HEY HEY! I uploaded my drone footage on my other channel @mehditation if anyone cares for a smooth sailing of a relaxing trip to mexico without jump scares!!! ua-cam.com/video/i7OBC6BskuQ/v-deo.html
I’m an electrician in Mexico so this was a treat to watch! Only international brand hotels and big chain stores use ground fault protection, not even fancy homes but some do! We do love our electrical tape, those splices are the standard but new electricians are adopting wire nuts, wagos are not a thing here tho. Old buildings use the Type A plug, so no ground protection if the building is over 30 years old, new ones do require by code, the rear have grandfathered it in. Taking a cheap extension cord, which rarely have ground in them, and making an external outlet like what the hotel did is also super common. Gracias por tu video amigo Mehdi !
@@Mr.Leeroythey're mandatory and if a house didnt install them then an elecctrician will when installing something like an AC unit, even my own house got two installed just for that (and an electric shower)
Most of this is caused by the lac of legislation and control, to conect a house to the electrical grid you just have to sign a contract but no body checks your house instalation, and most house's electric conections are made by some cousin who nows how to do it for less money 😂😂
My brother has an electric maintenance company here on Mexico. You won't believe amount of atrocities we have had to correct. And even some construction workers look weird at us for trying to do a good and safe job. It's a bit sad.
And yes, they go to united states to work, because they can have tools, a truck, be their own boss and triple or quíntuple the pay of México, here in México their boss give them only pliers and some rolls of electrical tape...
Haha u said the truth. On a lot of places in México, the informal construction workers (builders) do the eléctrical Job with a lot of splices in the eléctrical wire and never put the ground protection haha. Welcome to México, greetings from Puebla and sorry for this comment in a bad english haha
Even as a kid I remember looking at this legendary electrical work and thinking “this can’t be safe.” My aunts house had a front door made of metal, and if you touched the door frame on a certain spot, it gave you a 120v shock 😂😂.
Growing up in the U.S. my family had a refrigerator in the garage that wasn't properly grounded. Instead of fixing the problem, my dad thought it was funny. Every new guest would be asked to go grab a drink from the fridge. They returned with a hilarious expression that said it all.
@@jookles - It was 120v, and had a lot of resistance by the time it made it to the person. So you only received a mild buzz in the hand. Not damaging, but rather quite invigorating.
As a Mexican architect I assure you that codes and legislation about ground connections exist but sadly most people ignore them, I think it’s mainly because they want to reduce cost in wire, other reason is that many electricians are not well prepared and finally it is very common that owners prefer self construct in buildings or hire someone who is cheaper than an architect or a professional electrician. It is frustrating.
También agrega que los arquitectos son los peor calificados en temas de instalaciones, y prácticamente cualquier maistro les dice que y como hacerlo, y son los primeros en negar espacio, tiempo y presupuesto al tema de la instalación.
It's a common thing is less wealthy countries. My dad was an engineer from the Phillipinnes, he was obsessed with electrical safety, installing gfcis with ground, and what not. In some poor places in the US, contract workers will just bootleg the ground wire so that it shows neutral, but isn't actually connected to ground.
Watching Mehdi handle our sketchy wiring is the first time I felt genuinely worried for his safety. This is a video I've been waiting for a long time. Hope you and your family liked Mexico.
WOW Macakiux le gusta el contenido de Electroboom. Hablando de eso el sistema eléctrico mexicano normalmente es de 120v ya que como todo el mundo le mete mano al mismo es más "seguro" ya que si alguien se le olvida bajar las pastillas no se muere (se supone) solo se aturde un poco
Yea I think that there is an explanation for that, the government is the one that gives the concession for the pole space, the more companies hand their wires, the more they get and right now there is a sort of commercial war between the telephone / internet /cable tv providers so everyone wants to hang their wires there giving those aesthetics.
Im currently studying electrical engineering in Mexico, in classes we are taught to never assume that something has ground fault protection no matter who/what ur working for, “always assume that its a DIY” is a common phrase in my classes When it comes to underground cables our teachers have said to have rarely seen some of them not even connected to ground
In Mexico there is a tradition among street food vendors in our colorful open air markets of wrapping a power cord around a coat hanger, then you toss the coat hanger like a grappling hook around the power lines overhead, and plugging their equipment directly this way to power television sets, lighting, and radios for their customers. That tells you all you need to know about Mexico in one sentence.
People check out the room furniture, amenities, toiletries, free edible stuff... This guy comes and checks the electrical connections. WHAT A FRCIKING LEGEND
Worked as industrial maintenance engineer here in Mexico, and yeah, keeping things up to standard can feel like an uphill battle, several local companies prefer to pay a fine (or rather a bribe) than to upgrade to proper electrical wiring.
This actually upsets me. I live in the UK and work as a chartered building surveyor specialising in construction management and I would not put up with any electrical work below the required quality. All my contractors get a QR code which they fix on their installation and load up the data to the BIM model. When it is time to pay them, their work is inspected.
@@am4793 that is something we in the """first world countries""" had to fight for for a long time - both for the code, and against the dismissive culture of "just do what works for as cheap as possible, none of that fancy stuff". The worse a country does economically, the more of an uphill battle it is.
As a Mexican, I loved this. Let me tell you something about us. Most everyone, from the very poor to the very rich, apply the same principle: If I can (sorta) do it myself, I'll do it. You'll find DIY everywhere. Cars, houses, transportation, government... There's no end. Your common house, even the new ones, have rarely any protection other than grounded outlets. Btw Mehdi... Congratulations on your pronunciation of Oaxaca, it was spot on. Most foreigners (even the ones who talk Spanish) fail it.
As someone who had the phrase "If you're going to do it, do it right or don't goddamn do it at all" as a kid by several family members who worked in the trades, I cannot stand seeing half-assed work like this. It's not bigotry or prejudice, it's just an expectation of quality that simply doesn't exist in so many cultures.
Literally welcome to the definition of a "Mexicanada" it's not build as it should and to the standard that it should, but it works and it was cheaper than buying the whole official thing 😅
If it makes you feel any better, the motel I work at in the US was built in 1973, and not one single conduit has a ground wire in it lol, and they don’t use the conduit for ground or bond the metal boxes with outlets, switches, and fixtures 😂.
My grandparents still live in Mexico. Once on a visit, I found that one of the light switches gave me small shocks every so often, so I thought it would be a good prank to shock my kid cousin. Well, he was so bad at following instructions that I had to grab his hand and push his finger on the switch. It was then and there that I shockingly discovered that humans can be conductive too
Even better: us big 'ole salty waterbags act as a capacitor. So, in the case of AC and Pulsed DC, the person touching the personal being shocked, might get an even bigger shock.
I live in Mexico City and only houses at least 20 years old are grounded. Neither the electric company nor the electricians care about balancing the loads and much less about having a grounded installation. In fact, in the supermarket, they sell converters for those appliances that require grounding (you know, the plug with the three connectors) to eliminate the ground and be able to connect the appliance without problems. Unfortunately, my country does not like to respect the rules and very few houses have a grounded installation. What I can tell you is that industrial installations are 100% grounded.
@@tbird81 because most people is poor or not educated on the risks. And also, because the buildings are stone, brick and mortar. An electrical fire would consume the wires but that's it, not the entire house.
@@tbird81As javier mentioned, we live in 30-50+ year old houses made of stone bricks. And back then, electrical installations were not as regulated as they should, so nowadays, if you wanna upgrade your house electrical system to a regulatory compliance one, that my friend is too expensive and people don't give a sh*t about it if their current installed one works. That's also the reason we use too much extension cords, it's a pain in the a$$ to add more outlets in your walls, so the easy way around it is just to use an extension cord, and hide them with an electrical gutter ^^
Mexican sub here. The lack of breakers and other safety measures is the lack of ground. If you put protections w/out ground they pop each time you use an electrodomestic, so people find it ""better"" to avoid the hassle altogether, or bolt the breakers so they can't phisically switch off. Save pennies and spend dollars once the problem causes a fire or shocks someone
I mean, the difference is that most homes in the USA and Canada are made of wood in opposition to the brick and mortar mostly used in Mexico, so an electrical fire in those countries is way, way more destructive than an electrical fire in Mexico. Here you typically could end with the whole electrical installation burnt and needing to rewire the whole house (yeah, there is the risk of your stuff catching fire yet it isn't a common occurrence compared to just the wiring burning out), in the USA or Canada you could end with a pile of ash that used to be your house and all your belongings, and the fire extending to neighboring houses and burning them too. That is why electrical, and fire safety in general isn't taken as seriously in Mexico as it is in the USA/Canada, there is next to no chance of a fire completely burning down a whole house to the ground, even less a whole neighborhood like it has happened in those countries given the difference in construction materials used.
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 All of this extends to the rest of South America. The only places you see where the electrical regulations are strictly followed are in industrial installations and other such critical infrastructure. In some countries not even that...
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 The building may be non-combustible but the furnishings inside are still very flammable and will produce lots of thick, toxic smoke that will have you chocking your last breath long before the flames kill you. Building codes in the USA are designed to protect both life and property, but protecting life is considered more important. Your comments lead me to believe that Mexico has a bit to learn in that regard.
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 this can also happen to your average brick and mortar house. One additional thing that seems to save Mexico is the lack of use of wallpaper and the scarcity of furniture. I agree though that the risk is much lower. It saved my own apartment at least twice 😂 (in my case the cause was old aluminum cable and shitty connections between them in the junction box)
As a fellow Mexican myself, I'm glad you have investigated the outlets there. I was always concerned and annoyed to see those sockets and cables being frayed, broken, and just not in good condition a lot of times. Thank you, Mehdi.
I inherited my grandfather’s house during the pandemic. You would not believe it until you saw it, but this man had the same color cable for each polarity. Now I understand why we couldn’t turn on a specific fan… it caused a fire last time. I miss that old man 🥲
haha, is not just him, is everyone, when i was building my house, i brought enough cable of each color to cable the house how it should be, I even explained to the construction workers and the arquitect how to use the Blueprint of the house to cable it correctly. Next day i go to check it out, and they ran out of black cable, and they just had opened the white spool, so basically they did all the wiring on the bottom floor and part of the upper floor with the black cable, and whatever whats left they finished with the white cable, they gave me the green spool and made fun of me for purchasing "extra" material.
No hay problema mi hermano, nomas ocupas a alguien que le sepa a la electricidad y un multi, como decía mi abuelo "A la electricidad no hay que tenerle miedo, hay que tenerle respeto" XD
@@gregistopal México's culture is different, they wouldn't re do it, their pride is first, the house is electrified in their eyes they did their job so is either pay them or they leave, by them leaving with no pay they feel they have the right to steal something from you in equal proportion in the future. I know it is not the best and that's why we are in the hole, but that's how it is. I finished building that house 6 years ago, by the end things didn't go as planned with the architect, I didn't pay him $25K pesos because of some things they didn't do correctly, so he didn't pay the construction workers, I closed the house completely with some of the tools inside (property of the architect). They came in at night broke a couple of windows and stole all the tools, I have a lawsuit against the architect, and the architect against the workers, it's been 6 years and only one thing has happened. The police called me one day late at night, telling me that they found the architect late at night in a hospital, if I gave them a green light to arrest him, I checked the architect's Facebook before making the decision, he just had his first baby, that's why he was in the hospital, obviously the cops knew this and knew that I was gonna say No, so in their eyes they were gonna do their job and I "stopped" them.
