". Inject a known radio signal into the first stage. Then check that signal as it passes from one stage to the next. When you find a weak or distorted signal coming out of a given stage, that's the problem.
I use my nose , I was a elecrician for 19 years and I found I could ofen smell burned wires , brakers , switches , etc. faster and eisier than other methods.
Testing the bulb is slightly misleading at this point. It should be specified incandescents will read across the filament but compact florescents/LEDs will not. Great vid as always!
I test LED by replacing it.
It's a lot misleading, if you can take the bulb out test what's in the socket...
@@UhOhUmmthank you!
@@UhOhUmmtesting continuity on bulb
Agreed. But technically his demonstration for what he had was technically correct. Yes, he could’ve specified about the LEDs but that’s what the comments are for. This is just a UA-cam short. If he was trying to be more in-depth, he would make a video which he does make videos lol a whole channel in fact.
I'm a maintenance technician at an automated warehouse. I'm pretty new to the industry. My first real test came when a piece of conveyor wasn't working. Motors 480v AC but it was being supplied 37v DC. So I just worked my way to the soft starter to fix the problem.
Awesome hey we learn under fire sometimes
I'm a maintenance technician for an apartment complex and I've learned a lot under fire. From electrical to plumbing and hvac
I’m a heavy industry/mining and diesel mechanic but we had a Michelin retread facility also. Testing PLC was way above my pay grade but I had to do it. I learned thru trial and error sometimes and it took hours to learn a single circuit without schematics. Sometimes even as a veteran diesel mechanic I get frustrated and say to myself, “Don’t get complacent.” Or, “Think simple, stupid.”
Sometimes all you need to do is walk away for a minute, drink a wattle of water, relax, and return to work. It’ll hit you.
So do you work on electrical panels a lot in the field? I’m an electrical panel builder
@@yt-kingdavid2359 It's more for troubleshooting motors and VFDs. So the panels are already wired. I have seen wires not properly secured or come loose which creates problems that most people (including me) have overcomplicated the troubleshooting process on.
I love troubleshooting. It's my favorite thing to do at work, really makes you have to think and when you figure out the problem it makes you feel amazing
This is as simple as trouble shooting a circuit can be in a perfect world. Sometimes I run into customers that think they know electrical and end up making a simple problem into a bigger one.
The "electrical is just colour to colour" people. People with no respect for power shouldn't touch it.
So many homeowners look down upon tradesmen and think that they are smarter than a Tradesman because in their suburban life everyone knows that the skilled trades are low paying, low intelligence jobs. The level of narcissism and entitlement is higher than ever and getting worse by the day. These people will ignore every law, code & regulation on the books because it's my property and I will do what I want, yet you mention their HOA and they instantly turn into a mindless drone, doing whatever the HOA says.
Insurance should not cover if a homeowner burns their house down trying to be super handyman
As someone who isn’t an apprentice Yet, this all interests me, I want to learn it all. I’m glad I started school this past September.
Did you start through a Union?
Wish you the best in your journey
45 years in and you’ll learn something new almost every time your in the field….work with a great teacher out in the real world….you’ll get 4 times the knowledge as you would in a classroom setting…know your codes, memorize you NEC, and keep up on all product offerings!
Way to go! Best wishes on your journey.
It only gets harder after school is done. Walk into a main electrical room for a hospital and do a shutdown is the normal type of work.
Back in the 1970s-1980s, when I served in the U.S. Navy as an Electronics Technician, we were taught the Navy's 6-Step Troubleshooting Method. It works on anything from what you're doing with a wall switch to radios, RADAR units, satellite systems, and so forth. You don't touch a piece of test equipment until you get to (usually) step-5. If you have a good input and bad output, you go half way; if that's good, then you check the last half, starting again half way, and keep going until you get down to the actual component (diode, transistor, capacitor, resistor, fuse, whatever). I've used that all my life ever since, even as a Computer and Electrical Engineer.
I love the challenge of troubleshooting, its usually not as simple as a light switch its usually because some hack has been there before me, so I have to trace things back and figure out what the heck did they do and then move forward fixing the repair.
