Never seen this before.

I came across this YouTube video which is worth a look. It is quite long, but does make you wonder what goes on with plumbers/electricians who are not thorough or competent.
Would you expect a 3 pin plug to be live even when not plugged in?

https://youtu.be/MQ_XKCf5NTQ

Sadly so many plumbers think that they are competant electricians even though they have no electrical qualifications. I know this can be said of many multi trade persons. I personally had to correct the plumber who wired in my boiler several years ago when he wired the thermostat without an earth even though the unit & box had earth tags. He used a 3 core cable when it should have been a 4 core as clearly shown in the wiring diagram. Luckily it was easy enough to fix but what if I had not spotted the error ?

regards

So many 'Plumbers' think they are competent Plumbers. With the introduction of push fits, Yorkshire fittings are a mystery to some.

Regards Ian.

A lot to be said for the old fashioned apprenticeships that people took many years ago, it gave a thorough grounding in most aspects of the trades. I was loosely involved in training apprentices back in the 90’s, the company sent the youngsters of to college for a few months and when they returned to the company full time they were sent to the machine shop and had to fend for themselves, most were totally out of their depth and it’s no wonder that mistakes happen, I know we learn by our mistakes but we should at least be supervised when making those mistakes to minimise consequences. Dave W

I couldn't agree more.

It's not just plumbers. The introduction of those push-fit electrical connectors really worries me. Colleagues with no electrical training - or even understanding - have said they have started doing electrics using these push-fit junctions, which are so easy to use that anyone can have a go, and which gives them confidence to break into any wire they might find to power something; with no consideration about load or which circuits they might be. I worry about future fire risks.

And in the last two houses I have "owned"; both built less than 30 years ago, the "standards" of work done by - presumably, qualified electricians? - has been woeful. Not incorrectly wired, but very untidy and haphazard. Wires not clipped along the joists but just run loose and randomly across the loft insulation. Off-cuts of wire and insulation just left lying around; structural joists and woodwork cut through or half-through just to mount a ceiling light, (which could have been moved 2" further over to avoid the joist), and with no reinforcement applied. I can only wonder what horrors there might be behind the plasterboard walls.

Edited By John Doe 2 on 10/12/2022 11:40:05

We had a new boiler fitted a few years ago and some time after I had a problem with the diverter valve however looking at the wiring diagram that came with the boiler it bore no resemblance to the actual wiring.

Buzzed it all out and sorted the problem but I'm convinced it was done so we had to call the installer to sort out any problems!

Alan

Back in the early 80's I got a job in a metal finishing company a couple of day's into the job one of the plating line operators came and said his anodic rectifier was not working so on checking it out one of the 3 phases was dead and I thought it strange it was feed by 3 yellow wires, looking in the nearest fuse board nothing was marked up also no fuses feeding 3 yellow wires so after checking other fuses boards still at a loss to find these yellow wires I then decided to take off the trunking covers following the 3 yellow wires they were joined to 3 blue wires which were then joined to 3 red wires checking in the first fuse board 1 of the 3 reds was joined again and I then found that as the wires were to big for the terminal block some of the conductors had been cut out to fit in the terminal block and must have been loose and burned off. Made a quick repair followed by a rewire at the weekend. This was not the only dodgy workmanship I found over my time there but those are for another day

H

Plumbers may think they are electricians by virtue of being members of the EETPU rather than by training. Some plumbers who are trained to work on gas boilers have to have some knowledge of electrics but I'm not sure to what level. Maybe only to the level that the know not to touch it.

CS