Ngl, I used to swear by hourly billing for everything. Felt like it covered my ass if something went sideways. But after my 500th call last month in Phoenix, I realized I was leaving money on the table for simple stuff like swapping out a breaker or fixing a loose neutral. On the flip side, I took a flat rate job for a whole house rewire and the guy had knob and tube hiding in the walls. Took me an extra 3 hours and I ate the cost. So which side do you lean on? Hourly for safety or flat rate to keep it simple?
Ngl, I was always a wire nut guy. Thought WAGOs were just for homeowners or guys who didn't trust their twists. Then I watched a foreman pull a 277v lighting circuit apart in a warehouse in Charlotte and re-terminate like 40 connections in 10 minutes with the lever-style ones. Seeing how clean and fast it was made me buy a pack the next day. Has anyone else switched camps after seeing them used on a big commercial job?
I told him it wasn't code and he said 'just do it anyway' so I walked off the job, has anyone else had to refuse work like that?
I was troubleshooting a flickering light in a house near Austin last Tuesday. Everyone on this forum seems to jump straight to the main panel, but I found the issue was a worn wire nut behind a ceiling fan. Spent two hours poking around before I thought to check the j-box. Anyone else ever waste time pulling apart a perfectly good panel?
I was wiring up a subpanel in a garage in Phoenix last week. Used a Wago 221 on a 10 AWG solid copper ground wire. It clicked in fine at first but when I tugged on it, the wire slid right out. Turns out the 221 series is only rated up to 12 AWG for solid wire. Had to swap to a bigger Wago or just a wire nut. I learned to always check the rating on the package before trusting a connector. Has anyone else run into this with solid wire in the larger gauges?
He showed me how much time I was losing on a big panel job in Denver and now I won't go back, has anyone else made the switch and noticed a difference?
Installed a set of 16ft LED strip lights in my basement workshop in Cleveland last week. Used a standard Lutron dimmer I had laying around. Lights flicker bad below 50% brightness. Called the supply house and they said I need an ELV or MLV dimmer for LED tape. Anyone run into this? What dimmer did you settle on for strips?
I put in a new GFCI breaker on a job last week for a basement bathroom remodel. Customer wanted the expensive brand, the Square D QO series. It tripped every morning around 6 AM for three straight days. No load on it at night, nothing plugged in. I spent hours chasing a phantom ground fault, checked every box and splice twice. Finally I swapped it out for a different breaker from the same batch and the problem vanished. Had to eat the cost of the first one since the supply house won't take back used electrical parts. Anyone else run into duds from a fresh box of breakers lately?
Picked up one of those Nest knockoffs from Amazon last month for a simple baseboard heater install. Turns out it needs a C wire or it just cycles on and off randomly. Had to rip it out after 3 days and swap back to the old mercury switch. Anyone else get burned by those 'works with everything' claims?
I was out on a service call in a new build in Huntersville last spring and the house lights kept flickering. I checked voltage at the panel and it read fine, 120 on each leg. Then a guy I was working with just looked at my meter leads and asked if I ever zeroed them out. I had been using my Fluke 117 for about 10 years and never once hit that relative button. Turns out my leads had a tiny resistance that was messing up my continuity and low voltage readings the whole time. I always blamed wire problems or bad breakers when stuff acted weird. Has anyone else missed something that simple for years?
Everyone says solid wire is better for commercial jobs but I swapped to stranded on a 30-unit apartment last month in Austin and the whole thing went faster. The zip ties held fine and I didn't have to fight with rigid bends. Has anyone else found stranded just works better for long pulls?
Was doing some lighting retrofits at a warehouse over in Chelsea last month. Grabbed a no-name meter from a discount tool spot thinking it would save me a few bucks. Put the probes on a ballast and watched the screen flash then go dead. Thing didn't even have a CAT rating on it. Had to borrow the building super's Fluke to finish the job. Any of you guys had a meter let go on you like that?