As a guy who always works on pools it’s almost always a gfi that they didn’t know was on the circuit.
The best is when customers tell me they won’t touch anything electric and I tell them they would be surprised by how many people would
@@BarrackObamna I'd be too nice to come all the way over and be paid just to reset a GFI. Unless they have no clue what it is i'd just tell them to try resetting it over the phone.
@@qrzone8167 no the call I’m thinking of is “I can’t get power to my equipment, I’ve tried resetting the breaker”, that would then be my first question is does it have one of the outlets with a button anywhere around there. They almost always never actually look and say yeah there isn’t one. Meanwhile I know that they’ve got to have one since they have a pool light and they tie in the auto cover to the light circuit. So this is literally always what we ask them is the light coming on and is the breaker or gfi tripped. You have to be able to think in order for me to help over the phone.
@@NJDFAN76Even better when customers tell you they won't touch anything electric and then you find out they actually did cause the fault all by themselves. What follows is awkward silence xD
That is the most professionally laid out panel box I’ve seen in a while. Nice work.
Electricians take great pride in clean breaker boxes.... They get sloppy when maintenance, or customers mess with them.
Only cost the homeowner 2 grand
@@justinberry3991that's reasonable for a good job it's not hard to find half-assed if that's what you want😅
@@claytongetz6362 I do my own. Electrical is not hard as long as you have common sense 🤣
😂🤣
I've been a general contractor for 30 years thought I've learned a lot but I love your posts I learn a lot
Back at school, my favorite teacher was an electrical engineer. He taught us this: "Always eliminate what's working. Isolate your problem, and you will find it in no time." Now, in the field, I've always found my troubles in a 100% success rate. I'm so lucky to learn from him. Final conclusion: Troubleshooting is an art.
I learned to “follow the line” troubleshooting in injection molding. (Vacuum lines, plastic processing, machine programming) I literally use this with process of elimination for my whole Ash life! Well said and great video!
I did a TON of electric work as a maintenance tech. It amazing how many people can’t do basic troubleshooting. It’s a process of elimination and understanding how things run. Most people give up because they are lazy. I saved my company at least $10k a year by just doing the troubleshooting. Fixing a problem is easy. Finding the problem takes patience and basic knowledge
Careful they'll fire you, because they're afraid you'll expose them, you'll know it's coming when you start to get accused of bizarre shit that never happened
May not even be laziness but a lack of knowledge. You may as well be the second coming of jesus christ to the factory boss if you can re-identify cut motor leads.
its not really people not being able to do troubleshooting, its definitely people not knowing because they don't care to learn. that's why people hire others that are professionals in that field. so its not that they dont understand, they just don't care enough to learn because that's an electricians job, not theirs.
“I found your problem. The light bulb blew out and I replaced it. That’ll be $155.”
Sometimes it's that! And yeah they have to pay for your time and knowledge to be there!
👍
If it was that easy then everybody would do it.
More like 275
$420
Understand the problem, half split the problem. Solid advice.
My buddy decided that every light fixture and switch/plug device had to be removed from his apartment. It was wired by some guy back in the 70's. The main light fixture box (center ceiling) was a main junction point to 3 runs. One was a single 14/2 wire ran to the main light fixture, backfed down the neutral. Two other legs, one a main supply to a small addition and one wad the outlets/second light in the bathroom. Surprised the hell out of me, and reminded me why I am happy to have a quality auto ranging multimeter with NCV test capabilities (Southwire).
I've worked electrical engineering/design/installation/commissioning for 20 yrs now. All electricians are different. Some are great installers (running conduit, pulling cable, etc), some are great at terminating and dressing panels, some are great at troubleshooting.
It's very rare to find all three traits in one.
As a union Electrician I can say that we train to do it all, installation, troubleshooting and even programming stuff like PLCs...The field is so vast that most guys seem to specialize in a thing, all can do everything, but most are masters of few specialized things, few are excellent all around, but it's all experience based, you can't excell at something you didn't spend alot of time doing! So far I am lucky to have a very diverse and well rounded training (alot of troubleshooting and service calls, and also alot of installation in big new construction jobsites) I concider myself very lucky
I am a trouble shooter and have people wanting me to wire their new home. I tell them others can do it a lot faster and less expensive. If they want, I will come back and do a pre-inspection for them.