I'm Mexican, and i thought the wiring in our hotels would be at least up to standard , the wiring in the first hotel was worse that the one made on my house and we don't even have ground , i knew our wiring was bad but not that bad. And about electrical tape, yes it is standard just because it is the cheapest option, and the thing with the made up extension cords is because sometimes is more convenient and sometimes cheaper, but dangerous af, i almost died sometime because the electrical tape fell of from one. Also, you may think that this is just a problem in the houses or in the poor people part of the country, however i have seen big industrial warehouses with the same or even worse problems, and people are put at risk every day in there because the owner doesn't want to "waste" money in a proper wiring. Love your videos Mehdi, i have been watching them since i was on university, and some of them helped me to pass my tests, glad you enjoyed your visit!
the fight is real, every time I have ro explain that some workaround is off code or plain dangerous I wait for the eyes roll before I reinforce my statement
those out lets look to be form the 1960/70s where i live a 240v dryer power cable was spliced and was feeding a 120v outlet it was covered in electrical tape it was fixed be it leaves a little worry about the rest of the wiring this happens every ware its not saft but the few dollars saved seem to out whey the massive risks
We lived in an apartment in Mante, and I seem to remember there being a problem with people stealing the grounding wires. I don't know anything about electrical stuff, but I feel grounding wires are important. We had an electric shower head, to have hot water, and a friend who was a computer engineer but knew about electricity, came and installed it and put a grounding wire. I used it for a while, but because when I touched the shower head I could feel the electricity, we ended up taking it out. The apartment used fuses and we often blew those. The fuse box was on the street level, and we had wired the handle to stay on so people walking by couldn't just pull it down and turn off our electricity. I remember one night the lights started turning off and on. I rushed to the balcony to look down and there was a drunk guy doing his darndest to pull down the handle. I yelled at him and he ran off.
It is a question of priorities, in Mexico it is more likely to die of hunger due to poor salaries than to be electrocuted due to not having ground protection.
I hate all those communication cables sloppily hanging around everywhere. Just the other day I was stopped at a red light when a truck crossing onf of the main avenues in the city got entangled on the cable and teared it apart, probably leaving a bunch of homes and businesses without internet, aside from a part of the cable that was left hanging in the middle of a busy street, creating a hazard. A biker had to get off and pull the cable off the road to prevent it from possibly esnaring another biker. Another example happened at my home, when a huge palm tree leaf fell and hooked itself on the wire, but after I got the leaf out I noticed that it wasn't even fully coiled around the steel cable that is there to give structural support for the wire, so it was a miracle it wasn't ruptured by the leaf, which would probably leave me without internet for a day or two until the cable company came to fix it.
Congratulations on finding a working gfci outlet outside of an industrial setting here in México, I have never seen that before, it is an extremely rare sighting and you should be proud of yourself.
@@saintricardo8746uh, they make a GFCI breaker, so you can use normal outlets and only have to buy one expensive breaker to protect up to 6-12 outlets. Or you can wire a gfci outlet so it protects 6 or so outlets down the line. But anywhere you go GFCI outlets cost a shit load and don’t last very long. GFCI breakers are where it’s at. But in countries that shut their grid off every day at a certain time, they have to penny pinch like no other.
hey, fellow mexican here, I believe that the reason we usually have makeshift extention chords, is because is faster and cheaper using spare wires and extra outlets we have around the house, I remember that my old fridge outlet was cut and connected directly to an extention chord, generally wild stuff, but if it works it works.
Can confirm, comes down to income and economics. Those extensions ain't cheap and a lot of people is like "i was in electrical workshop in middle school I can do esa mamada" jajajaja
@@taylorbrown9849 no, because you see we seldom hear of electrical accidents, and our houses are made of brics so we dont have an entire neighbohood go up in flames when there isnt a braek box. So yes, pretty much if it works it works, scarce resources make people more resourful and less snowflaky it seems.
Keep in mind that old-looking buildings in downtowns are actually 300+ years old, hence the cord extensions everywhere, as you are not allowed to drill through historical walls (not that that kept people from doing it sometimes). Also, hanging cables are electricity stealing cables: they are so badly wired with tape in case somebody hears inspectors are coming you just pull them hard and they come off and you are off the hook. Also, in Mexico you don't need heating, nor AC, nor dryers, nor electrical stoves, etc. So you usually end up dealing with one fridge, one microwave, 2 TVs and one washing machine and almost never 2 of these devices are on at the same time. So, all that can easily pass through a 12-caliber cable. Also, only new buildings MUST be up to standards and there are no inspections for individual homes. Glad you liked my country.
El pedo aqui es que CFE es una pesima empresa que tiene monopolio gubernamental y ese importante detalle que dijo electroboom de las acometidas con cable delgado 13:11 es una muestra de ello, no es que no necesitemos calefaccion, Aire acondicionado o secadoras electricas, nos hacen falta y mucho pero debido a que los cables que entregan son delgados y encima la electricidad de comision es carisima no nos queda de otra que aguantarnos y arreglarnoslas con esas pastillas miserables de 30A, nisiquiera en bifasica se compara al consumo normal en Estados Unidos que son centros de carga (con panel y subpanel) de 200 Amperios y tienen una pastilla por cada aparato que tienen en la casa. Si hubiera competencia en el sector electrico se obligarian a mejorar el servicio pero bueno, que le vamos a hacer. Saludos.
no, he dont even Europe. Normal people would Europe, but this man probably more Mexico than Europe. Anyways, i think it is funny that they just steal electricity and have a simple system to pull off the wire asap if needed. You cant do that in Europe with all of em regulations that make sure we, the peasants, keep paying our money to the richest of the rich. @@whophd
In Mexico many of this “homemade” cables you see are because we have people that “se cuelgan” from the light cables. This means they steal the light and don’t pay for it. Thats why you so many of those cables are on the street markets
I remember this "extension cord" at a cousin's place that we used to play Super Nintendo, it didn't even had an outlet, you just twisted the bare wires around the power supply plug and hope no one tripped over it. Ah the magic of the Mexican Electrical system
My buddy, electrician 🤦🏼♀️ found out the hard way not to trust any electrical outlet. Automotive hoist plugged into standard 120v american outlet. Unplugged it to find electrical issue in building. Plugged in tester and opened the box to see why no neutral. Shocked themselves. 3 phase coming in to power the hoist. Not 120v 15a. Ground used as 3rd leg..
In Oaxaca the reason the cables are so thin, is that they are something called "diablitos", they connect very legally to the power cable to power the house without paying for electricity service, in a diy way, glad you love México
The "petty" electrical company will take you to court for this since its regarded as a federal crime and in the end its way more expensive than paying your monthly fees. Of course, that is only if the electrical company notices.
I saw it in Mexico city. There was a row of food stalls and we went to a stand selling fruit juices. The mixer that was making the juices wouldn't start and the lady inside went next to a side window and pulled some wires. After we got our juices I checked where the cables ended and to my surprise there was a cable wrapped around one of the phases of the overhead power lines. Location: Benito Juarez, Mexico City (Not one of the "good" areas, I was there for business meetings)
@@devanshagarwal8806 Videos are released early for patreon supporters. They stay unlisted so you need the direct link (hidden on his Patreon) to view them until general release.
After my first trip overseas, working as a contractor for the US Dept of State, I started packing two specialized kits. First was a "Fly-away Medical kit" containing antibiotics and various other critical medications that I might not be able to readily access overseas The second was my "Lodging Infrastructure Safety Enhancement Kit", which included: * Non-contact voltage tester * Small electrical multi-meter * Single outlet voltage/frequency converter (240v/50hz > 120v/60Hz) * Four-outlet surge protector power-strip * Electrical tape * Asst'd butt connectors * Asst'd heat-shrink tubing * Electrical tape * 20' of #10 braided copper wire (ground wire) * A couple of different sized alligator clips * A couple of receptacles and wall-switches (compatible for whatever country we were in) * Battery-powered smoke & CO detectors (Pro Tip: don't get one that has a radioactive source in it. AMHIK) * Plug-in LED power outage light / night light * Teflon thread tape * Small tube of white RTV sealant/caulk * Heavy-Duty, sticky-back Velcro * Drywall anchors and screws * Handle w/ three-jaw chuck and a couple of drill bits * Multi-tool * Foam mounting tape * 3M Command removable wall hooks * Handheld solar shower * Water purification tablets All of these items were carried based on the experiences of myself, and my co-workers. 1. My first trip, I fried the power-supply for my CPAP machine in Jordan, because I used a voltage converter that did not convert the frequency. 2. I got shocked in a shower in Iraq, after which we discovered that the grounding cable from the fuse box had simply been run through the floor of the shower trailer, and neatly coiled on the ground unconnected to any ground rod. 3. Several "hotels" in which we stayed would almost never have hot water, and a couple of times had NO running water. Not fun when you finish a dirty, dusty day on an African construction site, and just want to get a shower before you pass out on your rack. In Mali, we had two five-gallon jerry cans, as shower backup. One in the room, which stayed cool, and one on the back of our SUV that would heat up in the sun all day, if we needed hot water.
As a mexican it is very common that in houses and buildings in general there is not a ground cable going through all the outlets. They do it to reduce costs, people here easily prefer spending less money than being safer
As someone living in Mexico City, yeah, some electrical works here are just surreal to see. The infamous "diablitos" (makeshift electric connections that are illegally linked to powerlines) have been an endemic problem that has caused some accidents in the past. Thanks for visiting tho!
Living in Querétaro, just a few hours N of Mexico city, we went almost a full week without power a couple months back, because some dudes thought it would be a good idea to break into the local CFE substation and steal copper cabling or equipment... End result of that, one guy died as something (or someone) in there became a short path to ground, the whole station went up in flames, and the entire area was in the dark for the next 6 days. Then not 2 months after that, we went another 3 days without power because another set of dudes decided to try it again somewhere else.
I was born in Mexico now living in Toronto and oh man you cannot live without electrical tape back home, I remember helping my dad around the house and him taping the sh*t of things 😂. Yes most electrical installations there are super cheap and don't follow any code, I took standards and safety for granted until I graduated from electronics, now I can't imagine living without CEC or NEC. I'm glad you liked Mexico, hope you ate some chapulines 😁
At 8:16 "Se compran... colchones... refrigeradores... estufas... lavadoras... microondas... o algo de fierro viejo que vendaaan" Glad to hear Mexico's real national hymn was partly captured in this video 👌
From my cousin, who is an electrician in Mexico, said ground fault protection isn't needed because you can wire ground to the metal plate and that magically resolves everything. 🙃🙃
@@mrmartycho7077 eso funciona como GFCI, pero ocupa tierra y muchas casas en Mex no tienen cableado para tierra excepto luz 220. Otro problema es que muchas pastillas/fusibles en la toma de luz están puestas para amperajes absurdos como 30KA (en casa de mis papás) cuando debería ser 100A o 200A 😬
@@Goodvvine 30kA? No será esa la corriente de ruptura que tienen las protecciones? Por ejemplo, aquí en Chile, comúnmente los disyuntores que ocupan una casa son de 10 o 16 Amperes (o menos), con una corriente de ruptura de 6kA
Im from Mexico, and studied a technician carreer in electricity. The reason why we use so much electric tape is because is handy, cheap, and eashnto use. Its not a standard, but its a common practice due to inefficient construction supervision.
And also lack of funds/corruption im guessing. My mom built an apartment complex in her former house in the Phillipinnes, and we went through a number of shady engineers who siphoned funds and materials for their own projects. Im glad i was born in the U.S where this stuff happens alot less.
My dad's also a mechanical engineer from the Phillipinnes. He sees electric tape as only a temporary solution. But I wouldn't be surprised if 100 years from now, in a dry environment, we'll find electric taped wiring that still insulates.
@@newsogn5148 unfortunately in 3rd world countries, supervision is necessary to prevent theft or cutting corners. But same can be said in the U.S if you hire a non unionized contractor (unions require certifications, which is proof of skill set.) Or if you buy too cheap.
@@WarPigstheHun non union electricians are still licensed and you are correct we also would cut corners if we knew no inspection would happen that is a bummer…. The other thing is that it clearly isn’t a huge issue? I mean if it works for them then sure…
You'll love our wiring here in Mexico Mehdi. Only the finest 2 wire (no ground) copper clad aluminum . Sometimes when you touch your metal microwave you feel a slight shock. The wires on the induction kettle get close to melting status. Enjoy!
@@j_r_- Almost. Many families use a resistor (similar to the ones in electric stoves) to warm water in a bucket. A plastic one, at that. Or the more dangerous electric showerhead, that energizes you every morning due to the electricity that flows in the water thanks to the lack of ground connections and DIY installation 😬
Mexico adopted a new electric code a couple of decades ago based on US code at the time, as I understand it, only mandatory on new construction or major renovations. Lots of outlets had no ground at all, and sales of those three to two prong adapters are very popular.
They didn't catch him, the place where he filmed the big column with the gold angel on top (angel de independencia) is well known to be a prohibited place for drones.
