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| What's everyone's first thought when I state that one hot conductor of an underground service (to a mobile home) has simply ceased to conduct electricity?
What's the permanent fix? This individual is not interested in buying all new wire to go from the pole to his house. And by "is not interested", I mean, it simply won't happen. There's no way I can scare him into it. Is there some approved method for splicing the wire back together once we find the break?
As a temporary fix (overnight only, and because all of his lights except one are on the 'dead' side), I have disconnected and isolated the broken wire on both ends (unhooked, wrapped in tape, folded back, and taped again) and installed a 30A DP breaker with its load terminals connected together to feed the dead side from the live side. Of course he has no hot water... Going back tomorrow - plan is to kill the power at the outside disconnect and dig up the cable, wherever it might go, hoping to find the break. I don't have any of those fancy non-contact wire-following break-finding gizmos, but I do have a shovel and it's only about 10 feet...
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by spencer_electrician (My Page) on Wed, Mar 31, 10 at 23:32
| 10 feet of cable will be a lot cheaper than a proper direct burial splice kit and time to splice a section of wire between the breaks. If it is really 10 feet and you have to dig to find the break, the cable would be under $50. |
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| This happens all the time to aluminum wire. |
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| If the wire is direct burial AL, your customer (interested or not) will eventually replace the wire. It can be now, or later after 4 or 5 splices/repairs, but the "long term fix" IS replacement. Don't worry about convincing him to replace it, simply state that if YOU make the repair, that the wire will be replaced. If he still "is not interested", take your 30A breaker and leave. |
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- Posted by bus_driver (My Page) on Thu, Apr 1, 10 at 8:43
| Dig it, man. |
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http://yfrog.com/5mswires001jx  Well THERE'S yer problem! |
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| If he's unwilling to buy 10 ft of service entrance cable, pack you gear and go away, and let someone else deal with him. By the time you locate the break and splice, your labor will be more than 10 ft of cable. |
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| but I do have a shovel and it's only about 10 feet... Plus 5'going down and 5' going up and enough in the box to make connections. All of a sudden it's 25' of cable. |
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| As hendricus indicates, the length of the cable is longer than the distance between the pole and the building. In any case, as you might be able to tell from the fact that I posted pictures of the break... we found it. |
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| Ummm... where would we find the pictures? |
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| Right here - or you could click the thumbnail five posts before this, with the caption "Well THERE'S yer problem!" |
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