Safety

Electrical Safety: Never Assume

Alton Johnson shares a real-world example of why technicians should never assume previous electrical work was done correctly. See how an improperly modified breaker can create a serious hazard—and why inspecting, verifying, and understanding what you’re working on should always come first.
Electric Water Heater
Appliances
Electrical
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Transcript

 All right, so I got a call for this water heater. You can tell that it has had some charring or maybe a slight fire or something started here one time before. I got some water right here in the electrical area. But let me tell you what the people who were here before did Now I've already removed this part here.

Now what had happened was that this breaker was flipped forward. This was put behind the breaker to keep it from moving back. Listen, don't ever do this. That breaker is there for a reason. Just in case you get too many amps, it can trip out so you can fix it properly. Do not ever... And actually I'm gonna take this crap off.

All right. Once I get some uh, once I turn this video off, I'm, I'm gonna take that off because I don't want anyone to flip the breaker back and then put this back to where it doesn't flip again. This is a very, very dangerous situation