I think he would have problems everywhere in the EU. Especially near famous monuments, police/military patrols are always present for anti-terrorism reasons. At least, in Italy it's like this.
That "smoke detector" in Cancun is probably a buzzer. There probably was a switch with a little string attached in the shower or in the bathroom. The idea is that if a person needs medical help while in the bathroom they can pull the string and warn the other people in the room. It's pretty common here in Italy too
I've seen in a hotel in Brazil a switch with a bell sign on it (in the bathroom), I couldn't keep myself and pressed it, and it made a loud sound inside the room. For a few minutes I was afraid some hotel staff would show up at my door to see if I was ok 😂
Had to fly out to Mexico in December to fix a train. Went to wash my hands at the train depot like the days before. But this time the water felt a bit prickly. I of course had a multimeter with me and jup, the water was live. There were even showers in there! A shower in there must be a great way to get yourself awake in the morning.
Mexico electrical systems are pretty similar to brazil ones! I think that both follow the "latin america standards". Electrical components and good installation standard are expensive here. Any pair o copper cables that bring energy to solve the problem is enough for most of the people. And yes, a pair of 2.5 cables can power a entire house. Probably that house has basically a fridge and a bunch of low-power things (lamp, charger, router...) My apartment, which is a relatively good(middle class) and modern (90") building, has only 2x4mm for lives and 2x4mm for neutral and ground arriving at the main breaker box. I've rented/lived in apartments that didn't have any ground installation.
Brazil is unique in that there is no single standard mains voltage. You can find areas with 127, and areas with just 220. North America is 120/240 split phase. Many non Brazilians may also find the plugs and sockets unusual, and Brazil may be the only country using both n and c plugs.
@@pizzamozzarella4686 IDK about you, but there are at least two places I could shove a ground rod into the ground which are entirely enclosed in the middle of my house structure and can't be stolen without demolishing the house... one is conveniently right next to the bath tub.
Gotta say tho. His filming skills, especially with the drone, and his editing skills of him hanging on to the plane... He is improving every friggin time! I love your content man. You work hard for it, and every video is a pearl. Thanks for all the laughs and education!
I'm from Mexico and my family have a very old house down town (around 1600) in which I grew up, the elertrical wires on those houses had to be installed on top of the wall, it typically can not be inside the wall because of the construction method of that century. Here in Mexico the houses are made off stone, and houses that old are actually made off a combination of mud and stone with very thick walls (2 to 3 foots wide) The wires on some of those houses have never been changed since the first install, on a time where plastics were not the norm (or not even existed, I don't know) the wires are covered with a thick paper like material instead of plastic as insulation in a spiral shape so they stick together. Of course most of that old installation have been changed over time, but on some houses it has not, including some parts of my parents's house actually, that you would never get see on public places like museums or hotels.
When I first moved to the house my grantparents lived in the early 90's, I noticed my dial up modem had issues. I tried to install newer telephone jack connector and to my surprise as soon as I tightened the connector screw the cable would snap. I discovered that the phone cables were not copper but something that looked like lead. The cables were installed in the early 1950's and were WWII leftovers when copper was a precious wartime commodity and the residential phone lines were made of lesser materials
@@asicdathens Probably aluminum wiring. It tends to act like that and you have to handle it carefully. My place has it so it's no touched unless necessary.
Fun fact, if done PROPERLY the taped lineman/Western Union splice is actually up to code in the United States and probably Canada, the NEC/NFPA just never got rid of the standard for it. There's a very specific way you have to tape it, using both the standard stretch tape AND cotton friction tape, but if it's up to spec it's the only splice besides a few kinds of Wago that can be used without a junction box and still pass inspection. That's a mostly-vestigial piece of code that nobody's bothered to get rid of, it's been in there since the days of cloth-insulated knob-and-tube wiring but unlike the rest of the k&t wiring specs, it's not been deprecated. It's also how you have to join the wires if you decide to solder a connection, and it's one of the only ways you can safely splice non-clad aluminum wiring - it's got MUCH more contact surface than screws, wagos, or nuts so it takes the longest of any splice to fail via corrosion, especially if you braze the splice with AlZn rod before taping. Also, the super thin wire is probably 30A service if it's legal, it's not uncommon in the US for RV pylons to be served by wire that small and that's enough to run the house if you've got a gas stove and a clothesline instead of an electric stove and dryer.
Yeah about the thin wire, maybe in the following years CFE would change that wire for a thick and resistant wire, because the demand of energy wasn't so high in the past. Also here in México the electric service is kinda expensive, so the preference to devices like a full electric stove (heat by resistor), and dryer is not desirable, the preferences for stove are on LP Gas stoves or on the cheap side, cook with wood, and most of the people here will just wash garments on the washing machine (if you have access to one), or do it by hand on the "lavadero", and then just dry the garment just on the sun & wind.
to clarifie as some one from mexico, we are tought all of these splices (not sure of the plural) in middle school as a part of a regular class we take for 3 years ( middle school is 3 years )so for the most part they are good, about the stove and dryer, yes for the most part we use gas for cooking and also for the most part people dry their cloths outside. that said its rare to see an older house in which you dont see a dimming of the lights when they start using for example a washing machine.
I seriously doubt their taping is anything more then "just wrap it around”. cmon it’s Mexico... they dont get the benefit of the doubt. You know it’s done wrong, shittily, with no care.
I trust a well made taped splice more than those torsion connectors that are common in the US, first because they're bulky and don't really fit into the outlet when you have that modular outlet design (they're significantly more common here in Brazil than monolithic outlets) and also I've had them fall off more than once. Wago connectors are more trustworthy but they're also bulky and super expensive. A well made splice is able to handle more tension forces than any of those friction-based connectors btw, the only issue with them is that cheap tape tends to get dry and brittle and unglue as they age. Quality tape from 3M and similar don't have that issue and in high-humidity environments you can use self fusion tape which makes the connection waterproof (which connectors don't)
As a Mechanical- Electrical engineer here at my beautiful Mexico City, i cas assure you everything in this city works with faith... literally, i install industrial level printers and all of them comes with an especific set of rules for electrical supply, but we, as creative as we are, we try to adapt the sites were we go to install the best we can, some places are pristine and with everything in rule, some others are... well, a dusty factory with everything messed up, so yeah, we try for the best, always with 🌠faith🌈
OMG, I live in Mexico City and despite growing up in here...I feel a lot of cringe with many of the electrical installations in street stands, lamp posts, and even offices! Thanks for showing this!
I'm not Mexican, but my wife and kids are. After living there for a total of about five years, I more than share your frustration with the comm cable madness, diablitos (what they call the sketchy extension cords), and total lack of GFCI 😂 ground fault doesn't exist in Mexico. Edit: Next time you come you should visit the north, like Monterrey, Torreón, Durango, Chihuahua, and so on
No, no, "diablitos" is the thing some people put under the electric meter to by pass it and steal the energy, sometimes they even put a low thickness wire so the meter measures more and looks less suspicious
@@electromigue Either way, December/January is probably the best time of year to go because it's the coolest 😅 You're right, the South has some gorgeous cities, but the North has a lot to offer too
GF does exist in Mexico, but it isn’t very common. The last time I remember seeing a GF receptacle was in a convention center in Guadalajara, but mr boom has shown that there are GF outlets in other places too 😊😊
I live in a town in Mexico that has 12 to 67 volts AC coming in on the ground--the entire town. Even attached to conditioners, TVs, computers, microwaves, stereos, etc. have that voltage on their metal parts and cases when plugged in--even if not turned on. One must wear long-sleeves and gloves as a caution when moving/handling a TV, computer, microwave, stereo, etc. if it's plugged in. Bump in to one's computer after a shower in the morning may give one a 67 volt AC wake-up jolt. _Good morning!_
I had that happen in the house where I lived while a university student in Yucatan! It was quite sho... surprising! I never trusted that computer again.
That's wild! Is there any clue where the leakage current is coming from? Has anyone tried sticking a pair of rods into the ground in a few places around town and measuring the difference between them? You might be able to plot a gradient to see where the leak is and fix it.
Generally that means there's no earthing stakes near enough to the property - probably only at the substation. The ground isn't a good conductor so the voltage rises as you get further away (think of it as adding series resistors) The voltage measured with a voltmeter is often misleading though as the actual current that could flow _may_ be very small - once there's a low-resistance path to local ground like your skin the voltage drops and "only" a few mA actually flows. Still enough to tingle or jolt though, and can be enough to be dangerous.
I live in Mexico, most of the electrical tape connections are just made with what they have (we call them "mexicanadas" which just means that we make anything work with what we can but usually is not of very great quality lol or follows rules), usually by a person that does everything on the maintenance of a building or just the house owner which won't have but minimal electrical knowledge, they prefer to not spend money and just do with what they have at home (scraps of things, etc..). The places you thought were for fuses are for the CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) to put the electric meters that give them how much electricity you have spent, those houses probably do not have electricity enabled and people are probably not living there currently, the wires you saw coming from a pole to a house that were very thin are probably ilegal lol and were made by the house owner to steal electricity without having a meter installed, they are called "diablitos" sometimes and sometimes even people will illegally steal neighbors electricity.
I used to sell electrical equipment at a big box back in college. It was truly terrifying to see what some of the “handymen” would buy. Speaker wire and lamp cord for 15 amp outlets and sub panels for instance. I can’t imagine the fire hazards in the immigrant neighborhoods (or whoever was hiring them)!
I have witnessed lots of sketchy electrical work in Mexico even in high end resorts in Rivera Maya. My biggest fear from that is when the workmen are standing in a 8 inch deep fish pond using some electrical device with a 50 foot ungrounded extension that has lots of taped together connections.
I've been a follower for many years and i love the respect you gave to the Mexicoand found hilarious your reactions to our wirings, just want to add some insight about it. In Mexico most middle and high school makes you choose a speciality we call them "taller" (workshop) so you can learn electrical and electronics since 12 y/o, thats why many people know how to do circuit and electrical conections very young and thats why many people prefer to do it on their own instead of hiring an electritian, also some of those workshop are car mechanic, industrial engineering, cut and desing (to make your own clothes, im just directly translating the names as i have no idea how they are called in english), carpentry, IT, and many more, as we have a really bad economy and many kids have to drop since midle and high school and start working to support their family that way they can have bases to work on something, but mainly it was made because in mexico a huge part works in maquilas (factory) making auto electrical parts, harness, and many more things. Also we call them "mexicanadas" as people have the bases to fix almost every common issue so we rather do it ourselves, and thats why you find all those connections, and yes its cheapper and has more quality to buy the extension cords instead of buying the cable directly. And you would be amaze of how many people does wirings to steal power on those electrical metters. But yes its really weird when there is a house with a propper ground, and we lose electricity when there is a lot of wind and rain, last week i saw how the high tension cables fell outside an elementary school and catch fire, and the firedepartment had to go and put it down while the CFE (the ones in charge of electricity) arrive, it might sound really dangerous under US and Canada standards but its our everyday bread in Mexico.
"why many people know how to do circuit and electrical conections" Doesn't seem like they do, though. Those classes apparently teach nothing of value but do instill a sense that you know what you are doing. Incredibly dangerous.
@AlexusMaximusDE did you take a physics 2 course in high school? A lot of classes teach basics and don't expect people to wire their houses with that knowledge 😂
@@arikm8430 When I took physics they didn't encourage me to apply that knowledge to doing dangerous self repairs that might burn down a building. Either teach people well enough about how to do things well or don't teach them at all. Teaching them how to wire things but not how to be safe when doing so is a recipe for disaster
We Mexicans definitely need your videos translated to Spanish to learn and upgrade the electrician system haha, you are one of a minority turists that can test the electrical system of one country. Very thankful for this vídeos that you made that makes me smile, lmao.
I'm surprised you didn't encounter one of the electric shower head water heaters during you visit. They are fairly common and frequently installed with no ground wire in Mexico
@@tigertoxins584I remember being like 9 when I thought why don't we put a heater right where the water comes through and now I know why nobody does it where I live
@@Inferryu Yeah, I've seen those in other Latin American countries; I got some minor shocks from an Ecuadorian shower head (good thing the conductivity of water is so low, and the resistivity of skin so high), which shouldn't happen if they're properly installed. But that said, if done right, I actually think they are a superior option in many applications.