Had a conversation with a 30 year vet on a job site last Tuesday. He said I rely too much on the mechanical bender for offsets and saddles. Told me to learn the hand method with a level and tape. I thought he was crazy. But he showed me three 90s in 2 minutes flat. No setup, no hauling a heavy bender up three floors. I tried it myself on Thursday, messed up twice, but the third one was clean. Maybe I was overcomplicating things. Anyone else ditch the big bender for tight spots?
I used to think stripping wires with my teeth was no big deal, saved me a trip to my pouch (lazy, I know). Then a foreman walked by and told me I was wrecking my enamel and risking copper poisoning, not to mention cutting my lip on a bad strip. I switched to a proper Klein stripper after that day, and I haven't looked back. Has anyone else had a bad habit like this that took getting called out to change?
I just finished wiring a basement in a 1950s house near Pittsburgh and the inspector flagged me for not using GFCI breakers on the whole circuit, even though I had GFCI outlets at the first location. My usual method has been one GFCI receptacle protecting the downstream outlets, but a coworker insists that a breaker in the panel is safer and easier for future work. What do you all usually do when you have to protect multiple basement outlets and lights on the same circuit?
I used to be all about wire nuts for everything. Thought wagos were just for residential. Then this foreman at a hospital retrofit in Denver saw me twisting a 3-way and said 'you're costing us 20 minutes per box with those things.' He showed me how much faster the lever wagos were on a 4 gang switch box. Now I use them for most 12 gauge stuff. Has anyone else had a foreman change your whole approach to a certain fitting?
Went out on a service call this morning for a client in Arlington. Brand new bathroom remodel, nice tile work, all that. They said the outlet kept popping. I figured okay probably a bad install or some moisture. Nope. Pulled the cover and it was a brand new Leviton, still had the little sticker on it. Checked everything downstream, nothing on the load side. Replaced it with a different brand I had in the truck and boom no issues for the last 4 hours. Has anyone else had a run of bad GFCI's from one manufacturer lately or did I just get unlucky?
Been using a corded grinder with a cutoff wheel for years because I figured batteries just couldn't handle that kind of work. Last month I was on a resi job in Somerville and my buddy handed me his Milwaukee M18 cutoff tool to cut some threaded rod. That thing ate through 30 pieces of 3/8 rod on one charge without slowing down. Anyone else have a tool they swore off and then got proven wrong?
Had a lady call me out to her place in Tacoma last month, said her lights were flickering whenever she used the microwave. I pop open the panel and find neutral wires from three different circuits all jammed into one lug on the bus bar, plus some wire nuts that were barely twisted. She told me her brother-in-law "knew what he was doing" because he watched some YouTube videos. I charged her $180 for the trip alone and talked her into a full panel cleanup for $600 more. The worst part was she still seemed mad at me for pointing out the problems. Has anyone else run into homeowners who refuse to believe their friend or relative could mess up electrical work?
I used to bend my 90s by pulling hard on the bender handle until it felt right. Last month I was on a job in Portland and another electrician showed me how to line up the arrow mark on the bender with the conduit mark. Turned out I was overbending by about 10 degrees every time. Feeling dumb but also glad to finally get consistent bends. Has anyone else had a basic skill click way later than it should have?
Wire nuts took me twice as long and I almost dropped a hot neutral into the panel. Has anyone else noticed a huge time difference switching over?
Had an emergency service call last month at a warehouse off I-35, the main panel breaker kept tripping. I forgot my full bag in the truck and only had my pocket 11-in-1 on me. That little screwdriver had every bit I needed to pull the cover and tighten a loose lug, no running back to the van. Anyone else ever rely on just one tool to get through a rough job?
I was doing a 400amp panel swap last month and used push connectors on about half the neutrals. Had to pull 3 of them back out because they wouldn't seat right with the bundle. Swapped to lever Wagos for the rest and finished 2 hours faster. Anyone else have trouble with push connectors on thicker wire?
Spent a whole Tuesday in a crawl space in Richmond and somehow hit every 90 degree bend spot on without any rework. Has anyone else had one of those days where everything just clicks and you feel like a magician?
Finally pulled the cover off a ceiling box in a basement I've been working on and found a nest made of old wire strippings and three dead mice, the lights haven't flickered since I cleaned it out.