THE WORST SHOCK I EVER RECEIVED! Find Out How...
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- Опубліковано 14 лют 2021
- Hey Gang! We're so excited to bring you this video for so many reasons. First of all we have our website! StudPack.com
We're still in the process of building this thing but it's just about ready, we need YOU to be super vocal in the comments and hit that like button for us so we can gauge this thing properly. Thanks for all the support!
Second, you guys have been asking for this video for about 2 months and we finally sat down and re-created this once in a lifetime scene where Dad was shocked. Tell us what you think below, and please drop some more electrifying stories for others to read as well! Thanks for watching and we'll see ya in the next one! - Навчання та стиль
Watching this video gave me chills. When I was eight, being a little guy, I had trouble opening our refrigerator. In order to get the door open, I'd brace one arm against the oven door handle and pull the fridge door open. It wasn't uncommon for me to get a little shock, like static discharge. I didn't think anything of it, especially being a kid. Static discharge is a fact of life for a kid running around barefoot all the time. But this one time, I grabbed hold of the fridge, grabbed hold of the oven handle to brace myself and I felt a moment of panic. I couldn't move. I couldn't let go. I knew something was wrong. I was stuck and I knew it was bad. All in a matter of seconds. I don't know if I discharged enough of the potential to break free or if I just got really lucky and willed myself to let go. I'm still not 100% sure what happened, I only know that I'm lucky to be alive. I told my parents and something in my voice must have gotten their attention. I explained how I had to open the door, a little embarrassed at being so weak. They took me seriously and we had an electrician there shortly to fix it. Turns out that the refrigerator wasn't grounded. That's all I remember, no idea what the technical fixed was. But whatever he did, I never got shocked again. Glad you made it out. Glad I did too. Electricity is nothing to mess around with. And refrigerator electricity holds a special place in my heart because of that experience. Thank you for sharing!
Great story. Glad you shared
Well like always im left to try and decipher all your hidden messages. Im left trying to nua bedecipher everything. Leaving me tmessaginor assume . I don't like not very mu not getting the story. Illassume the worst and hope for the best
Same I was shocked a couple of times called my electrician told me that my main earthing wire isn't connected to the rest of the house circuit wiring I was living there since 2014
a chilling refridgerator experience
Grounding is like a safety net. In case something else goes wrong, like a wire's insulation getting cut against a metal box, grounding might protect you. This is why grounding is considered essential nowadays, even though it's not actually needed for the circuit to function.
36 YEARS as a Journeyman level electrician and 10 years as an approved apprentice trainer I can say this is the BEST by far video on this critical subject I have ever seen! 5 Stars Best!! The mention of the let go threshold is excellent! Best wishes and kudos. Thank God you survived ! DIY is a great freedom, and though I don't advocate HD and Lowes not selling electrical to DIY folks I do advocate people knowing their limits and not exceeding them! Great Job!
By the way another bad deal is someone ties the neutral in a 2 wire system to the ground screw of the receptacle! Problem is now neutral current is on the ground pin! Check one wired this way with a tester? It will show 2 green or yellow lights whatever the color for OK, properly wired.
BUT IT IS NOT. Never try to ground a receptacle in a 2 wire system? You will only create a death trap!
Much appreciated John thx 👍💪
I think the solution is to put a GFCI outlet in and put the "no equipment ground" sticker on it. That way the equipment has ground fault protection.
@@SirBrass this is the way. Also, some countries went all-in on whole-house GFCI around 1990 which has saved so many lives.
@@SirBrass This is absolutely the correct solution, what these guys just did is setup someone else to get killed later. The other 2 options would have been to bond the box and receptacle to the water line or place a GFCI dead front at the panel. Other then that the rest of the video was good, this is the dangers of handyman electrical they applied a band-aid to the situation to make it looked solved but only made the underlying issue someone else's problem down the road, just like the last guy that put the 3 prong plug on.
@@djlinux64 but circuits that aren't garage, outdoors, kitchen, or bathroom can be tricky to GFCI protect as a home diy retro install, as you have to first identify the first outlet in that circuit Branch. And good luck figuring that out without pulling electrical plans, and hope they're accurate. Especially if you aren't the first owner.
And GFCI breakers are very expensive. And still eventually wear out, faster than normal equipment, because those monitoring circuits don't last as long as the rest of the stuff.
This explanation beats a lot of electrician sites for clarity. Nice job.
A lot of the electrical channels on here i wouldn't trust to wire my chicken coop or dog house... these guys are pretty good and a lot better than so called electricians on here I've been in the trade since 97 and he's done a bang up job explaining this...
Nice explanation, but got lost a number of places.. Showing a hand drawn schematic along with the verbal circuit descriptions would have made the explanations a lot clearer.
@@kimstockdale632 unfortunately you may have the best teacher teaching a class, you'll always have a student who's behind everyone else in terms of comprehension.
It isnt your fault, not everyone understands at the same rythm.