I guess I’m an endangered species!!
@@Hatim.13they teach you to troubleshoot plcs? I heard that’s a whole different game than wiring.
@@yt-kingdavid2359 The IBEW training accross the country is very similar, except for some courses that area specific, for exemple some locals have wind and renewable energy courses, while us here in PA we have special PLC and automation courses because in our area there is alot of industrial work...The union apprenticeship is amazing and top notch.
An electrician wearing bags..... idk somethings fishy. Next, he's going to say he sweeps up his wire clippings 😂 love you, man. Im a carpenter and got to hate on the other trades. ❤😘🤣
That's half the fun of trade school. Had someone carve into a toilet paper dispenser "pull for welding ticket" 😂
OMG, the building where I work there are SO MANY wire clippings from all of the sloppy electricians over the years leaving them behind in every space where there's wiring. I'd guess that if I measured all of them it would easily be 200 feet of wire.
Industrial electrician apprentice here. Just saying I love your channel and you give great info. Keep it up man.
As a thought - This isn't just limited to electrocutions. As a coder, I troubleshoot in a very similar way. Identify the variables, the normal flow of things. and segment them into 'zones' that can go wrong, the test from top down.
When i built my computer, and it wouldn't start, a very similar approach was taken, by testing and narrowing down the problem. Great video, really demonstrates the foundations of troubleshooting, which I used to think was a common skill, but I've since learnt that it's not!
1. Neutral to the load,
2. Feed the switch hot and everything that needs to be hot all the time.
3. Switch to what it controls.
Made me a master electrician.😊
Great breakdown! This basic methodology can be applied to anything and will lead to solutions 99% of the time.
This is definitely one situation that the home owner should be able to do it themselves. If you own a home, you should definitely take the time to learn to fix simple things like this lol.
I know wholeheartedly that this is a well-intentioned video and meant for layman.
As well as correct, no complaints, and thank you. Well done.
However, as a licensed security/fire person going on 30+ years in feild, I still can not stand troubleshooting "minimized", as for instance an intelligent slc, certainlinly with multiple ground faults mixture of class a and b thrown in and etc in large commercial settings, and not having to explain.
But residential wiring and problems are particularly hard to convince a homeowner of.
Cheers...
Most shorts are under 3 minutes my licensed friend. 30 years is a bit. Your not so humble brag was acknowledged.
That panel work is beautiful and clean. Nice work! 👌
Good day sir, I have been with this channel since 2020
HVAC Technician stamp of approval 👍🏽
I previously worked as an electronics tech (low voltage and data stuff). The maddening thing to me that electricians have to deal with is the biggest unknown: Not knowing what all is connected to a circuit and no wiring diagram.
Similar issues in programming: lack of documentation. Even a great system is hard to understand if it doesn't have the right documentation. A poorly designed system without documentation can be easier to replace than fix.
@@moldovancrisis5482 funny, cause I work in development now, and I know exactly what you mean!
Testing continuity from neutral to ground can help identify open neutrals or a break in the wire.
Interesting I always test hot to neutral voltage but your way would work to
Retired commercial HVAC technician here. I adopted a physicians descriptor, “differential diagnosis”.
Great content not only for electricians but for all.
All, like accountants? Not really.
I had a circuit with three groups of 4 recessed LEDs I installed recently. When turning one on of the groups it would immediately trip the breaker.
The junction box for the lights had a resistance readeing of .5-.9 ohms. I went about searching for any discrepancies and eliminating possibilities. It ended up coming down to one of the hot wires in the first box somehow making contact with the metal housing. It was difficult to reach and I wasn't able to see exactly how it happened, but i got it sorted out. I enjoyed the troubleshooting part of it.
dude, thanks just for the terminology breakdown. i actually needed that
This vid is cool but my thumbs up is for how clean and labelled the panel box is that amazing
I'm glad the lightbulb was good and not burnt out; you never want to have to clean up another man's blown load.
