Doorbell wired in AC curcuit

[bmaec]

Had a interesting call today. No cooling, found indoor unit with blown fuse on the curcuit board for the 24 volts, found that someone wired in a doorbell with the t-stat wires that went to the condencing unit and the doorbell went bad causing the fuse to blow. Customer was mad with me he thought I took to long tracing out the problem. Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them.

[NormChris]

I ran into an entire development of homes with this same problem. Except the AC control transformer fuse would blow only when it so happened that someone rang the door bell when the AC was running.

The control transformer was operating right at its VA limit by itself. When the bell rang it was just enough to blow the control fuse.

[beenthere]

In 30 years I've on;y had that once.

And they atleast tapped off the transformer directly.

[bmaec]

like someone once told me never forget the human factor.
Thanks for your replies, Barb

[HVAC Pro]

Had a no heat call a few yrs. ago. When I got there, I found a frustrated telephone company tech. He was dirty from head to toe as the crawl was very tight. My diagnosis was that the stat wire was broken between the thermostat and the boiler. You got it! He had spliced into the thermostat wire in the crawl. I asked if I could speak to him outside as I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the customer. With a little attitude he came along and still denied having done it. Blamed it on another tech who was there a few days earlier. My job was easy, as I just cut his wire loose.

[splitbolt]

Doorbells and garage door buttons. Seen them both.

[bamabones]

why we need conduit and wiring ducts,and all trades using it

[smokin68]

Originally posted by bmaec
Had a interesting call today. No cooling, found indoor unit with blown fuse on the curcuit board for the 24 volts, found that someone wired in a doorbell with the t-stat wires that went to the condencing unit and the doorbell went bad causing the fuse to blow. Customer was mad with me he thought I took to long tracing out the problem. Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them.

If cousin Bubba hadn't wired the doorbell, it wouldn't have taken so long.He was mad at himself for letting someone or doing this himself, resulting in an otherwise unneeded service call. Trust me,if he could have diagnosed it quicker,you wouldn't have been there.

[h2045]

Friend of mine just starting out in plumbing biz. Installing new boiler after kitchen renovation. lights it off POW tranny blows. drains boiler cuts out goes back to supply house MF`s them gets new boiler POW same thing. Drains cuts out back to supplier, now supplier sends Weil McClain tech to help.January, 6pm I`m home out of work with broken leg, still have truck, phone rings. It`s my buddy, HELP!!!! I go & check out, YEP doorbell. Put `em on a light switch that nite `til they pulled new wire.

Don`t know how he did with Weil Mc Clain after that...LOL

[dave_slo]

I said it before, and I will say it again... man-made problems can be the hardest to find and fix.

Now the story:
Years ago, when I worked in automotive, we had a customer come in with his 2 year old Cadillac, wanted his radiator flushed. We gave him the price, he thought it was too high, so he goes to the local Kragen's and buys one of them Prestone Flush 'n Fill kits. Goes home and installs it. Proceeds to hook up his garden hose, turns it on, and starts his engine. Loud noise from under the hood, followed by the engine throwing the A/C belts. (you can see where this is going...)

He brings car back to the shop and asks me what he did wrong, well, you guessed it, he cut his A/C line (didn't he wonder what that 'whooshing sound was?) instead of the heater line and filled his system with water. When he started his engine, the compressor froze trying to compress water and threw the belts.

So instead of paying for a $50.00 radiator flush, he spends well over $1000.00 to repair his water logged A/C system.
(new compressor & belts, hose, dryer, evap core, TXV valve, POA valve, system flush,evac and charge.) Oh yeah, and also a radiator flush.

Doesn't balk at all at the price, just tells us, "Whatever you do, don't tell my wife what I did..."

[ultratec]

Originally posted by h2045
Friend of mine just starting out in plumbing biz. Installing new boiler after kitchen renovation. lights it off POW tranny blows. drains boiler cuts out goes back to supply house MF`s them gets new boiler POW same thing. Drains cuts out back to supplier, now supplier sends Weil McClain tech to help.January, 6pm I`m home out of work with broken leg, still have truck, phone rings. It`s my buddy, HELP!!!! I go & check out, YEP doorbell. Put `em on a light switch that nite `til they pulled new wire.

Don`t know how he did with Weil Mc Clain after that...LOL

I cant believe he would change the boiler for an electrical problem. Never had the door bell problem, most of my work is commercial, I have had some people who like to power up the pool pump off the A/C disconnect lmao.It works when the pool pump is 220v. Went on one where the pump was 120v, wired it to 220v in the disconnect, said the pool pump ran really fast for a sec, then everything went off lol. I went out to disconnect the indoor 12ga. romex( wired on the 50amp A/c circut) from the disconnect and reset the breaker. I didnt know if I was gonna cry or start cracking up.

[Edited by ultratec on 06-21-2005 at 04:21 PM]

[h2045]

cant believe he would change the boiler for an electrical problem. Never had the door bell problem, most of my work is commercial, I have had some people who like to power up the pool pump off the A/C disconnect lmao.It works when the pool pump is 220v. Went on one where the pump was 120v, wired it to 220v in the disconnect, said the pool pump ran really fast for a sec, then everything went off lol. I went out to disconnect the indoor 12ga. romex( wired on the 50amp A/c circut) from the disconnect and reset the breaker. I didnt know if I was gonna cry or start cracking up.

IT Happened !!!!!!!!!!!!

[nc hvacman]

Heard about a maintenance tech years ago that used a cheater-Its a box made up to "steal" 120 from the disconnect with a duplex receptacle. Not something I would do today as OSHA would have a fit but they worked fine. She hooked to both hots and that recovery machine was recovering like crazy for a short time. I was thinking-If i put a GFCI Receptacle in my box wouldn't that be fine for the short time its hooked up as long as you were there next to it the entire time you have it hooked up. I know you need to have 15 amp current protection as well but I have never had a problem with my cheater cord.