The incredibly beautiful and relaxing vistas coupled with the anxiety inducing electrical analysis of the cities make for a hell of a rollercoaster! Having said that, it's so cool to get a glimpse of the cities, thanks for taking us along for the ride!
Mexico does have electrical standards similar to those in Canada, however they were only implemented around the 2010s, and by the looks of it your hotel's electrical instalation seems from the 90s or somethings. The older and cheaper the building it is the worse the ground protection will be.
@@mariochavez3834our standards are homogenized with the USA and Canada ones due the original NAFTA/TLCAM treaty of 1994. They aren't just copied out ot laziness, it was an actual requirement given that treaty so all of North American products, services and infraestructure would eventually work the same in any of the 3 countries.
You should try the Philippines. You'll get a lot of the same stuff you see here, except it's 220V for double the excitement, and sometimes no earth ground! For example, one hotel I stayed at had the shower water heater powered by what looked like 16- or 18-gauge lamp cord wired into the back of one of the room outlets outside of the bathroom.
Those are colloquially called "suicide showers" due water passing thru an electric current and "heating it". But depending on the quality of the product and construction, they aren't necessarily dangerous. My dad who's a mechanical engineer was very insistent on ground and GFCI equivalent protection in our hotel's bathroom during construction. My mom had one built for her hotel, and my dad was there supervising, making sure the workers weren't cutting corners. My parents immigrated to the U.S in the 80's, via my mom's nursing program, but she wanted to help her impoverished community back at home. She went through a lot of incompetent and corrupt workers, engineers, and local politicians even to have it built. Somehow she's able to keep it running overseas (in the U.S) via cameras. Recently she was blindsided by her cousin who was caught stealing hotel (and guest!) items. Luckily she had her neighbors for e her to return the guests items, but not before walking away with a few memory foam mattresses and a TV and worker laptop. One day, it'll get better.
I know mechanical isn't a replacement for an electrical engineer, but he's always been strict on safety and building code. Probably cuz he and his siblings are all geniuses and engineers.
Wise words, "Make sure you visit everything." And thank you, sir, for showing us everything. I actively noticed and appreciated your effort to share more than just the select tourist attractions.
back in my home semi-rural town from Jalisco, Mexico, the same mason that built your walls took care of the electrical wiring and he probably only finished primary school. So yeah...
A teacher in electricity class introduced us your channel years ago. My grandparents house still have those tapered wire connections, even my grandad and uncles argued to me when I asked for the ground. They say the house has been working without ground over 50 years. Even the ground of plugs were teared off with pliers 😅
Igual en mi casa, 30 años sin necesitar tierra fisica, aveces mas que protecciones es tener sentido comun y prudencia para hacer las cosas. Cosa que se ha perdido mucho en estas generaciones que se han vuelto mas idiotas con tanto tik tok. unos decian, el gfci protege por si agarras un cable pelado o si tienes un aparato electrico en el baño, haber mi rey en primer lugar ¿por que deberias de andar haciendo eso? ¿que acaso sus padres no le enseñaron a no andar agarrando cables pelados o a no usar electricidad con los pies descalzos? Se oye tonto pero las buenas practicas y sentido comun son mas importantes que 1000 protecciones electricas.
You need to visit Thailand. The same overall wiring style, except that your electric water heater also hangs right next to the shower head where the hot water is coming from. And you can occasionally see exciting things like over-the-counter USD1.99 extension cords lying half'submerged in fountains with the fountains' pumps plugged into them (so clearly the fuses are working great ^^)
15:08 It's not about the price, it's -about sending a message- a temporary workaround that just stayed for long enough to be used as a permanent solution.
This wasn't a vacation! It was a work trip for filming a video. Tax deductible business expense including the two additional actors he took along solely for filming purposes!
The video reminded me of my stay in Ecuador, many decades ago. Zip wire everywhere, for service connections (often illegal), internal wiring, extension cords, etc. They taped their connections, sometimes, and not always with electrician's tape. I remember being shown an apartment once. The shower had a showerhead heater that was spliced into zip wire hanging exposed from the ceiling. The concept of a cheaply built electric showerhead heater was, by itself, difficult for me to accept, but seeing a sketchy exposed connection just inches from the showerhead did nothing to inspire confidence, so I passed on that one.
Greetings from Mexico City!! I hope you had a lovely time! What is an extension cord? What is ground fault protection? In Mexico City we know wire and we know tape. Many times we take power from light bulb sockets. Pressing a plug's terminals together so they hold onto the socket is also a tradition. The only aberration I've never seen in Mexico is the plug-plug cord, it remains an American Christmas Exclusive. Those open round boxes are for wattometers from the power provider, CFE. It's illegal to bridge them but they can take months to install them, so they won't even scold you if you're effectively stealing power.
wait, what? I can just bridge those and nobody will notice? can I put some resistors so current is only partially registered so it's harder to notice? I need to know haha
HEY HEY! I uploaded my drone footage on my other channel @mehditation if anyone cares for a smooth sailing of a relaxing trip to mexico without jump scares!!!
ua-cam.com/video/i7OBC6BskuQ/v-deo.html
great idea!
Yes that would be great!
yay
I would love that
I've waited so long for you To go to Mexico
All normal tourists: ah, finally vacations
Medhi: ah, finally experiments in a hotel
hello tsuchinoko
travel = business expense
Lol
Tax write-off Vacation 😂
Extreme Hank Hill WD-40 energy
I’m an electrician in Mexico so this was a treat to watch!
Only international brand hotels and big chain stores use ground fault protection, not even fancy homes but some do!
We do love our electrical tape, those splices are the standard but new electricians are adopting wire nuts, wagos are not a thing here tho.
Old buildings use the Type A plug, so no ground protection if the building is over 30 years old, new ones do require by code, the rear have grandfathered it in.
Taking a cheap extension cord, which rarely have ground in them, and making an external outlet like what the hotel did is also super common.
Gracias por tu video amigo Mehdi !
Are there even ground rods anywhere?
Is soil even conductive enough to put a rod in easily or you'd need like 50m down?
@@Mr.Leeroy new houses do have, but is optional. So Mexicans are cheap and doesn't want to invest in ground protection
*Informative comment. Be safe out there.*
@@Mr.Leeroythey're mandatory and if a house didnt install them then an elecctrician will when installing something like an AC unit, even my own house got two installed just for that (and an electric shower)
Most of this is caused by the lac of legislation and control, to conect a house to the electrical grid you just have to sign a contract but no body checks your house instalation, and most house's electric conections are made by some cousin who nows how to do it for less money 😂😂
My brother has an electric maintenance company here on Mexico. You won't believe amount of atrocities we have had to correct. And even some construction workers look weird at us for trying to do a good and safe job. It's a bit sad.
Maybe many of the best Mexican tradesworkers end up in the States.
And yes, they go to united states to work, because they can have tools, a truck, be their own boss and triple or quíntuple the pay of México, here in México their boss give them only pliers and some rolls of electrical tape...
after seeing this video there is very little i wouldn't believe😂
Haha u said the truth. On a lot of places in México, the informal construction workers (builders) do the eléctrical Job with a lot of splices in the eléctrical wire and never put the ground protection haha. Welcome to México, greetings from Puebla and sorry for this comment in a bad english haha
Actual question. two part
1) Are there actually electrical and building codes in mexico?
2) Are they actually enforced at all?
Even as a kid I remember looking at this legendary electrical work and thinking “this can’t be safe.”
My aunts house had a front door made of metal, and if you touched the door frame on a certain spot, it gave you a 120v shock 😂😂.
Growing up in the U.S. my family had a refrigerator in the garage that wasn't properly grounded. Instead of fixing the problem, my dad thought it was funny. Every new guest would be asked to go grab a drink from the fridge. They returned with a hilarious expression that said it all.
@@smileychessHahaha potentially 240v application outlet funny shock haha zzzz hahah
@@jookles - It was 120v, and had a lot of resistance by the time it made it to the person. So you only received a mild buzz in the hand. Not damaging, but rather quite invigorating.
@@smileychess cursed smiley family fridge
@@smileychess Guess rodents and humans aren't so different. I've read that they 'like' the tingle of chewing on energized wiring.
As a Mexican architect I assure you that codes and legislation about ground connections exist but sadly most people ignore them, I think it’s mainly because they want to reduce cost in wire, other reason is that many electricians are not well prepared and finally it is very common that owners prefer self construct in buildings or hire someone who is cheaper than an architect or a professional electrician. It is frustrating.
Well you see poverty
Very Mexican true...
También agrega que los arquitectos son los peor calificados en temas de instalaciones, y prácticamente cualquier maistro les dice que y como hacerlo, y son los primeros en negar espacio, tiempo y presupuesto al tema de la instalación.
Completamente de acuerdo mi estimado
It's a common thing is less wealthy countries. My dad was an engineer from the Phillipinnes, he was obsessed with electrical safety, installing gfcis with ground, and what not. In some poor places in the US, contract workers will just bootleg the ground wire so that it shows neutral, but isn't actually connected to ground.
Watching Mehdi handle our sketchy wiring is the first time I felt genuinely worried for his safety. This is a video I've been waiting for a long time. Hope you and your family liked Mexico.
"¿¡Qué demonios haces aquí Maca!?"
Heeeey que gusto verte aquí
WOW Macakiux le gusta el contenido de Electroboom. Hablando de eso el sistema eléctrico mexicano normalmente es de 120v ya que como todo el mundo le mete mano al mismo es más "seguro" ya que si alguien se le olvida bajar las pastillas no se muere (se supone) solo se aturde un poco
Me too, I was "oh sht, he's gonna shock himself! D: " all the time
Mehdi is like a electric-ground type pokemon
Electricity does 1/4 the normal damage
As the Mexican I am: "Good thing this dude didn´t check for gas installations. We love teflon tape even more.
hahaha
If it is anything like the electrical, you love teflon tape and hate threads 😁
Especially teflon tape on compression fittings
And don't get me started on water lines sealed with kitchen-grade silicone glue and electric tape xD
He would have a colapse with the "burbujometro" to check leaks
Ah yes, Mexico got that "it's 1920 in NYC and nobody knows how to run electrical lines" vibes 🤣
Yea I think that there is an explanation for that, the government is the one that gives the concession for the pole space, the more companies hand their wires, the more they get and right now there is a sort of commercial war between the telephone / internet /cable tv providers so everyone wants to hang their wires there giving those aesthetics.
Im currently studying electrical engineering in Mexico, in classes we are taught to never assume that something has ground fault protection no matter who/what ur working for, “always assume that its a DIY” is a common phrase in my classes
When it comes to underground cables our teachers have said to have rarely seen some of them not even connected to ground
This is such a fascinating topic man, where are you studying?
Alguito bien
jajajajaj no mams
Pues, que hueva no?
@@ReverbCanvasread his first sentence again.
8:16 the megaphone truck buying old scraps in the background is the most authentic mexico experience
AND in Ecuador, AND in Venezuela...
And Dominican Republic too😂
Literal
SE COMPRAN
COLCHONES
TAMBORES
REFRIGERADORES
ESTUFAS
LAVADORAS
MICROONDAS
O ALGO DE FIERRO VIEJO QUE VENDAAAAAN
don't come to the Balkans if you're looking for a different experience 😂
Gotta love how mehdi can threaten a country just by saying he will take a vacation there 💀
@BLEEMORALEST same
How was his comment 15 hours ago is this video came out 4 minutes ago
I’m so lost☠️
@BLEEMORALESTohhh yeah you’re right. I’m just dumb lmao
LOL
@@EAR10291You're*
Calling yourself stupid was right.
dude is like a welder, he goes around looking at welds he comes by to rate them and sometimes tests them
In Mexico there is a tradition among street food vendors in our colorful open air markets of wrapping a power cord around a coat hanger, then you toss the coat hanger like a grappling hook around the power lines overhead, and plugging their equipment directly this way to power television sets, lighting, and radios for their customers.
That tells you all you need to know about Mexico in one sentence.