That is the nicest install I have ever seen in the service panel. I love the romax labels. Great job! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
He was definitely showing it off without making it obvious.
The first thing we do is we open the cover on the fuseboard, shake our heads and saying out loud "what in gods name was he thinking" meaning the previous electrician
I totally would have done better than this!
(Checks computer) Installed by me 6 years ago, repaired by me 2 years ago, no other records.
Sigh...
it was joe the lifelong apprentice
Troubleshooting is my favorite thing to do. From the earliest homes of K&T with switched and fused neutrals all the way up to present day. Understanding how guys would have ran circuits in most homes and the different techniques and paths used due to raw material shortages of some eras, or running home runs from light to light because the boxes had more room to make joints than the receptacle boxes, all sorts of information is stored in our heads as the years go by. I usually start by a soft interrogation to gather as much intel as I can. What does the homeowner know is not working, did everything break at the same time (the one switch that has been broke for 10 years isn't related to the outlet that just stopped working), is anyone using portable heaters, where does the vacuum cleaner get plugged in, I look for things like ironing boards set up in a bedroom and not the laundry, any recent construction projects, was it raining outside, the list goes on. The amount of troubleshooting problems that are quickly narrowed down to a bad lamp post wire by turning the switch off and resetting the breaker.......very long list. Troubleshooting is a passion of mine, love finding the smoking gun.
As a auto technician, I have the same rough diag steps, as in most electrical issues, there's the control (computer or switch), wiring and intermediate connectors, and the load/sensor/actuator.
I still have to break it down for customers who think the scan tool tells me what's wrong and what to replace. The DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Code) is just a symptom of a problem, or as I like to put it, it's the computer saying "this isn't right, it's not working like it should"
You have a O2 sensor heater code? It could be the sensor, or a broken wire, or corrosion in a connector, blown fuse, or even a bad driver/circuit problem in the computer. If you want to throw a sensor at it, more power to you, but don't cry at me if it doesn't fix it.
Most all automotive diagnosis is at least partially influenced by economic restraints.
I repaired cell tower equipment, 12 layer PCBs, over 1000 chips spread across 4 boards. Our computer diagnostics would say "it's not outputting enough power" and it's up to me to figure out which board, and which component on that board.
Hard job, but you can eliminate half of the chips because it turns on, another half because it's channel 2 that's low, another half because it's the transmit not the receive, etc. Pretty soon you are down to a handful, and can do a combo of multimeter, process of elimination, shotgunning, etc.
Computers and scripts can help A LOT, but they don't tell you what to do, nor specifically what is wrong.
@@phillyphakename1255 Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately it's only going to get worse. The vehicles now are rolling servers cabinets. +30 computers, 5 or more different communication networks (including Ethernet, not the same as internet Ethernet either), some computers that are also hubs and act like routers, now also throw in cell phone, wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sat radio, sat TV...
For example, Cummins diesel has 5 computers to run it and the emissions system, all running on their own separate communication network.
@@CJ-jo6do oh gosh. That's... A lot.
I know you'd just be doing board level swaps, but with a system that big, "just" isn't really a good description.
@@phillyphakename1255 Yes, real fun explaining to customers what and why their vehicle doesn't work, and the diag time.
Horn don't work? Could be a fuse, bad switch, or a corrupted IHS CAN bus because of corrosion in a harness connector causing lost of communication between the SCM and the BCM. You know, simple things.😅
By MAKING an Check-in you Solve the Problen .
First : analizing the
Source of Power , Second : breaker and Third the bulb lamp,.
Soon by Constating everything was Ok , EXEPTING the SWITCH from eliminating troubleshoots you find out the cause of eletrical failure.
Im not a sparkey by trade, but grew up doing electrical work and actually wanted to do it as a career, but went into cy er security. My new house i had built in 2019, my master bedroom had bad electrical issues. Thankfully i took pics of everythhg and knew where my home run was. And it turns out half way on thr line, the electrician hooked up the hot abd neutral lines to a switced outlet when it was fes direct to the box. So that means half way thru, the second half of my wire, the electricity had 2 highways to get aroubd and back. This caused all kinds of power surginf and lights pulsing and tv going out when boxfan turned on and rhe afci random flipping. Cut out that second hot leg in the circuit and boom. Its perfect now!!!