I was an electrician for almost 3 years. Never ran into this issue. Very interesting and easily understandable with the way you demonstrated it. Thanks for the info and stay safe! Great content keep it up!
120 volts has killed plenty of people, especially when it travels across the heart. Glad you survived and are able to put that info out there to help prevent it from happening to other people.
Agree I was hit with a 100 amp panel time slows down ,good point about the yoke .I see non grounded old rag wire houses pass inspection even when you can find brittle insulation .Almost always it's a flipper turn and burn .
It's the Amps that kill you not the voltage.
@@TheChipmunk2008 im confused, why did you grab both wires at the same time? Glad you're okay though. Stay safe.
@@ryanallen3704 Not really. In the human body, the skin provides a lot of resistance to current flow (amps) and higher voltage decreases that resistance. Bottom line, you can't have amps without voltage.
amp kills not volts
Holy cow!!! That is a death trap. That is insane!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Will Prowse is in the HOUSE!
Photovoltaic / Solar Thermal Technician here (me, myself and i ) even though i am certified I LOVE WILL ( learn a lot from him)
i actually can hear your voice LOL
Fancy finding you here, Mr. Prowse! Good to see you!
My high school shop teacher spent the first week of metal shop class only teaching safety and showing slide show images of previous accidents which occurred, he even kept a box which contained any clothing items which had been shredded and or had dried blood, only after this several days of safety presentation then he allowed us to proceed and he then he familiarized us with the machines and processes. Almost 30 years later during covid lockdowns i had a notion to look him up, he was living in another state already retired many years, I dialed his number, I told him that i want to thank him simply because i still have all ten digits on my two hands,,, I realized after encountering skilled tradesmen who had lost a finger to a power saw, that perhaps they did not have the benefit of a wise dedicated instructor to impart the importance of safety into their mind. Every good teacher deserves thanks and appreciation,,,, I thank you as well for sharing your experience and knowledge.
Firstly, you were very lucky. Someone was looking over you that day. I am glad that you were not seriously injured or killed. Secondly, thanks for sharing the story and providing a greatly detailed explanation of the issue/cause of the problem. If the information in this video helps to save one person then it is well worth it. All the best from NZ.
As an electrical engineer, I always do my safety checks before preforming work on an energized system. My worst shock ever came a few years ago while working on high voltage AC systems on aircrafts. I was measuring the potential current leakage on a system cable at 1500 volts AC @ 1mA. Every desk is not without an ESD mat nowadays, quite possibly the worst thing to set your bare hands on, much like that metal cage of the fridge. There was a short thru the ground braid of a short length cable I had on my desk. The HiPot tester was on the mat and my hand was hold the edge of the tester with a finger over the chassis screw as well. The moment I turned the tester on, it immediately went from my hand on the mat thru my hand on the tester! It felt like a boxer punching my hand at full force!! I couldn't tell if the bleeding on my pinky finger was from the shock or the impact with the wall next to the tester. This situation doesn't really make me feel different about my line of work, as the result was completely unknowable and avoidable.
My advice is to look for potentially dangerous situations if you're unfamiliar with the state something is in. And if you're working for an employer, it's perfectly acceptable to tell them you don't feel safe if something doesn't seem right! If they're willing to sacrifice your safety, it's not an employer I'd want to work for.
Not able to understand "completely unknowable and avoidable". Is there a typo in the sentence?
@@sunilku5555 He must mean "knowable and avoidable" and he won't make that mistake again.
Bill you are very lucky it was the HiPot not line voltage. The good old days we would use the crank style Megger and have an apprentice hold the end as we cranked to get a laugh. Kind of like a hazing ceremony to the unsuspecting apprentice. Almost all of us were a victim of this ceremony as apprentices.
The worst shock I ever had was when I was hung up on 277v for 17 seconds on top of a 8' ladder in a hi-rise in San Francisco. I had just opened up a J-Box tested to make sure it was dead with a inductance tester (mistake #1) yes the tester was working checked it with a hot source and it rang, but for some reason it did not register with the wires in the box that day. I had already turned off the breaker but did not do proper Lock Out Tag Out procedures(mistake #2), reason being it was just the two of us working the whole floor doing demo to tenant improvement. God we did some crazy stuff back in those days.
Proceeded to splice the wires in box with bare hands starting with ground, then neutral, and finally the hots. Left hand holding the insulated part of the wires while my right hand twisted the bare stranded wires together. All seemed good, no tingling sensation nothing, form touching the hot wires or the neutrals, neutrals can zap you too if there is a load on that circuit. Then it happened, I had rested my left forearm on to the T-Bar Grid completing the circuit to ground from my right hand thru my chest to my left forearm.
Co-worker below me had been having a one way conversation with me this whole time, while I was working and he had noticed I had gotten very still and quiet. So he started to call out my name several times asking are you okay, I could hear panic in his voice and all the sudden I got released from the death hold. He told me he was about to kick the ladder from under my feet.