Wtf 😅
@@pauloa.7609This was letter-for-letter my response
El que tenga miedo a morir que no nazca
How does this even work? So the positive makes contract? Where does the negative go
@@somethingsomething404 yes
People check out the room furniture, amenities, toiletries, free edible stuff... This guy comes and checks the electrical connections. WHAT A FRCIKING LEGEND
FREE EDIBLES IN MEXICO?!
I'm a hotel maintenance tech, so I'd be checking the electrical too, but also everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING.
The hero we truly need in these dark times.
I've traveled the world...
That's the sketchiest shit I've ever seen. Most countries at least have the decency to cover it up, LOL
Heisenberg music ☠️
Worked as industrial maintenance engineer here in Mexico, and yeah, keeping things up to standard can feel like an uphill battle, several local companies prefer to pay a fine (or rather a bribe) than to upgrade to proper electrical wiring.
This actually upsets me. I live in the UK and work as a chartered building surveyor specialising in construction management and I would not put up with any electrical work below the required quality. All my contractors get a QR code which they fix on their installation and load up the data to the BIM model. When it is time to pay them, their work is inspected.
@@am4793 that is something we in the """first world countries""" had to fight for for a long time - both for the code, and against the dismissive culture of "just do what works for as cheap as possible, none of that fancy stuff". The worse a country does economically, the more of an uphill battle it is.
7:57 I love the moments when you speak Farsi and don't cut the conversation from the video, it feels very good
Iranian here. same. the interaction was wholesome ngl :)
As a Mexican, I loved this.
Let me tell you something about us. Most everyone, from the very poor to the very rich, apply the same principle: If I can (sorta) do it myself, I'll do it. You'll find DIY everywhere. Cars, houses, transportation, government... There's no end.
Your common house, even the new ones, have rarely any protection other than grounded outlets.
Btw Mehdi... Congratulations on your pronunciation of Oaxaca, it was spot on. Most foreigners (even the ones who talk Spanish) fail it.
Same here in Brazil 😅 except that the new ones on big cities have a way stronger supervision from the authorities
As someone who had the phrase "If you're going to do it, do it right or don't goddamn do it at all" as a kid by several family members who worked in the trades, I cannot stand seeing half-assed work like this. It's not bigotry or prejudice, it's just an expectation of quality that simply doesn't exist in so many cultures.
the "government" one got me laugh 🤣
Same@@MamatMahdly 🤣🤣🤣🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
@@dionh70 This is a 3rd world country, we don't have the luxury of doing it right.
12:05 Mehdi: "Maybe they're building it"
Me (I'm Mexican): "Yeah they definitely stole it"
That makes so much sense actually
Why are we like this :(
@@cd7677 Poverty usually
@@cd7677 that's life.
yes@@DoubleRBlaxican
Mexico's electrical wires are like: you could question my methods, but not my results 😂
El mejor comentario de la vida 😂
México en una sola frase
Si soy
Wonderful theft deterrent
Literally welcome to the definition of a "Mexicanada" it's not build as it should and to the standard that it should, but it works and it was cheaper than buying the whole official thing 😅
If it makes you feel any better, the motel I work at in the US was built in 1973, and not one single conduit has a ground wire in it lol, and they don’t use the conduit for ground or bond the metal boxes with outlets, switches, and fixtures 😂.
My grandparents still live in Mexico. Once on a visit, I found that one of the light switches gave me small shocks every so often, so I thought it would be a good prank to shock my kid cousin. Well, he was so bad at following instructions that I had to grab his hand and push his finger on the switch. It was then and there that I shockingly discovered that humans can be conductive too
El Chavo del 8 type of scenario lol 😂😂
Goofy ahhh way to find out
@@babyjeff10 omg I'm just reminded of the broken light bulb episode XD
😂
Even better: us big 'ole salty waterbags act as a capacitor. So, in the case of AC and Pulsed DC, the person touching the personal being shocked, might get an even bigger shock.
I live in Mexico City and only houses at least 20 years old are grounded. Neither the electric company nor the electricians care about balancing the loads and much less about having a grounded installation. In fact, in the supermarket, they sell converters for those appliances that require grounding (you know, the plug with the three connectors) to eliminate the ground and be able to connect the appliance without problems.
Unfortunately, my country does not like to respect the rules and very few houses have a grounded installation. What I can tell you is that industrial installations are 100% grounded.
Why are they like that? Why not just do the job properly?
@@tbird81 because most people is poor or not educated on the risks. And also, because the buildings are stone, brick and mortar. An electrical fire would consume the wires but that's it, not the entire house.
@@tbird81As javier mentioned, we live in 30-50+ year old houses made of stone bricks. And back then, electrical installations were not as regulated as they should, so nowadays, if you wanna upgrade your house electrical system to a regulatory compliance one, that my friend is too expensive and people don't give a sh*t about it if their current installed one works. That's also the reason we use too much extension cords, it's a pain in the a$$ to add more outlets in your walls, so the easy way around it is just to use an extension cord, and hide them with an electrical gutter ^^
OK, so while in Mexico only take a shower at a factory
@@tbird81 first because as mentioned, older houses don't have ground. Second, because our mentality is "as long as it works"...
Mexican sub here.
The lack of breakers and other safety measures is the lack of ground. If you put protections w/out ground they pop each time you use an electrodomestic, so people find it ""better"" to avoid the hassle altogether, or bolt the breakers so they can't phisically switch off.
Save pennies and spend dollars once the problem causes a fire or shocks someone
I mean, the difference is that most homes in the USA and Canada are made of wood in opposition to the brick and mortar mostly used in Mexico, so an electrical fire in those countries is way, way more destructive than an electrical fire in Mexico.
Here you typically could end with the whole electrical installation burnt and needing to rewire the whole house (yeah, there is the risk of your stuff catching fire yet it isn't a common occurrence compared to just the wiring burning out), in the USA or Canada you could end with a pile of ash that used to be your house and all your belongings, and the fire extending to neighboring houses and burning them too.
That is why electrical, and fire safety in general isn't taken as seriously in Mexico as it is in the USA/Canada, there is next to no chance of a fire completely burning down a whole house to the ground, even less a whole neighborhood like it has happened in those countries given the difference in construction materials used.
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 that might by why the American electrical code is NFPA 70 (National Fire Protection Association)
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 All of this extends to the rest of South America. The only places you see where the electrical regulations are strictly followed are in industrial installations and other such critical infrastructure. In some countries not even that...
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 The building may be non-combustible but the furnishings inside are still very flammable and will produce lots of thick, toxic smoke that will have you chocking your last breath long before the flames kill you. Building codes in the USA are designed to protect both life and property, but protecting life is considered more important. Your comments lead me to believe that Mexico has a bit to learn in that regard.
@@carlosdgutierrez6570 this can also happen to your average brick and mortar house. One additional thing that seems to save Mexico is the lack of use of wallpaper and the scarcity of furniture.
I agree though that the risk is much lower. It saved my own apartment at least twice 😂 (in my case the cause was old aluminum cable and shitty connections between them in the junction box)
16:21 "lesson is, don't shove your hand into holes where it doesn't belong"
Internet - What about shoving other... body parts... into random holes?
As a fellow Mexican myself, I'm glad you have investigated the outlets there. I was always concerned and annoyed to see those sockets and cables being frayed, broken, and just not in good condition a lot of times. Thank you, Mehdi.
La tierra son un mito en las casas haha
I inherited my grandfather’s house during the pandemic. You would not believe it until you saw it, but this man had the same color cable for each polarity. Now I understand why we couldn’t turn on a specific fan… it caused a fire last time. I miss that old man 🥲
haha, is not just him, is everyone, when i was building my house, i brought enough cable of each color to cable the house how it should be, I even explained to the construction workers and the arquitect how to use the Blueprint of the house to cable it correctly. Next day i go to check it out, and they ran out of black cable, and they just had opened the white spool, so basically they did all the wiring on the bottom floor and part of the upper floor with the black cable, and whatever whats left they finished with the white cable, they gave me the green spool and made fun of me for purchasing "extra" material.
No hay problema mi hermano, nomas ocupas a alguien que le sepa a la electricidad y un multi, como decía mi abuelo "A la electricidad no hay que tenerle miedo, hay que tenerle respeto" XD
@@ChuyR.I would make them redo it
@@gregistopal México's culture is different, they wouldn't re do it, their pride is first, the house is electrified in their eyes they did their job so is either pay them or they leave, by them leaving with no pay they feel they have the right to steal something from you in equal proportion in the future. I know it is not the best and that's why we are in the hole, but that's how it is.
I finished building that house 6 years ago, by the end things didn't go as planned with the architect, I didn't pay him $25K pesos because of some things they didn't do correctly, so he didn't pay the construction workers, I closed the house completely with some of the tools inside (property of the architect). They came in at night broke a couple of windows and stole all the tools, I have a lawsuit against the architect, and the architect against the workers, it's been 6 years and only one thing has happened.
The police called me one day late at night, telling me that they found the architect late at night in a hospital, if I gave them a green light to arrest him, I checked the architect's Facebook before making the decision, he just had his first baby, that's why he was in the hospital, obviously the cops knew this and knew that I was gonna say No, so in their eyes they were gonna do their job and I "stopped" them.
Someone got my response deleted, see? @@gregistopal that's Mexico for you
I'm Mexican, and i thought the wiring in our hotels would be at least up to standard , the wiring in the first hotel was worse that the one made on my house and we don't even have ground , i knew our wiring was bad but not that bad.
And about electrical tape, yes it is standard just because it is the cheapest option, and the thing with the made up extension cords is because sometimes is more convenient and sometimes cheaper, but dangerous af, i almost died sometime because the electrical tape fell of from one.
Also, you may think that this is just a problem in the houses or in the poor people part of the country, however i have seen big industrial warehouses with the same or even worse problems, and people are put at risk every day in there because the owner doesn't want to "waste" money in a proper wiring.
Love your videos Mehdi, i have been watching them since i was on university, and some of them helped me to pass my tests, glad you enjoyed your visit!
we need to form a charity that donates wirenuts to Mexico
the fight is real, every time I have ro explain that some workaround is off code or plain dangerous I wait for the eyes roll before I reinforce my statement
those out lets look to be form the 1960/70s where i live a 240v dryer power cable was spliced and was feeding a 120v outlet it was covered in electrical tape it was fixed be it leaves a little worry about the rest of the wiring this happens every ware its not saft but the few dollars saved seem to out whey the massive risks
I just watched the video, and i think it's very similar to brazil. Me as electrician who works in a factory i see a lot of dangerous situation.
We lived in an apartment in Mante, and I seem to remember there being a problem with people stealing the grounding wires. I don't know anything about electrical stuff, but I feel grounding wires are important. We had an electric shower head, to have hot water, and a friend who was a computer engineer but knew about electricity, came and installed it and put a grounding wire. I used it for a while, but because when I touched the shower head I could feel the electricity, we ended up taking it out.
The apartment used fuses and we often blew those. The fuse box was on the street level, and we had wired the handle to stay on so people walking by couldn't just pull it down and turn off our electricity. I remember one night the lights started turning off and on. I rushed to the balcony to look down and there was a drunk guy doing his darndest to pull down the handle. I yelled at him and he ran off.
15:01 You can tell he was so tempted XD
The real ground fault protection is the friends we made along the way ❤
Glad you liked Mexico 🥳🥳🥳
There's usually at least one in the bathroom 10:22 nvm they didn't give a sh*t 😂
It is a question of priorities, in Mexico it is more likely to die of hunger due to poor salaries than to be electrocuted due to not having ground protection.
Ah yes, LatinAmerican infrastructure (including electrical)... known for being held together by the sheer power of tape and prayers
and yet it works somehow
And a single screw 😂
@@baddreams0919 as long as tape keeping together and payers keep away Sancta Muerte
I hate all those communication cables sloppily hanging around everywhere. Just the other day I was stopped at a red light when a truck crossing onf of the main avenues in the city got entangled on the cable and teared it apart, probably leaving a bunch of homes and businesses without internet, aside from a part of the cable that was left hanging in the middle of a busy street, creating a hazard. A biker had to get off and pull the cable off the road to prevent it from possibly esnaring another biker.
Another example happened at my home, when a huge palm tree leaf fell and hooked itself on the wire, but after I got the leaf out I noticed that it wasn't even fully coiled around the steel cable that is there to give structural support for the wire, so it was a miracle it wasn't ruptured by the leaf, which would probably leave me without internet for a day or two until the cable company came to fix it.