That how everyone should fault find this way
Electrical , mechanical . Doesn't matter . But love the simple way you demonstrate that
Wow, amazing explanation. I'd love to be your apprentice. ❤
Way great information, the way a person puts that information into a map will differ person to person.
The golden rules of diagnosis:
1. Start with the easiest.
2. The previous guy did in fact, not check it already. Even if he did, you're there because he failed.
3. If it looks fucked, smells fucked, or feels fucked. It's probably fucked.
I Can't think of more off the top of my head. But these go pretty far already.
"Start with the easiest" is the golden rule, along with its brother "start with the cheapest".
The amount of time I’ve wasted because someone told me they checked it already is unreal
My two to add are "never overstate your confidence", and "previous repairer/manufacturer was probably incompetent".
When you are asking for help or handing it off to next shift, don't say you did something if you aren't 100% sure. Hedging your language isn't a bad thing. "I think that was 37 ohms, but it's probably worth making sure". If it is 37 ohms, you look good, if not, you closed a rabbit hole before it sucked an hour or two from the next guy, which would have made you look like an ass.
As for previous guy sucks, any time I see one thing that isn't up to a high standard, I instantly go on high alert for other issues. Incompetent oafs rarely touch just one thing on their way to "fixing" something.
AVE watcher by any chance?
Sounds exactly like what he says.
Rank amateur. Gather round for the troubleshooting golden rules.
1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
2. If it ain't fn broke, don't fn fix it.
3. The better is the enemy of the good.
4. Tried nothing, now I'm all out of ideas.
5. It was like that when I got here.
The 5 types of troubleshooters:
1. reset technicians
2. phone support
3. part swappers
4. trouble makers
5. lifers
Right on my brother in the electrical world ❤👍
Good video just felt like it was all over the place. You should always start at the source and work your way downstream from that. You can work your way backwards but I always find that takes longer if it's not something that's obvious (like the switch). Troubleshooting is such a funny thing that you get better at with experience.
Wow, that's really similar to debugging in software development :) Great explanation
It takes years of experience to reach our level and we are still learning.
Same methodical process for any technician. I love being a technician 🖤
Yes, you said it correctly. Do basics first and then advance till you find it.
That's a neat looking breaker box!
Couldn't tell you... last time I *tried* to hire one to troubleshoot a problem, I couldn't get anyone to come out. Found and fixed it myself.
That's basically how you troubleshoot _any_ problem. You have a thing that doesn't work. Whether it is mechanical, electrical, or software, or even something like plumbing, you have a flow of stuff. It has a start point, and an endpoint. You put something in, you don't get the expected result out.
So you start from the source, and test everything on your way through, checking off possible things that could be wrong. It's a skill that sadly many people don't have, or have very poor skill in.
That's very similar to how hvac guys test stuff too. Good stuff l👍
Seeing the bulb base fixture there brings a thought to add.
Before you walk away from the socket, use the meter to check if there is power in the socket. With that style of socket, there is a small tab in the bottom for the power, and the threaded ring is the ground for the bulb. I have in the past, found several lamps, or screw in bulb fixtures that were actually still functional, but did not make contact with the bulb properly, especially if it is an aged socket. If you find that the socket still has power, but no bulbs are working; turn the power off to the socket and use a tool or a loop of wire to gently pry the metal tab outwards a little until it will press against the bottom of the bulb again.
And bulb size is important. If the fixture has a maximum rating, do not exceed it. It may work, but it can, and often does, damage the fixtures internal wiring when one exceeds it.
Just yesterday I pulled burnt wiring out of a lamp that someone did this. It happens, it's ugly, and it's a fire hazard. This one had one inch of burnt conductor between the socket and the hanging bracket.
When in doubt, use the size of the fixture as an indicator of how big a bulb to use. If the case is small like a desk lamp, it's probably going to use around 25-45w maximum. A ceiling or wall fixture will probably max at 60-75w. Anything above would take a fixture designed to utilize a 100-150w bulb.