Ended up with (two) 2 inch burn marks where my forearm had made contact with the T-Bar, and dazed and confused like I had a lobotomy. For about a month I had nausea and diarrhea.
The worst part of it, I was never sent by the contractor to the hospital to check my vitals. I could have had an arrhythmia of the heart, internal burns in my blood vessels, etc.... I was quite naive as to have not gone to the hospital on my own either.
Come to find out the freaking circuit was being back fed by another circuit on the same phase so it did not trip, when they were both turned on. The box cover was labeled with the circuit we turned off, but was still hot due to the other circuit on the same phase still being on. So when I checked with my faulty inductance tester which worked apparently intermittently.... beep beep beep at hot outlet (test 1), climb up ladder beep beep beep when you rub up and down quickly to your pants (test 2), and finally silent no beep at the J-Box (actual circuit test). Perfect storm of events leading me to believe the circuit was dead.
From then on I still use an inductance tester, but also in conjunction with a FLUKE T-1000 and a mechanincal WIGGY (to make sure I'm not reading inductance [phantom] voltage).
I just assume everything is done as stupidly and dangerously as possible. Saves time.
Been doing electrical work for over 20 years. Just learned something from you. Thanks for this info and sorry you went thru 1 second of sheer pain. I’m buying your Merch. Love your content. Keep up the fantastic work. Your channel rocks and worth my time.
The NEC requires you to install a GFCI and a No Equipment Ground label, or... a 2 prong receptacle also w/ a No Equipment Ground label...if the cable is not replaced. Always test that receptacle/wiring at the beginning. Determining that the wiring was wrong, would prompt you to remove the device and then the unprotected cable and compromised wire insulation would also be discovered. You'll find trash work, just as you did ..all over this country. It's a real problem. The majority of the National Electrical Code was devised from people getting hurt or killed. 120v is the #1 killer in alternating current. The fact that you were wet with sweat reduced your resistence and more or less..amplified it, while in turn ...making the pathway to ground easier to return. So glad THAT one didn't kill you Paul. Remember, the NEC book is an electricians Bible.
Can you do a video on this explanation? Would be. Cool
yessir, 406.4(D)(2) out of the 2017 NEC Codebook
"Always test that receptacle/wiring at the beginning." Most people hooking up a water line to a running refrigerator are never going to think to test the wiring in case something was wrong.
@@ryancduff Exactly what I was thinking. Had he been investigating a problem with the power, I'm sure it was the first thing he would do. But, he was "simply" hooking up the water line for the ice maker. Heck, you have to move the refrigerator to even get at the receptacle 99% of the time. I've tested all my outlets only because I replaced the old almond units with white ones. Based on this, I will certainly think about testing outlets in situations where I would not have thought to do so before.
He installed a two prong receptacle. That is legal. What he did after it is somewhat questionable but it was not a fixed installation. A GFCI outlet would not have helped as the failure was upstream from the outlet. The current would happily come from the box through the ground wire. Sure it would protect if the equipment itself failed.
I have spent the last couple of days watching your videos. I have been building/ remodeling houses for 30+ years. You are the first builder I have subscribed to. I love your video's and your explanation of why we do the things we have to do to make it right. Have even learned along the way. Keep up the good work. Look forward to seeing more from you.
If this was on network TV, you know they would cue the intensity music, cut to a commercial with a segway and drama between you and your dad would have to happen because it's TV. lol So glad I don't have cable anymore. This is gold. The content is amazing. Good work.
the way you explain things is so easy to understand! Can’t wait to rock a stud pack shirt!
that's pretty amazing that a) you lived, b) you were able to figure out why you got shocked, and c) the fact that you were able to effectively recreate that scenario for educational purposes without actually having to create and unsafe box in the home (at least nothing permanent) that you then had to turn around and fix. good job! love this stuff
I LOVE the way he's constantly double-checking that he's safe before showing something or going forward. Doesn't even trust himself. This is really the way to go: instill safety as an instinct.
oh he trust himself.. he doesn't trust what hes working with :)
Glad you are ok and that you prevented it from happening to the homeowner! Great video!
Excellent presentation of valuable information. Stud Pack has become one of my top 10 UA-cam channels.
Love seeing such a fun son and entertaining dad working together. So informative. Thanks guys.
I’m sorry for what happened, and happy that Dad is ok. I love you guys, keep bringing more videos.
Man. My heart was actually racing a bit watching you do this demo. I appreciate you revisiting a very nasty experience to impart the lessons to us! Keep up the GREAT work!
Congrats on the domain name! And merch. Exciting to see your channel and business grow! I'll probably buy a hat when available. Super awesome video explaining all of the details of this incident. Very helpful on the yoke background!
Good description of what happens in old houses with add on wiring. We just finished rewiring a 1965 farm house, the wiring was in decent shape but the 10-15 tag on outlets, light fixtures etc that were spliced in up in the attic, in the walls etc over the years, was a real mess to sort out. I found 2 circuits that looped back onto other circuits (one with crossed neutrals and hots) which made for a fun game of breaker roulette. We finally opted to cut the mains and put in 4 basic working circuits to get going for the rest of the remodel.