Оно везде так работает. Молитва, палочки, дерьмо, синяя изолента.
Congratulations on finding a working gfci outlet outside of an industrial setting here in México, I have never seen that before, it is an extremely rare sighting and you should be proud of yourself.
but why?
@@BeavisSaves GFCI expensive as hell. Here in philippines, we don't buy that cuz it's around 10x more expensive than regular outlets
@@saintricardo8746uh, they make a GFCI breaker, so you can use normal outlets and only have to buy one expensive breaker to protect up to 6-12 outlets. Or you can wire a gfci outlet so it protects 6 or so outlets down the line. But anywhere you go GFCI outlets cost a shit load and don’t last very long. GFCI breakers are where it’s at. But in countries that shut their grid off every day at a certain time, they have to penny pinch like no other.
How many house fires do you have in Mexico due to lack of GFCI?
@@pikachuchujelly7628 how would we know, its not like the firefighters keep track of that
Fun fact: The last update to the Mexican Electrical Code was during the reign of Montezuma II.
Hey. Es Moctezuma ¿no?
¡Si! Gracias.
What's your evidence?
like seriously, this *is* false
@@DanTDMJace You got me!
hey, fellow mexican here, I believe that the reason we usually have makeshift extention chords, is because is faster and cheaper using spare wires and extra outlets we have around the house, I remember that my old fridge outlet was cut and connected directly to an extention chord, generally wild stuff, but if it works it works.
Can confirm, comes down to income and economics. Those extensions ain't cheap and a lot of people is like "i was in electrical workshop in middle school I can do esa mamada" jajajaja
"if it works it works"
#famouslastwords
Oh yes, typical Mexican mindset.
@@taylorbrown9849 no, because you see we seldom hear of electrical accidents, and our houses are made of brics so we dont have an entire neighbohood go up in flames when there isnt a braek box. So yes, pretty much if it works it works, scarce resources make people more resourful and less snowflaky it seems.
Yeah, it works until it doesn't ☠
Keep in mind that old-looking buildings in downtowns are actually 300+ years old, hence the cord extensions everywhere, as you are not allowed to drill through historical walls (not that that kept people from doing it sometimes). Also, hanging cables are electricity stealing cables: they are so badly wired with tape in case somebody hears inspectors are coming you just pull them hard and they come off and you are off the hook. Also, in Mexico you don't need heating, nor AC, nor dryers, nor electrical stoves, etc. So you usually end up dealing with one fridge, one microwave, 2 TVs and one washing machine and almost never 2 of these devices are on at the same time. So, all that can easily pass through a 12-caliber cable. Also, only new buildings MUST be up to standards and there are no inspections for individual homes. Glad you liked my country.
El pedo aqui es que CFE es una pesima empresa que tiene monopolio gubernamental y ese importante detalle que dijo electroboom de las acometidas con cable delgado 13:11 es una muestra de ello, no es que no necesitemos calefaccion, Aire acondicionado o secadoras electricas, nos hacen falta y mucho pero debido a que los cables que entregan son delgados y encima la electricidad de comision es carisima no nos queda de otra que aguantarnos y arreglarnoslas con esas pastillas miserables de 30A, nisiquiera en bifasica se compara al consumo normal en Estados Unidos que son centros de carga (con panel y subpanel) de 200 Amperios y tienen una pastilla por cada aparato que tienen en la casa.
Si hubiera competencia en el sector electrico se obligarian a mejorar el servicio pero bueno, que le vamos a hacer.
Saludos.
I dunno man, have you even Europe
no, he dont even Europe.
Normal people would Europe, but this man probably more Mexico than Europe.
Anyways, i think it is funny that they just steal electricity and have a simple system to pull off the wire asap if needed.
You cant do that in Europe with all of em regulations that make sure we, the peasants, keep paying our money to the richest of the rich.
@@whophd
lovely to see all of this stuff.
Good post! Also, stone/masonry buildings don't burn like the ones we use north of the border. Whole cities have burned in the past.
16:22 The best lesson ever :- "Don't shove your hand in the holes that doesn't belong"👍
never stick your fingy where you wouldn't stick your dingy!
Life lessons with iranian unibrow man
@@danek_hren yes
nice mix of your regular hyjinx and nice camera work of mexico interspersed. enjoyed the video.
"Don't shove your hands in the holes it doesn't belong." Words to live by.
Same goes for fingers...
Also, don't shove your USB cable into USB outlets you don't know.
I wanna know in what holes do my hands belong
Thats what she said 🤣🤪
Timestamp?
In Mexico many of this “homemade” cables you see are because we have people that “se cuelgan” from the light cables. This means they steal the light and don’t pay for it. Thats why you so many of those cables are on the street markets
El famoso "little devil".👹
I remember this "extension cord" at a cousin's place that we used to play Super Nintendo, it didn't even had an outlet, you just twisted the bare wires around the power supply plug and hope no one tripped over it. Ah the magic of the Mexican Electrical system
My buddy, electrician 🤦🏼♀️ found out the hard way not to trust any electrical outlet. Automotive hoist plugged into standard 120v american outlet. Unplugged it to find electrical issue in building. Plugged in tester and opened the box to see why no neutral. Shocked themselves. 3 phase coming in to power the hoist. Not 120v 15a. Ground used as 3rd leg..
In Oaxaca the reason the cables are so thin, is that they are something called "diablitos", they connect very legally to the power cable to power the house without paying for electricity service, in a diy way, glad you love México
Amadeus meant illegaly, just in case you are reading this got confussed.
Ah, yes. The very legal diablitos
The "petty" electrical company will take you to court for this since its regarded as a federal crime and in the end its way more expensive than paying your monthly fees. Of course, that is only if the electrical company notices.
Very legally, lol 😂
I saw it in Mexico city. There was a row of food stalls and we went to a stand selling fruit juices. The mixer that was making the juices wouldn't start and the lady inside went next to a side window and pulled some wires. After we got our juices I checked where the cables ended and to my surprise there was a cable wrapped around one of the phases of the overhead power lines. Location: Benito Juarez, Mexico City (Not one of the "good" areas, I was there for business meetings)
12:25 "Daaad! We're on vacation. We're supposed to have fun." "But I am having fun..."
14 hour how
"Hush, don't call it a vacation out loud. This is a _tax deductable business trip_ because I'm filming content."
@@devanshagarwal8806 Early member access...
@@devanshagarwal8806he is probably member
@@devanshagarwal8806 Videos are released early for patreon supporters. They stay unlisted so you need the direct link (hidden on his Patreon) to view them until general release.
After my first trip overseas, working as a contractor for the US Dept of State, I started packing two specialized kits. First was a "Fly-away Medical kit" containing antibiotics and various other critical medications that I might not be able to readily access overseas
The second was my "Lodging Infrastructure Safety Enhancement Kit", which included:
* Non-contact voltage tester
* Small electrical multi-meter
* Single outlet voltage/frequency converter (240v/50hz > 120v/60Hz)
* Four-outlet surge protector power-strip
* Electrical tape
* Asst'd butt connectors
* Asst'd heat-shrink tubing
* Electrical tape
* 20' of #10 braided copper wire (ground wire)
* A couple of different sized alligator clips
* A couple of receptacles and wall-switches (compatible for whatever country we were in)
* Battery-powered smoke & CO detectors (Pro Tip: don't get one that has a radioactive source in it. AMHIK)
* Plug-in LED power outage light / night light
* Teflon thread tape
* Small tube of white RTV sealant/caulk
* Heavy-Duty, sticky-back Velcro
* Drywall anchors and screws
* Handle w/ three-jaw chuck and a couple of drill bits
* Multi-tool
* Foam mounting tape
* 3M Command removable wall hooks
* Handheld solar shower
* Water purification tablets
All of these items were carried based on the experiences of myself, and my co-workers.
1. My first trip, I fried the power-supply for my CPAP machine in Jordan, because I used a voltage converter that did not convert the frequency.
2. I got shocked in a shower in Iraq, after which we discovered that the grounding cable from the fuse box had simply been run through the floor of the shower trailer, and neatly coiled on the ground unconnected to any ground rod.
3. Several "hotels" in which we stayed would almost never have hot water, and a couple of times had NO running water. Not fun when you finish a dirty, dusty day on an African construction site, and just want to get a shower before you pass out on your rack. In Mali, we had two five-gallon jerry cans, as shower backup. One in the room, which stayed cool, and one on the back of our SUV that would heat up in the sun all day, if we needed hot water.
As a mexican it is very common that in houses and buildings in general there is not a ground cable going through all the outlets. They do it to reduce costs, people here easily prefer spending less money than being safer
and all the cables has the same color.
14:06 not "maybe" we don't believe in the ground protection, we REALLY don't believe in ground protection, saludos electroboom
Jajaja si
¿Qué?
As someone living in Mexico City, yeah, some electrical works here are just surreal to see. The infamous "diablitos" (makeshift electric connections that are illegally linked to powerlines) have been an endemic problem that has caused some accidents in the past. Thanks for visiting tho!
Living in Querétaro, just a few hours N of Mexico city, we went almost a full week without power a couple months back, because some dudes thought it would be a good idea to break into the local CFE substation and steal copper cabling or equipment...
End result of that, one guy died as something (or someone) in there became a short path to ground, the whole station went up in flames, and the entire area was in the dark for the next 6 days.
Then not 2 months after that, we went another 3 days without power because another set of dudes decided to try it again somewhere else.
If they tried to steal the protection system wiring and damage it, then mess with anything in the sub, it's likely to end badly for all.
It's AWESOME! How you include your family. Gives you a more human aspect. Love it man.
I was born in Mexico now living in Toronto and oh man you cannot live without electrical tape back home, I remember helping my dad around the house and him taping the sh*t of things 😂. Yes most electrical installations there are super cheap and don't follow any code, I took standards and safety for granted until I graduated from electronics, now I can't imagine living without CEC or NEC. I'm glad you liked Mexico, hope you ate some chapulines 😁
Hope he didn't lol
La gastronomía mexicana tiene mucho que ofrecer y los chapulines no son una de esas cosas
@@IsraelCervantes-le4gf fym, they're tasty
I live here I have like 6 electrical tape from different colors in my house XD
@@IsraelCervantes-le4gftop peores opiniones
The only electrical code in Mexico is the Konami code!
And better use it as you're gonna need 30 lives!
At 8:16 "Se compran... colchones... refrigeradores... estufas... lavadoras... microondas... o algo de fierro viejo que vendaaan"
Glad to hear Mexico's real national hymn was partly captured in this video 👌
Yes
en Argentina igual xD
eso es el himno de latam, aca en colombia tambien pasa :v
5:31 Transformers Autobots roll out
Y además hablamos en español Mexico.
From my cousin, who is an electrician in Mexico, said ground fault protection isn't needed because you can wire ground to the metal plate and that magically resolves everything. 🙃🙃
😳
In México, I understand use Differentiating Circuit Breakers (I use a literal translation of "Disyuntor Diferencial").
@@mrmartycho7077 eso funciona como GFCI, pero ocupa tierra y muchas casas en Mex no tienen cableado para tierra excepto luz 220. Otro problema es que muchas pastillas/fusibles en la toma de luz están puestas para amperajes absurdos como 30KA (en casa de mis papás) cuando debería ser 100A o 200A 😬
@@Goodvvine 30kA? No será esa la corriente de ruptura que tienen las protecciones? Por ejemplo, aquí en Chile, comúnmente los disyuntores que ocupan una casa son de 10 o 16 Amperes (o menos), con una corriente de ruptura de 6kA
Lmfao
I love the transitions from “funny silly electric shenanigans” to “beautiful drone clips”
Ever since he said "I'm going to test your electric system" I thought, ese wey ahora sí se va a morir
Chale 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Va quedar como el ratero de Home Alone (no le voy a decir Mi Pobre Angelito nada que ver con el título original)
You guys don't even buey anymore? Reduced to wey? 😂
@@toomanymarys7355 buey and wey are two diferent things, one's an animal and the other mean "friend" or other things, relies on how we said it
@@toomanymarys7355I still use buey but some use wey😅
Im from Mexico, and studied a technician carreer in electricity. The reason why we use so much electric tape is because is handy, cheap, and eashnto use. Its not a standard, but its a common practice due to inefficient construction supervision.
