Electrical question.

That sounds like a rule I need to apply in my projects.

I have a sticky switch in my house. When you heard the pop it could have been enough to fry the contacts in the switch. the switch could also flow enough power to get a reading but not enough to support a load. Those are the hardest to diagnose.
 
Jmann said:
Do you have a multimeter and some spare romex? I would check for continuity of each wire from the switch to the receptacle. I say spare romex because it’s likely too far of a stretch for a multimeter’s probe wires. If I was in your shoes I would want to confirm continuity of the wiring. Any loss of continuity would indicate a bigger problem relating to a break in wiring. If they all have continuity it could just be an improper connection at the switch.
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i found an open neutral in Norm's house - that was fun.
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without causing a panic - this is how electrical fires start....

If you heard a pop, a wire has probably melted at a tight turn when it arced to the box.
Take the fan down, and look for a black streak in the box from the welding session.

Test power to ground, and power to neutral. If both fail move on to a continuity test.
You don't need real wire for the continuity test - speaker wire will work.
More than likely your neutral and ground are tied together, so just confirm continuity on one -
it is all about the black wire. Do it with the power off!
No continuity, means it is open somewhere along the path........
Probably just fish a new wire.

If you have continuity and no power, it is probably a mis-wire of the switch. they can be temperamental.
Get a fan with a remote.

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i just did a ceiling fan yesterday. When I pulled the old one down, it was connected to the ceiling with a 1.5" screw into a stud, and a toggle bolt.
No electrical box, the wire just poked through the ceiling. Same house as the buried electric in the kitchen.

1596139730981.png1596139812843.png
 
Landlord’s son installed an IKEA hanging lamp in the eat in kitchen area of my college apt.
Hung from a thin cable, and then had the power cord going to the lamp.

Next morning I find the structural cable had severed, and the lamp was hanging by the electrical cord.
Huh- that’s odd.

I grab the 2 ends of the structural cable, planning to twist them together to take the load off the cord.
Blammo- next thing I know I’m on the floor in the livingroom.

@Patrick can probably puzzle that one out, I just steered clear until it was repaired.
That should have been a free month’s rent though.
 
When I was my kid’s age, I was learning about electromagnets, so I got some wire wrapped around a big nail, then plugged one end into each side of the outlet. That ended as you might expect.
It was prolly around then I decided becoming ME may work out better than EE.
Aaaand here we are ...
 
Here's one I didn't bother to figure out:

We stayed at an old farm house in Italy last summer (don't go to Italy in August). If I was in bare feet (stone floor), touching the electric stove top gave me a light shock. The toaster oven too. My assumption was that those circuits were not properly tied to ground (real, stake-in-the-ground ground).
 
mfennell said:
Here's one I didn't bother to figure out:

We stayed at an old farm house in Italy last summer (don't go to Italy in August). If I was in bare feet (stone floor), touching the electric stove top gave me a light shock. The toaster oven too. My assumption was that those circuits were not properly tied to ground (real, stake-in-the-ground ground).
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No real worries about international travel these days.
 
w_b said:
When I was my kid’s age, I was learning about electromagnets, so I got some wire wrapped around a big nail, then plugged one end into each side of the outlet. That ended as you might expect.
It was prolly around then I decided becoming ME may work out better than EE.
Aaaand here we are ...
Click to expand...

Reminds me of this story from my youth, In 8th grade my home room was the science classroom. Instead of desks we had tables with outlets at each one, and the outlets were on a switch. One morning a kid who sat at my table decided to put a paper clip in the outlet. The bell rang, we walked out the door, and on his way out he flipped the switch on. The sound it made and the teacher's flabbergasted reaction still makes me giggle 26 years later.
 
Well, since we are driving this topic into the ditch...

Way back in my pre-teen youth, I had an erector set with a battery powered motor. Batteries went dead and were expensive for a unemployed ten year old.
So I cut and wired up an extension cord to the DC motor probally took me half a day, and plugged that sucker in the wall

motor.jpg

outlet near my dads saw table. Kaboom and it let the smoke out. Scared the crap out of me. Next day dad goes to use the saw and the breaker was tripped. He read me the riot act about acdc, no not the band...
 
So what are the odds of two bad switches? I assume the pop was the end of the dimmer. I replaced that with an old switch which sent me on this wild goose chase. Last night, out of laziness (easier than climbing the ladder again) I swapped that old switch with another old switch and now everything works perfectly.
 
Bike N Gear said:
So what are the odds of two bad switches? I assume the pop was the end of the dimmer. I replaced that with an old switch which sent me on this wild goose chase. Last night, out of laziness (easier than climbing the ladder again) I swapped that old switch with another old switch and now everything works perfectly.
Click to expand...
What do I win? 😉
 
Yup, definitely non-zero. I wasted hours on one job with a brand new defective GFCI a few years back. That sucked,
 
Well the fan has been running for a few days now. My son mentions last night that the light flashed once or twice. Great. He's heading back to school next weekend so I can just shut this off and worry about it for Thanksgiving.
 
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