Wow, cold chills ran down my back as you told this story. I'm thankful you were not killed.
Jordan, when ordering shirts, keep in mind that a lot of guys in the trades also like t-shirts with pockets. In recent years, stores like Walmart/Kmart and others, have had a very poor selection of pocket t-shirts. I have been getting my shirts from Amazon. Paul, the electrical info you provided in this video is shocking. Its something i would not have thought of. Glad you are OK. Safety first !
Great point Norm! We’ll look into some pocket t shirts in the future. 🤝 thanks for the support!
Carpenters, like me, never wear pocket Tee Shirts. Sawdust and slivers can irritate the heck out of yer titty-nipples.
As a child and not a tradesmen I always thought those pockets were for a pack a smokes. I don't smoke and sure like keeping small parts in them working on things. :)
How could 50 people not like this video! Very well explained and illustrated! Thank you, Stud Pack! :)
Thx Joel 👍
Thank you for showing and explaining how that can happen. We are glad you are okay and hope that never happens again but the world of remodeling has a lot of unknowns. I also have been shocked during updating fixtures and it is not fun. I have had my 1000v insulated flathead screwdriver tip partially melted because of poor installation. Had it not been for my use of PPE that day I may not have made it out of that basement . Thank you for you videos and info. Your videos are a favorite of mine as my pop and I do a lot of our work together as a team. Be safe out there guys
Great video! Also great teaching moment 👍. Occasionally, I run across a house with older wiring and will check the grounding . One thing that I have come to know is make sure that there is a good ground rod, and there is a ground bond between the gas line, ( if iron pipe ) and the water pipe, had a few experiences where there is a small voltage potential between the gas and water pipes, which could cause a mild shock, or in some cases a spark and possible fire if a gas leak occurs! Be safe!
That was a very dangerous situation. I started out as a sheet metal journeyman and continued to learn a little bit about all the trades. I can build from ground up. But I am like you when it comes to electricity. It's danger is you can't see it, so before working with anything electrical, you better damn well know what you are doing.
I enjoy your videos, you are very knowledgeable. Stay safe.
Thank you. I am learning about electricity. This was the clearest, most practical explanation I have seen to date. Well done
J
K
@@TheChipmunk2008 Yes, but houses built before about 1950 often did not have ground wires going to the outlets, and if they did, the only thing grounded was the outlet box itself. The receptacles in those days did not have a ground socket and appliance plugs did not have a third prong for ground. Power tools, like drills, for example, had metal cases, and the plugs had the usual two prongs for AC, with the drill case connected to a green third wire in the power cord, the wire exiting the side of the power plug, the wire having a fork-type spade lug on the end, the intention being that you loosened the center screw of a residential type outlet and temporarily connected the spade lug under the screw. You can imagine how many of these green wires were connected to ungrounded boxes, were ignored, or just simply cut off.
This video should be required viewing for every homeowner. I work for a home improvement store and I often get asked by customers for electrical advice. Every time I tell them 1) no, i won't advise you on electrical issues (I work in customer service) and 2) if you are not 100% certain you know exactly how that house is wired, call an electrician. It's not worth taking the chance of burning down your house, or even worse someone getting hurt. Thank you for making this video.
Thx Michael 👍
school of hard knocks (jolts)! thanks for not being embarrassed and caring enough to tell the story , hopefully we all listened and understood how it can happen!
Great video, one thing you I'd recommend if you come across any two wire (ungrounded) receptacles is to replace them with a GFCI receptacle. It will add some protection even without a ground wire. Check your local regulations but this is acceptable for the Canadian Electrical Code.
Thx 👍
In this case a GFCI receptacle would not have helped as the problem occurred before it. A GFCI can detect only problems that occur after it.
OMG! Electric is one of my biggest fears. In my profession of public drinking water, I’ve heard too many stories of our water meter guys getting shocked due to house grounds being ground to wrong side of inside water meters. Luckily codes have been changed but tell all my meter guys to use jumper cables when lines are ground to the water lines. Scary!!!
Wow I'm so glad that you're here to tell this story and teach us something very valuable. This is the exception that proves the rule about why EVERY outlet in the house should have a separate ground wire as is done in the UK and other 230v/240V countries.
I've been in the trades for almost 20 years now, and just wanted to say how much I continue to learn from your channel. Thank you for being so detailed in your explanations. Your helping out more people than just the DIYers out there and I'm not ashamed to say it.
Great tips - important to take into account the basics. One question; Why not add a GFCI outlet, and tag "No ground" instead of a 2 prong outlet?
A GFCI outlet would not have prevented the shock as the electricity comes from the ground wire. The major problem with the GFCI method is that it does not protect against a problem that happens in the box where the GFCI socket is. Using a GFCI breaker one can prevent it. However, it generally is not good to use GFCIs with fridges and freezers. Nuisance tripping can get expensive.
