Just had a full blown mains shock!

Rowby1

Glad you’re okay mate. I’ve had one like that just the once years ago.....I’m in no rush to experience it again!

spark240

Ouch!...assume you dont have an RCD at the board ?

Veganic

spark240 said:

Ouch!...assume you dont have an RCD at the board ?

Sounds like he just completed the circuit and the current passed across a finger rather than to earth?

Paul_C

I remember changing a grill element without remembering to turn off the oven and ending up sitting on the kitchen floor holding my arm .






I also remember putting the new element in (I had to wait a few days for it arrive) and sitting on the floor holding my arm a second time. . .

tone1

I assumed you bathed in goats milk Gas?

Glad you’re ok....

maltingsaudio

ICBM said:

 
On a slightly more serious note, now you will know that when someone says "I want the old US mains cable and the grounding cap left in my vintage amp for originality, I don't want a new cable fitted" they simply aren't aware of the possible consequences...

Actually illegal to do that, you can be fined or inprisoned by trading standards. Should open up a can of worms!

exocet

Had my first mains shock aged about 4.
The most dramatic shock I've ever had was off the HV side of the ignition system of my parents first car. That felt like my arm was being yanked off....very low current I assume?

tone1

exocet said:

Had my first mains shock aged about 4.
The most dramatic shock I've ever had was off the HV side of the ignition system of my parents first car. That felt like my arm was being yanked off....very low current I assume?

Hi Voltage, low current..... lots of Fun  

ICBM

gringopig said:

I know now but back then I hadn't a clue and thought that it would be OK as it had been off for a week.

Me too, on the very first valve amp I ever worked on, when I didn't know. An old 50W Marshall - one of the amps that doesn't automatically discharge its own caps when you turn off. I thought it was safe because I'd made sure it was unplugged from the wall. The cap still measured over 200V *after* it had given me a very nasty belt... that taught me a lot.

maltingsaudio said:

ICBM said:

 
On a slightly more serious note, now you will know that when someone says "I want the old US mains cable and the grounding cap left in my vintage amp for originality, I don't want a new cable fitted" they simply aren't aware of the possible consequences...

Actually illegal to do that, you can be fined or inprisoned by trading standards. Should open up a can of worms!

I have had arguments with potential customers about things like this... not a problem - if you don't want your amp made compliant with safety regs then I am more than happy not to work on it.

Myranda

tone1 said:

exocet said:

Had my first mains shock aged about 4.
The most dramatic shock I've ever had was off the HV side of the ignition system of my parents first car. That felt like my arm was being yanked off....very low current I assume?

Hi Voltage, low current..... lots of Fun  

Danger! Danger!

ESBlonde

Been there done that. Ouch. For good measure I was also told that the reset works but the period between resets shortens until the insert is replaced. The cost about a tenner and just slide down inside the heating element.  Two standard lengths long or short - across or down the length of the tank. 
Turn off the power first though! 

Gassage

I'm OK. I am well enough to manage to place my personal injury and malaise to one side to reluctantly skipper the MCC at Lords in the last game of the season today.

Ordinarilly, I'd have said no, but you can't let the side down....

octatonic

Emp_Fab

You can feel the 50Hz frequency in a mains shock.  Most disconcerting!

I too have had HT shocks.  The worst was when I tried to stop a running car by yanking out the coil lead from the distributor cap.  4 times the number of 30KV+ shocks and unable to let go while the engine spun down.  Oweeee.

Simon_M

Tickles a bit doesn’t it?! I’m a sparky and I’ve had a few shocks too. Worst was off an industrial machine which I had isolated but forgot to discharge the caps and discharged a particularly large one through myself. Knocked me off my feet and across the room.

57Deluxe

Gassage said:

So, we have hot water issues. it seems our Hive do-dah isn't triggering the boiler.

And, the immersion heater was not great in any case, so Lee, the plumber came around today.

He couldn't fix it immediately, so he showed me how to reset the trip on the immersion heater in the tank.

He forgot to tell me to switch the mains off, so I reset it and promptly got a full on shock from the tank contacts at the top.

I was utterly shell shocked, like literally, and tried to explain to Alistair what had happened to which he replied

"Yes, but have we got any hot water now?"

I'm speechless!

good job you can still type though - eh!

lasermonkey

I've had a fair few shocks over the years. The first was probably the biggest shock (ie surprise). I was an apprentice at the time and I'd wired up a device in order to test it. I was distracted by the guy sitting next to me and had forgotten how far along I was. I placed the screwdriver into the live terminal, whilst touching the metal shaft, and got a belt off it. My elbow was resting on a conductive, earthed mat and the shock threw my whole arm backwards, causing the screwdriver to arc neatly though the air and land around 30 feet away. I had to apologise profusely to the old girl that it nearly hit. My arm hurt for the rest of the day.

Another time I had forgotten to check whether I had switched off the mains before grabbing the "electric harmonica" terminals on the back of the unit. It locked up my left hand, which I was using to remove the terminals and had to lean over and switch off the mains with my right hand. It wasn't particularly painful, but was a little scary.

The one that hurt most was from a plasma display unit. The test procedure was probably illegal and certainly dangerous, as both the mains board and 250vdc board were exposed and the only way to hold the thing to adjust it was via a small tab on the front panel. The tab was probably only around a centimetre , so not much to grab hold of. On this particular day, the thing slipped from my grip and without thinking, I grabbed it. One side of my hand got the 240vac, whilst the other side got the 250vdc. That really did hurt, and ended up blowing the circuit breaker for the whole department.

I have to say, I don't really miss working with mains!