Being so animated with your hands while talking that close to a live breaker panel could create a lot of other unknowns you hadn't counted on when waking up this morning!
Test for power at the source, the switch, and the load.
I would probably go in reverse order to that personally, depending on how easy it is to test for power at certain locations.
@@anthonyesposito7 The order is personal preference, but those are your points of testing.
Nice explanation. Well done.
Why didn't you check the socket?
That's not just you, sparky. That's how troubleshooting is done across the board. Like you said, you got to test one variable at a time. It hurts my soul to watch a guy who already knows what's wrong before he gets out of the truck, then start changing out 3 parts and then testing it. If it's a complex system, take some notes, and mostly, take your time. It takes patience and determination.
Actually very much needed
Thanks for the info brother
I'd check at the switch of bulb for voltage helping rule out 2 things at once. That's a class room explanation. Real life you need to be more efficient with troubleshooting Esp in industry if the production stalls, time is money.
I work on cell towers. It's basically the same process for us doing maintenance. One additional thing we do is use a "known good" to narrow down the issue. One radio is powered up and the one next to it isn't? Roll power between the two and see if the issue moves or stays.
Once you checked the power on the breakers , check every wires also , many times I’ve seen wire were actually not tied down , especially on the square D homeline tandem breaker where we can easily miss the connection.
Just like any professional awesome video 😊
You can have a “hunch” on what’s wrong and go right to that but generally you check the easy things first then if necessary you go progressively deeper. That’s how experienced electricians trouble shoot and how new ones should be taught.
They get paid by the hour, they will stretch out their "hunches".
@@moefritz9568 not if you want repeat business real professionals don't waste time they find the problem
Nice work, like troubleshooting machinery, it’s called sequence of operations everything has an operation it has a sequence you follow the sequence, and then you find out where there’s a break in the sequence
Usually start with source but a switch will test source & load. Most electricians can feel a wonky switch. On a light, usually test socket first
This is known as ATS (acronyms), used KT’s Analytic Troubleshooting workshop several times at work to help troubleshoot circuits and processes that can be used to solve many problems.
Very clear and helpful
done maintenance work before..(not a pro but learnt well) .......I usually always knew if it was the fixture or the switch... easy to figure. minus the bulb/breaker switch.... was told once "turn that breaker off before you change that (bedroom) light fixture" I said why?... there's the light switch right there. .......in off position... THAT person learnt that one on me.
i like the ground bar placement good idea
I would nearly always test from the panel first, see if the contacts on the breaker arent stuck, there's power going out, test for a short if there is no power, test between phases. And go from there.
Usually residental is single phase so how could you test between phases? You mean leg A and leg B?
@@explod329 Some people refer to Leg A and Leg B as A phase or B phase, even in residential. At least that’s what I’ve heard in the past when I did residential.
@@davisvilla16 Those "Some People" are wrong. It's single phase! How can you have A Phase and B Phase when you only have 1 phase?
@@explod329 at least in canada theres 2 phases on a "single phase" residential service. 120V on phase A and 120V on phase B, 240V between them. Im not sure why its called single phase really. And if you didnt know there's 2 phases why are you trying to correct people lol?
@@explod329 On the secondary of a center tapped step down transformer the two legs are 180 degrees out of phase of each other. In other words the legs are two different phases.
Please am an electrician from Nigeria, I really love your work and I want to work with you
I like them requiring a neutral in the switch outlet now which also explains why it’s run that way. The older style was to run the power straight to the light and then the switch dropping the neutral to the lighting outlet in that box and then running any other lights or in this case the receptacle outlet out of the lighting outlet. It accomplished the same thing but nowadays you need that neutral at the switch a lot of times
I like to take out the bulb and use my noncontact voltage pen and see if there's voltage going up. If the indicator is that voltage is, I will grab my meter and confirm 120.
This
Nice of you to teach beginners to have the dead front off of a live panel with no gloves or flash gear.
flash gear lol
Guarantee no electrician on a residential call will be wearing hot gloves and FR rated clothing.