Also there are cost issues if the customer does not pay. That was comparable to first aid. The thing should be fixed properly.
@@okaro6595 actually i'm confused. don't you normally want the box and the receptacle to be connected at the ground? because if they are, the breaker would trip.
second question, why didn't the hot ground trip the breaker? it should have been traveling from hot to ground without a resistor in-between, so why didn't it trip?
@@Layarion I can answer the second question. The breaker wasn't tripped because that receptacle was not wired to ground. It was floating. Like he showed, the installation had been done with just the hot and neutral, without the ground wire connected to the receptacle. Thus, the receptacle was floating. When the hot wire got nicked and made contact, it just energized it, as it was floating, and therefore no tripping happened. Now that receptacle became hot and energized the fridge cover via the ground pin in its cable.
@@Layarion Rewiring a house can be expensive. Ideally you of course have a proper grounding system that connects to the incoming neutral at the main panel. However, as the house does not have it there is no way to divert the fault current. In that case the ground can only cause current to come from the socket to the equipment in case of a failure in the socket as happened so it is better not to have any ground contact.
Why would the breaker trip? You do not seem to get what lack of grounding means. There is no way for the current to get anywhere until he touched it. It takes 100 times more current to trip a breaker than to kill a man.
Damn you guys have the best content on UA-cam.
As an appliance technician for over 45 years I can totally appreciate what you encountered. In any field, we go in ASSUMING that everything is as it should be, or proper. When you find a situation like you encountered, you start looking for the cause and once you eliminate the obvious or "normal" failure causes, you have to look for those unusual or uncommon causes. Unfortunately your sweaty hands found it that day. Glad you were ok, and corrected it. Always be conscious of those "what if" possibilities, because they ARE out there!
Much appreciated thanks !!
You are a natural teacher. Sharing knowledge and experience. I would think possibly saving lives as well
In my house someone (ungrounded 2 prong as well) I was replacing some outlets and running GFCI outlets after inspecting the wiring and checking out the ones that were 3 prong to see if any of them somehow were grounded. In my bathroom I noticed when I turned the exhaust fan/secondary light on I had a hot ground. The outlet ground the light fixture, the double gang box for the outlet and switch would all go hot. Otherwise it showed a very weak ground... Been like that for literally years apparently. The cause was really stupid. They pushed all the ground wires to the back of each electrical box and they did such an awful job stripping the wire jacket back that they also sliced into the neutral and in turn that gave it continuity to the bare ground wire. 😐
Great explanation. I replaced my dishwasher in 2019 and when doing so found that the electrical outlet for the dishwasher, which was directly under the middle of it, did not have a ground connected to the metal box. So if something went wrong with water on the floor, that water itself could have been electrified dangerously! Good thing I fixed that before installing the new dishwasher.
What do you mean? If the outlet is screwed into the box it's already connected to the ground.
@@PJBonoVox the ground was only connected to the machine. This means the metal box right below it if it got a puddle of water could easily be electrified possibly without tripping the breaker. On its own, since water could contact the hot and puddle around the machine waiting to find a path.
Taught me a lot. Thanks. I do normally test the ground and neutral for being hot but now I see I need to up that to testing other parts, cases, pipes. Easy enough to do since I have the tester out.
Wow, I was so electrified by your story....it was shocking and energizing.
This just reaffirms my feeling about never messing with electrical again. Trying to recharge watch batteries with tin foil and paper clips as a kid taught me that lesson.
Huh?
That does not compute!
The bad thing is he wasn’t even doing electrical...this was a simple matter of poor technique from when the house was wired when it was built. There’s no telling how many more of these metal boxes in that house don’t have the connector in the back to keep the wires from getting cut through.
Exactly ! Thx 👍👊
Don't be afraid of electricity. Understand it, be careful, and respect it.
The correct fix now is to install a GFCI and apply the "no equipment ground" label.
Thx Scott 👍👊. Except behind something like a refrigerator. The GFCI receptacle must be accessible per NEC.
@@StudPack
I guess it would be a pain to reset if it tripped.
Yep. I plan on doing a video about GFCI soon
Could also replace the breaker with GFCI.
A GFCI receptacle would have not prevented this. The should also use a plastic box to prevent current coming from the ground wire again. An important thing of GFCIs is that they protect only against failures that happen downstream from them. If the failure is upstream and causes hot ground a GFCI does not detect it.
Wow,I'm glad you survived that...Your video was excellent,much easier to comprehend than most others I've seen. Thank you!
Just subscribed yesterday and I have to say, I'm really enjoying your videos.
I've been doing maintenance and remodeling for 35 years.
There is ALWAYS something new to learn.
I came across an issue like this one with an electric stove once. Pretty scary stuff!
Looking forward to more from you guys!
My first home gave me a surprise. The dude who owned it before had wired up some power outlets with speaker wire and no earth. I nearly died when I saw it as my wife was using those ones to vacuum the house. Some people are just morons.
Vacuum cleaners typically are double insulated so they do not need or use ground but speaker wire.
