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todays troubleshooting job

1422 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Chrisibew440, 
sparky970
Got a call this morning from a customer. They had lost power yesterday. The utility company came out. They had issues at the pole. Never got a detailed account. Anyway, they couldn't start their package boiler. Found a toasted CPT, a starter with a bad coil and the other starter in the control panel also had a bad coil, that had gotten hot enough, you couldn't even manuallly push in the contacts. Nice to come in and be the hero. One of the best parts about being an electrician
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C
Yeah my plant experience was the best by far, electrically and godly.

And yet this may sound untrue but I do miss being told that "every hour this plant is down! We loose $20,000!!!!!!! This particular customer was a plum dehydration facility with drying tunnels that had a very primitive gas and electrical set up that constantly needed service.
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Ultrafault
Chrisibew440 said:
Yeah my plant experience was the best by far, electrically and godly.

And yet this may sound untrue but I do miss being told that "every hour this plant is down! We loose $20,000!!!!!!! This particular customer was a plum dehydration facility with drying tunnels that had a very primitive gas and electrical set up that constantly needed service.
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That sounds like an easy upgrade sell of I ever heard one.
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rewire
Ultrafault said:
That sounds like an easy upgrade sell of I ever heard one.
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a lot of these type operations look at the cost of upkeep vs the cost of replacement and choose upkeep.
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C
sparky970 said:
Got a call this morning from a customer. They had lost power yesterday. The utility company came out. They had issues at the pole. Never got a detailed account. Anyway, they couldn't start their package boiler. Found a toasted CPT, a starter with a bad coil and the other starter in the control panel also had a bad coil, that had gotten hot enough, you couldn't even manuallly push in the contacts. Nice to come in and be the hero. One of the best parts about being an electrician
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One of the farms I do work at has pretty poor utility power. It seems like starter coils are always the weakest link. At least they're easy to replace, as long as you remember to keep spares in the shop!;)
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Zog
sparky970 said:
Got a call this morning from a customer. They had lost power yesterday. The utility company came out. They had issues at the pole. Never got a detailed account. Anyway, they couldn't start their package boiler. Found a toasted CPT, a starter with a bad coil and the other starter in the control panel also had a bad coil, that had gotten hot enough, you couldn't even manuallly push in the contacts. Nice to come in and be the hero. One of the best parts about being an electrician
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Assuming they have no UV protection?
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sparky970
Zog said:
Assuming they have no UV protection?
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Not that I know of. Their electrical maintenance guy was actually in one of my instrumentation classes 25yrs ago. His son was a couple years younger than me. He's a nice guy, but doesn't really know much about electrical. He keeps the plant running for the most part but calls when its not an obvious problem.
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E
Had one a year or two ago at the fish plant where someone neglected to close the PLC cabinet (it's in a washdown area) properly and then the workers hosed it down. That was a frickin mess :blink:
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C
erics37 said:
Had one a year or two ago at the fish plant where someone neglected to close the PLC cabinet (it's in a washdown area) properly and then the workers hosed it down. That was a frickin mess :blink:
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That should of ended with someone getting fired!

I've fought that problem at plants many times. Workers without a care in the world pointing high pressure hoses at electrical enclosures despite being told not too. The better places wrap their motors and enclosures in plastic garbage bags before washdown.
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Cow said:
That should of ended with someone getting fired!

I've fought that problem at plants many times. Workers without a care in the world pointing high pressure hoses at electrical enclosures despite being told not too. The better places wrap their motors and enclosures in plastic garbage bags before washdown.
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That'd be a great idea but chances are the garbage bags would never come back off :laughing:
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sparky970
erics37 said:
Had one a year or two ago at the fish plant where someone neglected to close the PLC cabinet (it's in a washdown area) properly and then the workers hosed it down. That was a frickin mess :blink:
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I just looked at some work today where that happened. It wiped out a DCS. Most, if not all of the electrical rooms around the mill are not sealed around the conduit penetrations. They are wanting us to seal all penetrations in every electrical room. Should be tons of easy work.
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rewire said:
a lot of these type operations look at the cost of upkeep vs the cost of replacement and choose upkeep.
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Exactly. It's nice on one hand but it would sure be nice to see things updated.
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