It really is common sense but you would be surprised (maybe surprised) how many people lack the skills to use common sense…. Good video it should help someone
With how close you staple that romex to the boxes, I bet your inspector loves you for not making him take out a measuring tape every other box...That's a great tip I got early. Don't push the 12" maximum unless you wanna annoy your inspector.
Such an easy job, I just pluck out wires and check with the tongue for the flow of Current.
Nicely Done 🎉
Here's what I find amusing a lot of electricians like to take insulation put over the wire and write with a sharpie what it goes to. Here's the problem that sharpie will not last for more than 4 years and it will start to fade and be impossible to read. However there is a solution that is using a labeler and printing a label sticking it on the insulation and then running a piece of clear shrink tube over top the label so the label will never come off. This is something that I have worked on extensively as a structured cable engineer labeling is extremely important in network cabling. When you have a RJ45 on the end of a network cable and you need to ID it.
I like this method! Other then checking the breaker I just start replacing shit! I start with the easiest thing first and then keep going until it works again.
Just throw some parts at it. LOL
Bad place to be asking and im sorry but my microwave at home is completely dead. There is no electricity coming from the outlet that the microwave is plugged in. Every single time we turn the power off to get the microwave back up and goin, it will shut off within the first second. Just wondering if you had any ideas will definitely use that info that was shared on the short fs. your content is awesome man. keep up the hard work.
So is your microwave dead or your outlet? Does the microwave work when plugged into another outlet?
God damn
That panel is clean 🧼
The amount of service calls I get and the clients look defeated when it’s simply resetting a gfi 😂😂😂😂
Yes, but if you have a wiring hub it might not be wired correctly, or a cable may be short circuited if it is damaged by doing some other work. These problems are a bit more complex than what you described.
I'm a maintenance technician. What i usually do is, I test where the problem is, if there's no power, I go all the way to the other end to test the circuit breaker. Most of the times something happened and the breaker is tripped therefore, there's no power to the equipment. Of course after that I work my way up all the way to the equipment to figure out the problem.
I lead the seminars for the Apple Technician certification (ACMT) course, we call this framework of fault isolation “the split half search”
Long live Android and PC. Computers for the people.
With such an open wall, you really have no problem checking the wire if it is broken! I personally only check things when I'm sure there's no live electricity in any of the lines and the fuse is off.
Tradesman here, automotive and electrical engineer. The simplest, most time efficient and effective way to begin and follow a diagnostic problem is to start with the simplest things to check. The one that is the quickest and easiest, then work your way backwards to the most time consuming and hardest things to test. Don't cut corners. Is it plugged in? Is the power on? Throw away all presumptions, you're not that smart, trust me, I'm not. But 9 times outta 10 I'll always find the problem before the other guy. And I'll be able to say exactly what the problem is, not "I think it's..."
And this video just birthed so many dads that will not be needing a service call anymore
Good video. Thanks!
Nice job 🎉🎉🎉🎉
A friends neighbor had an electrician come to the house to figure out why several outlets weren’t working. After a while spent troubleshooting the electrician told the man he needed the house rewired at an expense f $15,000.00. My friend called me for advise. After about 45 minutes I figured out that the man needed to reset his GFI outlet in the garage and, POOF, everything was working again. Made a new friend and saved him 15 grand. Not all electricians know what they are doing.
Same intelligent process I teach to my computer programmers. So they can "debug" a program.
Same basic process as repairing radios, TVs, etc. But, it's called "signal tracing". Inject a known radio signal into the first stage. Then check that signal as it passes from one stage to the next. When you find a weak or distorted signal coming out of a given stage, that's the problem.
I'm an appliance repair tech, and dam this is so freaking simple.
Additional secret: That's how nearly every diagnostic process works. Doctors, Tech Support, Mechanics.
Getting probed by the doctor?
I use my nose , I was a elecrician for 19 years and I found I could ofen smell burned wires , brakers , switches , etc. faster and eisier than other methods.
For those who feel the need to diy. It’s a electricians commandment to never turn the breaker off or back on until you’ve identified the problem.
is zip-tying wires in a breaker box OK? Code? Recommended? Seems like that might build up heat under heavy load conditions. No?