Another way to fix ungrounded receps is to install a gfci receptacle.
Just curious I have never heard that before.And I was under the impression that putting a GFI recepticle on an ungrounded outlet does not meet code requirements and gives the impression to the user of a appliance that the recepticle is grounded.
@@edwardbain5391 it meets code it’s still ungrounded but the electronics in the gfci receptacle looks at the current going out on the hot and returning on the neutral if there is imbalance it trips. So if you are leaking current it will cause and imbalance
@@edwardbain5391 They're are videos about this subject here on UA-cam. 🙂
Thanks for your thoughts guys!
Need to check GFI they all don’t trip at the same leakage or delta differential between in an out current
Thanks for spending time teaching, Ive been remodeling houses for rental property, and do everything I can or teach myself. A lot of these older houses have the 2 wire cloth insulation, I hate it!
Shocking video! This is why an RCD - GFI - Earth Fault devices are a must especially on old systems. I hate metal boxes. So many chances for ground leakage, from chafed wires or terminals touching. Great video content. Nice to see a Dad and Son team. Glad you came out the other side of that electrocution, especially across the chest. It is often suggested that working with live loads one arm should be behind your back, to channel the current down away from heart. I bet you will never forget the distinctive taste in your mouth of an electric shock.
A GFCI on the socket would not help in this. It protects against equipment fault but not against fault where the voltage is on the ground contact. The only sure way is to break the ground contact like he did the adapter. In Europe it would happen automatically with ungrounded sockets and grounded plugs.
If the GFCI was on the panel it would help. It has to be upstream from the failure point.
This shows the risk of ungrounded metal boxes.
Jordan. Are you planning on also making shirts with things ya'll say in videos? Or is it just gonna be "Stud Pack"
When I sold our "no grounds 1923" house several years ago, we had several 3-prong outlets (obviously NOT grounded). An inspector told me it was a code violation to use grounded 3-prong receptacles in an ungrounded circuit. NOW I KNOW WHY!! 😳🤩
Thank you! Love your excellent content!
Absolutely a violation. A user plugging in a three-prong plug into a three-prong outlet thinks he's got a safe appliance: but in that case the ground isn't hooked up to anything! Ungrounded outlets may be found in older homes. I've seen two-prong outlets used for 120V air conditioners where the current draw was so much, due to the old, corroded, and weak-springed outlet, that the outlet itself was crumbling from the heat produced. The consumer doesn't know to look or think anything about old loose connections on a high amp draw.
@@reecenewton3097 Exactly! That's the "lesson" I learned (as a younger man) from the inspector. This is the reason there are electrical codes... so you don't create a potential death trap for an unknowing person. Follow the "rules", and no one gets hurt! 😊
But you can put in a GFI and it is legal.
@@StanSwan I had MANY (most in the entire 2-story house) receptacles like that... currently GFCI receptacles at Lowe's are $12, and they are a mechanical device prone to breaking. Foolproof tracing downstream outlets to avoid replacement of each and every outlet would have been a tedious task! A potential buyer of that house would also think "Why are there GFCI receptacles in the living room?? 🤔
Problem solved... I sold that house.
@@nortonnewmann3711 Prone to tripping is the point, they are doing their job.
Great content. I have been in the remodelling industry for over 20 years and you by far explain your stuff in great, clear detail. Great work!
Thx Chris 👍
So nice to see you promote pride of workmanship and safety....Bravo!
What a great illustration! Thank you. Your natural, easy way of speaking makes me feel like I've known you personally for many years. Thanks again for great content.
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Thank you for this video. Something to always keep in mind. One time, while rewiring a rental unit, one circuit would trip as soon as I flipped the breaker. I checked everything in the junction box I could think of several times to no avail. Finally, for some reason, I disconnected one wire in particular and it worked fine. I finally found a burr on the inside of the clamp connector of that wire going into the junction box. That burr had pierced the positive and negative wires and grounded it out.
I had the exact same problem. I installed a grounded receptacle in my garage that had the three wires properly connected and a burr on the clamp had pierced the hot wire. The breaker should have tripped but the current through the burr was not enough to trip the breaker but it gave me a good shock when I touched the metal box. The green wire was properly grounded and everything looked good. After removing the box I discovered the burr and the small hole in the black (hot) wire. Now I check all boxes after any work.
Had a similar problem at work where the conduit was not continuous and the Journeyman electricians, to save time did not install the conduit back to the main box and had connected the hot to the green ground wire. In moving equipment a connector from another circuit hit the ungrounded conduit and there was a big spark. Fortunately the conduit and boxes were behind the bench where it would have been difficult to have accidentally touched them. I do not trust so called "licensed or certified" electricians.
Excellent presentation, and glad you are OK after your serious shock.
That went across your heart! Lucky to still be here.
Was waiting for this vid for a while! What a crazy series of events that very well could have been deadly. Good to know!
Thank you for posting this. Very informative. Glad you survived that. All the best.