And also lack of funds/corruption im guessing. My mom built an apartment complex in her former house in the Phillipinnes, and we went through a number of shady engineers who siphoned funds and materials for their own projects. Im glad i was born in the U.S where this stuff happens alot less.
My dad's also a mechanical engineer from the Phillipinnes. He sees electric tape as only a temporary solution. But I wouldn't be surprised if 100 years from now, in a dry environment, we'll find electric taped wiring that still insulates.
You need supervision to do the right thing to keep people safe?
@@newsogn5148 unfortunately in 3rd world countries, supervision is necessary to prevent theft or cutting corners. But same can be said in the U.S if you hire a non unionized contractor (unions require certifications, which is proof of skill set.) Or if you buy too cheap.
@@WarPigstheHun non union electricians are still licensed and you are correct we also would cut corners if we knew no inspection would happen that is a bummer…. The other thing is that it clearly isn’t a huge issue? I mean if it works for them then sure…
You'll love our wiring here in Mexico Mehdi. Only the finest 2 wire (no ground) copper clad aluminum . Sometimes when you touch your metal microwave you feel a slight shock. The wires on the induction kettle get close to melting status. Enjoy!
If I had seen him around I swear I would have shown him how we heat water in here
@@Ryoga2K2 electrodes in a bucket of water?
@@j_r_-
Almost. Many families use a resistor (similar to the ones in electric stoves) to warm water in a bucket. A plastic one, at that.
Or the more dangerous electric showerhead, that energizes you every morning due to the electricity that flows in the water thanks to the lack of ground connections and DIY installation 😬
@@diegolunar7022holy shit
@@j_r_- doesn't that generate chlorine gas, hydrogen gas and oxygen gas? sounds like a recipe for literal disaster.
Mexico adopted a new electric code a couple of decades ago based on US code at the time, as I understand it, only mandatory on new construction or major renovations. Lots of outlets had no ground at all, and sales of those three to two prong adapters are very popular.
Everytime Medhi arrives in a city: "HIDE YOUR SWITCHBOARDS, HE'S COMING!"
Mehdi not medhi
As a french drone Pilot , I'm amaze how Mexico is chill on drone regulation. Every time I saw a drone shot I was : Did he has the right to do this ?
They didn't catch him, the place where he filmed the big column with the gold angel on top (angel de independencia) is well known to be a prohibited place for drones.
The same people in charge of drone regulations are in charge of electrical regulations.
Their drone laws are like the electrical codes.
YES!
I think only Mexican citizens are allowed to fly drones in Mexico. Last I checked. I wanted to fly mine there
I think he would have problems everywhere in the EU. Especially near famous monuments, police/military patrols are always present for anti-terrorism reasons. At least, in Italy it's like this.
That "smoke detector" in Cancun is probably a buzzer. There probably was a switch with a little string attached in the shower or in the bathroom. The idea is that if a person needs medical help while in the bathroom they can pull the string and warn the other people in the room. It's pretty common here in Italy too
Also common in Japan. In the US I’ve only seen them in larger hospitals.
I've seen in a hotel in Brazil a switch with a bell sign on it (in the bathroom), I couldn't keep myself and pressed it, and it made a loud sound inside the room. For a few minutes I was afraid some hotel staff would show up at my door to see if I was ok 😂
Yeah, I didn't know what that was but I knew well enough that Mexico doesn't have any safety shit like smoke detectors
Si tenemos detectores de humo para los huespedes de tu país que solo vienen a fumar marihuana! XD@@The_Ballo
I lived in Oaxaca City as a child, but I haven't been back since. Thank you for reminding me of some very fond memories!
Had to fly out to Mexico in December to fix a train. Went to wash my hands at the train depot like the days before. But this time the water felt a bit prickly. I of course had a multimeter with me and jup, the water was live. There were even showers in there! A shower in there must be a great way to get yourself awake in the morning.
Insane
Tren Maya?
Mexico electrical systems are pretty similar to brazil ones!
I think that both follow the "latin america standards".
Electrical components and good installation standard are expensive here.
Any pair o copper cables that bring energy to solve the problem is enough for most of the people.
And yes, a pair of 2.5 cables can power a entire house.
Probably that house has basically a fridge and a bunch of low-power things (lamp, charger, router...)
My apartment, which is a relatively good(middle class) and modern (90") building, has only 2x4mm for lives and 2x4mm for neutral and ground arriving at the main breaker box. I've rented/lived in apartments that didn't have any ground installation.
Brazil is unique in that there is no single standard mains voltage. You can find areas with 127, and areas with just 220. North America is 120/240 split phase.
Many non Brazilians may also find the plugs and sockets unusual, and Brazil may be the only country using both n and c plugs.
I bet you find this is not uncommon in most countries.
Between massive urban population growth and a lack of oversight it isn't too surprising.
I am not an electrician, but it seems that ground installation can be done just by sticking the ground wire to the ground.
Can't have shit in Brazil. Someone stole the ground/copper from the electrical box outside my house, better to just leave it as is.
@@pizzamozzarella4686 IDK about you, but there are at least two places I could shove a ground rod into the ground which are entirely enclosed in the middle of my house structure and can't be stolen without demolishing the house... one is conveniently right next to the bath tub.
Gotta say tho. His filming skills, especially with the drone, and his editing skills of him hanging on to the plane... He is improving every friggin time!
I love your content man. You work hard for it, and every video is a pearl.
Thanks for all the laughs and education!
Did you see the part where he superimposed his face onto someone else's body at the beach in Cancun? (16:52)
@@dashcamandy2242 Pretty sure that's just him lol
@@dashcamandy2242came here to say exactly this
The pacing too. I mean, the guy was always amazing with timing, but nowadays he's a whole new level.
Yeah, I'm ashamed to admit I actually paid attention to an ad. Medhi's screams and the sound effects were on point.
Oh wow the sponsor was actually fun to watch lol much love man🤣
I'm from Mexico and my family have a very old house down town (around 1600) in which I grew up, the elertrical wires on those houses had to be installed on top of the wall, it typically can not be inside the wall because of the construction method of that century.
Here in Mexico the houses are made off stone, and houses that old are actually made off a combination of mud and stone with very thick walls (2 to 3 foots wide)
The wires on some of those houses have never been changed since the first install, on a time where plastics were not the norm (or not even existed, I don't know) the wires are covered with a thick paper like material instead of plastic as insulation in a spiral shape so they stick together.
Of course most of that old installation have been changed over time, but on some houses it has not, including some parts of my parents's house actually, that you would never get see on public places like museums or hotels.
When I first moved to the house my grantparents lived in the early 90's, I noticed my dial up modem had issues. I tried to install newer telephone jack connector and to my surprise as soon as I tightened the connector screw the cable would snap. I discovered that the phone cables were not copper but something that looked like lead. The cables were installed in the early 1950's and were WWII leftovers when copper was a precious wartime commodity and the residential phone lines were made of lesser materials
@@asicdathens Probably aluminum wiring. It tends to act like that and you have to handle it carefully. My place has it so it's no touched unless necessary.
Fun fact, if done PROPERLY the taped lineman/Western Union splice is actually up to code in the United States and probably Canada, the NEC/NFPA just never got rid of the standard for it. There's a very specific way you have to tape it, using both the standard stretch tape AND cotton friction tape, but if it's up to spec it's the only splice besides a few kinds of Wago that can be used without a junction box and still pass inspection. That's a mostly-vestigial piece of code that nobody's bothered to get rid of, it's been in there since the days of cloth-insulated knob-and-tube wiring but unlike the rest of the k&t wiring specs, it's not been deprecated. It's also how you have to join the wires if you decide to solder a connection, and it's one of the only ways you can safely splice non-clad aluminum wiring - it's got MUCH more contact surface than screws, wagos, or nuts so it takes the longest of any splice to fail via corrosion, especially if you braze the splice with AlZn rod before taping.
Also, the super thin wire is probably 30A service if it's legal, it's not uncommon in the US for RV pylons to be served by wire that small and that's enough to run the house if you've got a gas stove and a clothesline instead of an electric stove and dryer.
I have seen wires that thin, but it was copper (you could tell by the green corrosion), not aluminium.
Yeah about the thin wire, maybe in the following years CFE would change that wire for a thick and resistant wire, because the demand of energy wasn't so high in the past. Also here in México the electric service is kinda expensive, so the preference to devices like a full electric stove (heat by resistor), and dryer is not desirable, the preferences for stove are on LP Gas stoves or on the cheap side, cook with wood, and most of the people here will just wash garments on the washing machine (if you have access to one), or do it by hand on the "lavadero", and then just dry the garment just on the sun & wind.
to clarifie as some one from mexico, we are tought all of these splices (not sure of the plural) in middle school as a part of a regular class we take for 3 years ( middle school is 3 years )so for the most part they are good, about the stove and dryer, yes for the most part we use gas for cooking and also for the most part people dry their cloths outside. that said its rare to see an older house in which you dont see a dimming of the lights when they start using for example a washing machine.
I seriously doubt their taping is anything more then "just wrap it around”. cmon it’s Mexico... they dont get the benefit of the doubt. You know it’s done wrong, shittily, with no care.
I trust a well made taped splice more than those torsion connectors that are common in the US, first because they're bulky and don't really fit into the outlet when you have that modular outlet design (they're significantly more common here in Brazil than monolithic outlets) and also I've had them fall off more than once. Wago connectors are more trustworthy but they're also bulky and super expensive. A well made splice is able to handle more tension forces than any of those friction-based connectors btw, the only issue with them is that cheap tape tends to get dry and brittle and unglue as they age. Quality tape from 3M and similar don't have that issue and in high-humidity environments you can use self fusion tape which makes the connection waterproof (which connectors don't)
As a Mechanical- Electrical engineer here at my beautiful Mexico City, i cas assure you everything in this city works with faith... literally, i install industrial level printers and all of them comes with an especific set of rules for electrical supply, but we, as creative as we are, we try to adapt the sites were we go to install the best we can, some places are pristine and with everything in rule, some others are... well, a dusty factory with everything messed up, so yeah, we try for the best, always with 🌠faith🌈
farsi speaking, and spanish speaking cultures have one very large thing in common. We especifically say e before any words estarting with s.
OMG, I live in Mexico City and despite growing up in here...I feel a lot of cringe with many of the electrical installations in street stands, lamp posts, and even offices! Thanks for showing this!
I'm not Mexican, but my wife and kids are. After living there for a total of about five years, I more than share your frustration with the comm cable madness, diablitos (what they call the sketchy extension cords), and total lack of GFCI 😂 ground fault doesn't exist in Mexico.
Edit: Next time you come you should visit the north, like Monterrey, Torreón, Durango, Chihuahua, and so on
No, no, "diablitos" is the thing some people put under the electric meter to by pass it and steal the energy, sometimes they even put a low thickness wire so the meter measures more and looks less suspicious
"Diablitos" is kinda cute
The north is kinda hot in every single way. He chose nice cities.
@@electromigue Either way, December/January is probably the best time of year to go because it's the coolest 😅
You're right, the South has some gorgeous cities, but the North has a lot to offer too
GF does exist in Mexico, but it isn’t very common. The last time I remember seeing a GF receptacle was in a convention center in Guadalajara, but mr boom has shown that there are GF outlets in other places too 😊😊
15:00 his temptation to use his hand as a multimeter is intensifying in his hands shaking lmao
I live in a town in Mexico that has 12 to 67 volts AC coming in on the ground--the entire town. Even attached to conditioners, TVs, computers, microwaves, stereos, etc. have that voltage on their metal parts and cases when plugged in--even if not turned on.
One must wear long-sleeves and gloves as a caution when moving/handling a TV, computer, microwave, stereo, etc. if it's plugged in.
Bump in to one's computer after a shower in the morning may give one a 67 volt AC wake-up jolt. _Good morning!_
I never thought id say this but it may actually be safer to remove the ground pin from your electronics
What on earth?
I had that happen in the house where I lived while a university student in Yucatan! It was quite sho... surprising! I never trusted that computer again.