I have been in Electronics Technology some 40 yrs. (not a Electrician, but Technician) and the worst shock I experienced was from a TV picture tube, and it scared the heck out of me. Thank you for the excellent video, as it may save someone's life some day.
Is that how you found out they hold quite the charge for days after they're off?
Fantastic video!!! I ran into similar issues when washing my hands, which usually have cuts, and getting in mild shock! Lots of improper grounding/wiring out there!!
This was the best video you guys have done and I've watched alot of them. My Grandfather was an electrician that worked from the Rural Electrification Administration running power lines to small towns in South Carolina. He died when I was 7-8 years old (in my 50's now), but I do remember him saying, "It's not not volts that kill people, it's amps." But "best" case scenario here, you could have been exposed to up to 15 amps, MORE than enough to kill you or somebody else. Glad you were ok and able to fix the situation.
thanks for enlightening many of us. can't imagine how that felt. It's a miracle you are still alive. People say "oh, it's only 120 volts". It's not the voltage, it's the current traveling through your heart.
Once again you provide us with clear and useful information, thanks guys.
so i bumped into the first of you videos, that lead me to this one. i said thank you,thank you on the first and now thank you thank you on this one. not everyone goes into depth and detail. the way you explained things and show what it is your talking about makes all the difference int the world!!!!!!
Glad you found us Joseph 👊👍
Thank you for telling that story; I am sure it will keep accidents from happening! I went around the apartment and checked for grounded outlets.
homie re-lived a flashback just for us....you the MVP 👏🏼
Thanks for explaining that. My parents had a Sears freezer. Sometimes if you grabbed the metal handle it would give you a little shock. Not a static shock, a regular tingle. Maybe it was hot. House was wired correctly.
Good job describing this and great way to simulate. At around the 9:00 mark, Stud begins a good description of how the black (hot) wire in the original old 2-wire box ended up energizing the green ground terminal. What may not have been clear was that once the refrigerator power cord is plugged into that old circuit, the green ground terminal (now hot) on the old box is now connected to the refrigerator chassis. Don't forget that the refrigerator power cord green ground terminal is screwed to the refrigerator chassis. Again, once the power cord was connected to the old box, the now hot green ground wire originating from the old box made the refrigerator chassis hot. He's lucky that something more serious did not happen to him.
Thx Michael 👍👊
Great video. This is something that anyone could come across. Thank you for detailed explanation. Shows the importance of electrical testing on installation.
Great video, thank you for sharing. My first house was an ancient, built in 1921, with knob and tube wiring. This isn't related, but it had a 30 amp service with a wopping two 15 amp fuse spots. One fuse ran all the lights and one ran all the plugs. The house was small, about 650 square feet. There was a secondary service of 60 amps added (still fuses) for the stove plug and a few extra kitchen plugs). But when we moved in, the fuse for the outlets was a 30 amp fuse. So that was, who knows how long, prior residents running a 30 amp fuse on a 15 amp circuit on knob and tube wiring. I'm not even sure if that knob and tube was 14 gauge or not. At one point I had to replace a light switch (it was one of those ancient push button style switches) and the rubber on the wiring was turning to dust in my hand. I upgraded it all before I sold the house. That house's electrical scared me.
Thx Larry. My mom’s house still has some knob and tube😳
That's something you see quite often: 30A fuses on 15A circuits. It's often how people manage a fuse that "keeps blowing," rather than finding out how they are overloading the circuit.
What's even worse is when a so-called "electrician" does this just to save time and make a quick buck.
@@sanityassassin8161 You ever hear of people putting pennies in fuses? I've never seen it, but I have been told stories of people putting pennies in there so it never blows. Scary stuff!
Paul, I'm a new fan... deeply appreciative of your penchant for vivid, detailed explanations. I searched for your "worst shock" video after you referred to it elsewhere... and watched it twice. I've had my own numerous brushes with "elimination" and empathize with your being blindsided by the hidden hazard of electrocution risk... despite your obvious lifetime of experience and sense of caution. I'm an electrical engineer with safety obsession... and read in 1990 NEC that "tight spaces" are notorious death traps by electrocution... and you almost got your early reward in heaven in that humble refrigerator bay. Egad, black wire draped over raw punch out sharp edge!! NOT GOOD. Soooooo glad you're OK...and then shared your experience sooooooo thoughtfully.
1990 NEC Section 210-7 (b) wags a no-no to that un-grounded 3-prong receptacle. 2007 California Electrical Code Section 406.3 outlaws a 3-prong receptacle (aka "outlet") where no ground exists. ... NOWADAYS two-prong receptacles are now expensive while three-prong receptacles are cheap and widely available. Any DIYer should not casually install the cheap receptacle in this situation... BUT any home improvement contractor (or buyer of old house) should anticipate these problems. As a father of adult children, I also inspect OLD apartments they rent, using my RECEPTACLE TESTER, and then write letters to landlords, demanding corrective action to hazards... THIS RARELY BRINGS MUCH REACTION. But I digress.
In summary... tradesmen and safety-conscious people of all stripes are wise to own, and use, simple ELECTRICAL SAFETY DETECTORS. Thank you for mentioning these.
That was a great video on how to keep safe. It's crazy how some people don't understand electricity basics and it could have killed someone with no consequence to the person that did this and had the house inspected. I don't know how they thought stripping the wires that far back wouldn't short out. Congrats on the domain name. I will check out your merchandise. Glad you guys are ok. Love your videos. I'm finishing my basement to keep busy. Take care. Keep Rockin'out Jordan!
In most jurisdictions, it is against code to install 3-prong receptacles on wiring systems without a ground wire, however there were clearly errors done in that install which resulted in your incident. Glad you survived, and thank you for passing on that lesson.
Thx 👊👍
Thank the maker that you're OK....appreciate all your knowledge. 👍👌💯
This might be the best example of bad wiring. Your video taught me alot.
I've been electrocuted. This how I suspect I got shocked at the freezer. When I was about 2. It hurts and leaves damaged nerves (like in one of my eyes). It through me back. I am way older now and I still vividly remember how electrocution felt on that day. I don't know how I am alive. Parents never took me to the doctor because we were too poor. Now I am a electrical engineer too. This kind of brought back memories for me.
Thanks for the video.
Wow, so lucky you only got thrown back. Current running through your chest like that could've lead to your heart stopping. Glad to hear you're ok.
I'm planning to eventually upgrade all the wiring in my home but it's such a huge job. The thought of having to rip open all the walls is daunting.
When I’ve seen it done electricians are very careful about opening up small holes (maybe 2”x4”) where needed to get at wiring. Typically by the floor and by the ceiling to run it to different levels.
Great work, very glad to hear you didn’t get hurt.
Excellent explanation! Thanks for taking the time to explain in detail something that I have seen before yet never fully understood.
I'd have replaced the box with plastic or composite. Interior metal boxes are so unpredictable like u said, because any short issues go straight to the box and potentially you. You just can't be too careful when handling a metal box issue, even just changing out a switch or receptacle. One touch and, " pop", goes the breaker and sometimes not even. Even if the wires are put in properly, from the bottom or top and clamped in. Lucky you had a good heart. Thanks.
I remember an electrician once told me, in school, then make u hold a wire and ground u and make it hot, and teach you not to jump and possibly make things worse. Thats like saying, stand steady and let a snake strike you without moving... Right.
Great video! Love the explanation and re-creation of what happened!
Thank you sir. You very well saved some lives today with this great demonstration.
Great job
Wow, perfect explanation. I was merely watching a random video. Thank you for the proper names/function
This is a great video, 3 years later but its not too late to understand this. Thanks
Thank you for this video that I, and so many others have requested.
thanks for sharing your experience and so glad that you survived!
Wow, very cool and sobering. I just started as an electrician and we ran into this EXACT situation with some Wire Mold....The wire mold became energized because no one had used a connector in a metal box. The hot wire was almost completely cut through. When I went to hook up our ground wire to the ground screw on a wall heater it threw a ton of sparks and vaporized the copper. That was when we knew something was wrong, lol! Took us 6 hours to find the problem, but the GFCI tester said hot and neutral reversed, just like your situation. When we finally opened that receptacle we found the wire.
That's a cool story... glad you weren't hurt. Best of luck in your electrician's career 👍💪
Great video! Great problem breakdown/explanation, and solutions to resolve the issues as best as possible. Appreciate the content!
I check your channel almost every night for new videos. Love your attitudes & work ethic!
Great information for students who fallow you, thanks for showing to the people. Jorge .
Thank god you made it thru that mess.
Very well done and informative......thanks for sharing!!
I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you rigged up that whole system to demonstrate!
Very informative! Thanks for taking the time to recreate what happened.
My wife and I recently bought a house and the basement was partially finished. I started to move some of the walls and found out that the previous owner had done the work and used steel stud track for the top and bottom plates with wood studs, all held together with drywall screws... Along with that, he punched holes in the top plates and didn't use any grommets to insulate the wires as they passed through. The bottom steel tracks are all rusted because they are flat on the concrete floor. I have a lot of work to do in order to undo and redo it all....
People failing to put in those connectors is a pet peeve of mine, and I see it all the time. I just can't believe someone will make a connection to a metal box without using a 20 cent part to make it safe.
Discovered a similar thing on the front patio circuit in our house. Previous owners disconnected the ground in the panel to "fix" it. I discovered when I was adding an outside outlet that the ground wasn't connected in the panel, so I connected it. Breaker kicked immediately when I turned it on. There was an outlet in the circuit with the Hot/Neutral connected backwards and the hot was stripped back too far and touching the ground wire. I ended up rewiring the entire circuit and found other issues (circa 1940's wire was used on a mid-80's house & improper junctions). I can't imagine how dangerous it was before I discovered the issue with hot grounds, thankfully I was ADDING the outside outlet and never used it like that with the table saw).