That's wild! Is there any clue where the leakage current is coming from? Has anyone tried sticking a pair of rods into the ground in a few places around town and measuring the difference between them? You might be able to plot a gradient to see where the leak is and fix it.
Generally that means there's no earthing stakes near enough to the property - probably only at the substation.
The ground isn't a good conductor so the voltage rises as you get further away (think of it as adding series resistors)
The voltage measured with a voltmeter is often misleading though as the actual current that could flow _may_ be very small - once there's a low-resistance path to local ground like your skin the voltage drops and "only" a few mA actually flows.
Still enough to tingle or jolt though, and can be enough to be dangerous.
In Mexico they don't trim there trees so on a windy or rainy day the power goes on and off or just off completely
I live in Mexico, most of the electrical tape connections are just made with what they have (we call them "mexicanadas" which just means that we make anything work with what we can but usually is not of very great quality lol or follows rules), usually by a person that does everything on the maintenance of a building or just the house owner which won't have but minimal electrical knowledge, they prefer to not spend money and just do with what they have at home (scraps of things, etc..). The places you thought were for fuses are for the CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad) to put the electric meters that give them how much electricity you have spent, those houses probably do not have electricity enabled and people are probably not living there currently, the wires you saw coming from a pole to a house that were very thin are probably ilegal lol and were made by the house owner to steal electricity without having a meter installed, they are called "diablitos" sometimes and sometimes even people will illegally steal neighbors electricity.
Thank you for your comment. That was interesting.
I used to sell electrical equipment at a big box back in college. It was truly terrifying to see what some of the “handymen” would buy. Speaker wire and lamp cord for 15 amp outlets and sub panels for instance. I can’t imagine the fire hazards in the immigrant neighborhoods (or whoever was hiring them)!
Everything is spicy there. 🌶
The culture.
The cuisine.
The electrical wiring.
It's not spicy, it's *intense*.
Muy caliente!
I have witnessed lots of sketchy electrical work in Mexico even in high end resorts in Rivera Maya. My biggest fear from that is when the workmen are standing in a 8 inch deep fish pond using some electrical device with a 50 foot ungrounded extension that has lots of taped together connections.
Our gods won't let us electrocute ourselves. We let us do that by our own hand.
Chances of electrocution is slim the power will just take least path of resistance.
I've been a follower for many years and i love the respect you gave to the Mexicoand found hilarious your reactions to our wirings, just want to add some insight about it.
In Mexico most middle and high school makes you choose a speciality we call them "taller" (workshop) so you can learn electrical and electronics since 12 y/o, thats why many people know how to do circuit and electrical conections very young and thats why many people prefer to do it on their own instead of hiring an electritian, also some of those workshop are car mechanic, industrial engineering, cut and desing (to make your own clothes, im just directly translating the names as i have no idea how they are called in english), carpentry, IT, and many more, as we have a really bad economy and many kids have to drop since midle and high school and start working to support their family that way they can have bases to work on something, but mainly it was made because in mexico a huge part works in maquilas (factory) making auto electrical parts, harness, and many more things.
Also we call them "mexicanadas" as people have the bases to fix almost every common issue so we rather do it ourselves, and thats why you find all those connections, and yes its cheapper and has more quality to buy the extension cords instead of buying the cable directly. And you would be amaze of how many people does wirings to steal power on those electrical metters.
But yes its really weird when there is a house with a propper ground, and we lose electricity when there is a lot of wind and rain, last week i saw how the high tension cables fell outside an elementary school and catch fire, and the firedepartment had to go and put it down while the CFE (the ones in charge of electricity) arrive, it might sound really dangerous under US and Canada standards but its our everyday bread in Mexico.
"why many people know how to do circuit and electrical conections"
Doesn't seem like they do, though. Those classes apparently teach nothing of value but do instill a sense that you know what you are doing. Incredibly dangerous.
@AlexusMaximusDE did you take a physics 2 course in high school? A lot of classes teach basics and don't expect people to wire their houses with that knowledge 😂
@@arikm8430 Exactly my point. Most classes don't instill that false confidence while still teaching the same knowledge.
@@arikm8430 When I took physics they didn't encourage me to apply that knowledge to doing dangerous self repairs that might burn down a building. Either teach people well enough about how to do things well or don't teach them at all. Teaching them how to wire things but not how to be safe when doing so is a recipe for disaster
Mexicanadas, en sur américa tenemos Colombianadas, supongo que en los demás países latinos se ajusta la palabra
En México no existe la tierra fisica, son los papás
Jajaja
Nada como tener diferenciales de potencial intensos para hacer más picosito tu día
Underrated comment, ¡tenga su like, buen hombre!
Te mamaste.
Y además hablo español
Hola por que hablo en español o puedo hablar en español por que soy de Mexico y soy un Transfans de Tranformers.
16:35 absolutely got me. I'm glad you visited, hope you had a great time.
Hey mehdi I just wanted to say that you brought me through my depression and from harming myself so thank you
We Mexicans definitely need your videos translated to Spanish to learn and upgrade the electrician system haha, you are one of a minority turists that can test the electrical system of one country.
Very thankful for this vídeos that you made that makes me smile, lmao.
Practique su inglés mijo!!! 🤭 Saludos! 🫶✨
I'm surprised you didn't encounter one of the electric shower head water heaters during you visit. They are fairly common and frequently installed with no ground wire in Mexico
Wow, absolutely fascinating, that that is a thing we do. That we are capable of doing that to ourselves.
@@tigertoxins584I remember being like 9 when I thought why don't we put a heater right where the water comes through and now I know why nobody does it where I live
Electric shower heads are safe to use.
@@lucker6181 Provided they are properly installed, which is quite the oddity here in Mexico.
@@Inferryu Yeah, I've seen those in other Latin American countries; I got some minor shocks from an Ecuadorian shower head (good thing the conductivity of water is so low, and the resistivity of skin so high), which shouldn't happen if they're properly installed. But that said, if done right, I actually think they are a superior option in many applications.
6:47 "The Sine waves looks pretty SInEWaVy" lmao
And the amount of wires hanging dangerously close to from the post in public streets is crazy
Special effects improving. 9:58 a chill ran down my spine.
The incredibly beautiful and relaxing vistas coupled with the anxiety inducing electrical analysis of the cities make for a hell of a rollercoaster!
Having said that, it's so cool to get a glimpse of the cities, thanks for taking us along for the ride!
Mexico does have electrical standards similar to those in Canada, however they were only implemented around the 2010s, and by the looks of it your hotel's electrical instalation seems from the 90s or somethings. The older and cheaper the building it is the worse the ground protection will be.
Around 80% of the installations in the country are outdated, so that check's out
And also unless you specifically ask for a code-compliant installation, you're likely to get 2 cables and that's it.
As far as I know, our standards are derivated from the NEC, just a copy-paste
@@mariochavez3834 Copy from NEC (US) - Paste in Google Translator - Copy from there - Paste
@@mariochavez3834our standards are homogenized with the USA and Canada ones due the original NAFTA/TLCAM treaty of 1994.
They aren't just copied out ot laziness, it was an actual requirement given that treaty so all of North American products, services and infraestructure would eventually work the same in any of the 3 countries.
If you think Mexico's electrical is bad, wait until you check the plumbing...
You should try the Philippines. You'll get a lot of the same stuff you see here, except it's 220V for double the excitement, and sometimes no earth ground!
For example, one hotel I stayed at had the shower water heater powered by what looked like 16- or 18-gauge lamp cord wired into the back of one of the room outlets outside of the bathroom.
Sketchy af. They do stuff like that in Brazil aswell.
Those are colloquially called "suicide showers" due water passing thru an electric current and "heating it". But depending on the quality of the product and construction, they aren't necessarily dangerous. My dad who's a mechanical engineer was very insistent on ground and GFCI equivalent protection in our hotel's bathroom during construction.
My mom had one built for her hotel, and my dad was there supervising, making sure the workers weren't cutting corners. My parents immigrated to the U.S in the 80's, via my mom's nursing program, but she wanted to help her impoverished community back at home. She went through a lot of incompetent and corrupt workers, engineers, and local politicians even to have it built. Somehow she's able to keep it running overseas (in the U.S) via cameras. Recently she was blindsided by her cousin who was caught stealing hotel (and guest!) items. Luckily she had her neighbors for e her to return the guests items, but not before walking away with a few memory foam mattresses and a TV and worker laptop.
One day, it'll get better.
I know mechanical isn't a replacement for an electrical engineer, but he's always been strict on safety and building code. Probably cuz he and his siblings are all geniuses and engineers.
@@LaSombraaone day we'll be able to look back at our ancestral homes with pride. They just need to root out the corruption.
No necesitas puesta a tierra cuando tienes disyuntores y fé en Dios
Wise words, "Make sure you visit everything." And thank you, sir, for showing us everything. I actively noticed and appreciated your effort to share more than just the select tourist attractions.
Mexico is on my list of travel destinations. Thank you, Mehdi for showing off some beautiful imagery of this country.
Try EU too,Germany,Czech Republic,Poland etc.
Welcome to Mexico!
Mexican here...Just don't put your hands in the holes haha.
@@jorgecervantes3725Easier said than done.
Just don’t get kidnapped by Cartels
You should see Thailand. There are massive wires hanging and entangled on the street EVERYWHERE.
back in my home semi-rural town from Jalisco, Mexico, the same mason that built your walls took care of the electrical wiring and he probably only finished primary school. So yeah...
I never expected a video from you in México, glad you came!!
Hope you had a great time here ❤
A teacher in electricity class introduced us your channel years ago. My grandparents house still have those tapered wire connections, even my grandad and uncles argued to me when I asked for the ground. They say the house has been working without ground over 50 years. Even the ground of plugs were teared off with pliers 😅
Igual en mi casa, 30 años sin necesitar tierra fisica, aveces mas que protecciones es tener sentido comun y prudencia para hacer las cosas. Cosa que se ha perdido mucho en estas generaciones que se han vuelto mas idiotas con tanto tik tok. unos decian, el gfci protege por si agarras un cable pelado o si tienes un aparato electrico en el baño, haber mi rey en primer lugar ¿por que deberias de andar haciendo eso? ¿que acaso sus padres no le enseñaron a no andar agarrando cables pelados o a no usar electricidad con los pies descalzos?
Se oye tonto pero las buenas practicas y sentido comun son mas importantes que 1000 protecciones electricas.
You need to visit Thailand. The same overall wiring style, except that your electric water heater also hangs right next to the shower head where the hot water is coming from. And you can occasionally see exciting things like over-the-counter USD1.99 extension cords lying half'submerged in fountains with the fountains' pumps plugged into them (so clearly the fuses are working great ^^)
I love mehdi takes his multimeter everywhere. It's like a toy to play with for him 😂😂
His portable osciloscope was pretty cool
15:08 It's not about the price, it's -about sending a message- a temporary workaround that just stayed for long enough to be used as a permanent solution.
I love when Mehdi goes on vacation. It always feels like were there with him.
In spirit...
its great for me because i AM here with him
This wasn't a vacation! It was a work trip for filming a video. Tax deductible business expense including the two additional actors he took along solely for filming purposes!
The video reminded me of my stay in Ecuador, many decades ago. Zip wire everywhere, for service connections (often illegal), internal wiring, extension cords, etc. They taped their connections, sometimes, and not always with electrician's tape. I remember being shown an apartment once. The shower had a showerhead heater that was spliced into zip wire hanging exposed from the ceiling. The concept of a cheaply built electric showerhead heater was, by itself, difficult for me to accept, but seeing a sketchy exposed connection just inches from the showerhead did nothing to inspire confidence, so I passed on that one.
Greetings from Mexico City!! I hope you had a lovely time! What is an extension cord? What is ground fault protection? In Mexico City we know wire and we know tape. Many times we take power from light bulb sockets. Pressing a plug's terminals together so they hold onto the socket is also a tradition. The only aberration I've never seen in Mexico is the plug-plug cord, it remains an American Christmas Exclusive.
Those open round boxes are for wattometers from the power provider, CFE. It's illegal to bridge them but they can take months to install them, so they won't even scold you if you're effectively stealing power.
wait, what? I can just bridge those and nobody will notice? can I put some resistors so current is only partially registered so it's harder to notice? I need to know haha