Can A Broken Ground Wire Cause Start Capacitor to Fail?

no

The ground wire is provided to guard against electric shock in case of a ground fault in the equipment....All electrical equipment should be grounded via separate copper wire from chassis to outside ground rod....It is not likely to have any effect on the capacitor, which is much more likely to be effected by voltage irregularities, and poor quality of materials and design....

I won't say that it is impossible but a failure mechanism does not come to me. Even if the pump was turned ON during this construction.

That's my thought, too.

The pad's far enough away from the pool that it doesn't normally get wet, unless they're having a cannonball contest.

Thanks, all.

Can't think of any link between a broken earth (ground) and the capacitor failing.

Thanks for the link, it made me chuckle.
As an ETU convenor I fought tooth and nail to stop the merger with the fitters even though I started my apprenticeship in the machine shop.

The lack of professionalism evident in having more than one incidence like uncorrected dirtying of neighbors property/equipment at a single job site, reaffirmed with allowing it to become a 'month long ordeal' is worth noting.

.

At the very minimum, this contractor should pay the rightful asshole tax assessment for dipping into the community good will and benefit of the doubt resources. The tax assessment might be paid in dollar, a sincere apology, or forfeited future business, depending on how cooperative/smart the contractor is.

.

Angie's list and local craigslist reviews about the glaring lack of professionalism are two ways to place a lien on reputation to insure the payment of assessed asshole taxes.

I believe that's a bit unduly harsh from so little information. Underground power feeds fail very infrequently. However, when an underground feed fails the repair will be far more extensive. Often the cable replacement will take longer than the initial installation to minimize damage to developed land, maintaining power downstream via alternate routes, not to mention the likely redesign required to bring in a new permanent feed.

You misunderstand the criticism. I'm criticizing the fact that the contractor got dirt on the neighbor's equipment and left the gate open, more than once, without apologizing or cleaning it up.

If it had only been once, or if it had been cleaned up, or possibly just a sincere apology early on, it would be a different story. Respect for the property of others, including those who don't happen to be clients at the moment, is a necessary part decent professionalism. Lyn would probably be doing the contractor a favor by demonstrating how a lack of professionalism can lead to a pain in the ass situation later on.

All I'll get is an empty apology.

The original notice said they would be there for two weeks. This is with 4 foot deep holes in both pool and non-pool sides of my yard. Covered with ply-wood.

They left a week late, then came back the next week because they "forgot" to do something. Dug it up again, then left, never saying they were done, after I specifically asked that they notify me, when finished.

No recourse.

You do have it in you to dish out much deserved criticism...I've witnessed in on more than one occasion, so I know it wasn't a fluke.

.

The thing is there is almost no chance it will result in monetary compensation for you. It might be nice to get it off your chest. You may very well be doing the contractor a big favor.

I'm going to write a letter and send it to several company executives and the Corporation Commission.

For what that's worth.

Well I feel the workman's point of view is underrepresented here and I am obliged to put forth the opposing viewpoint.....I bet you never opened the pool to the hot workman who slaved all day in the heat with nothing to look at but an enticing pool that being only steps away might just as well have been miles because the ogre of an owner refused refuge....No offer of refreshment, no after hours beerfest, no barbecue, only complaints and scowering looks with furrowed brow disapproval...Now he wants us to pay to repair his outdated poorly maintained equipment, when he should be offering us monetary reward for minimizing the damage to his property.....and thanking us for a job well done....

"Well I feel the workman's point of view is underrepresented here and I am obliged to put forth the opposing viewpoint.....I bet you never opened the pool to the hot workman who slaved all day in the heat with nothing to look at but an enticing pool that being only steps away might just as well have been miles because the ogre of an owner refused refuge" That's right! Since there was no one there during the day, they could have well gone swimming.

"No offer of refreshment, no after hours beerfest, no barbecue, only complaints and scowering looks with furrowed brow disapproval" Correct again, except for the furrowed brow part

"Now he wants us to pay to repair his outdated poorly maintained equipment" The pool plaster, finish, cool decking, $12,000.00; pump, $300.00 filter $450.00 were all replaced two years ago.

"when he should be offering us monetary reward for minimizing the damage to his property" The grass was/is covered by a 6-7 foot wide dirt pile for 50 feet across my back yard. It will grow back up through the dirt, in time. "and thanking us for a job well done" The job ran over twice as long as predicted, I was left open to a wrongful death lawsuit TWICE WITHIN A THREE WEEK PERIOD, and was never informed that the assholes were done.

The workmen were a bunch of slobs who made absolutely NO EFFORT to clean up the mess that they made. My pool fence was covered with dirt, still is, my pool pump pad is covered with dirt, still is, and the three boys were not able to play in their own back yard for 30 days.

$crew the workmen! I could have made them come back and clean up, but didn't even realize the had dumped dirt all over the pump/filter pad until today.

Here (for any future work) is the need for one of those time capture cameras (they are far cheaper than they were a few years ago) to be aimed from inside your house, to cover all of your garden.

Even one of those game video cameras that only film when movement is detected could help, about $100 here for a cheap one. You may need to buy the largest SD memory card that it will accept and/or download it regularly to your PC.

Take say a picture, night and day every 5 minutes or so.

Turn it into a video sequence.

Use this to get the company to get the job done properly, fixed at the end of work or whatever.

Very annoying for you. It would have p****d me off too.....

Although I don't agree with your point even though I have been known to utilize the six-pack, barbeque carrot-not-stick motivation to good effect when appropriate, I will commend you on either logic-be-damned loyalty to your chosen side of an argument, or seamless sarcasm deftly effective at destroying the side of the argument you give the skillful impression of supporting.

.

Who wouldn't get behind this type of suggestion? Who wouldn't want to carry it even further to its natural associated behaviors? Let's reward the commercial vehicle drivers monetarily at stop lights for not running into us, or in fender benders for 'minimizing the damage to ... property'; that is a far better option than scowering looks, whatever those are...is something being scrubbed clean when these looks are given?

Who doesn't see the benefit in avoiding making your pool enticing, to avoid unfairly burdening the worker who might stumble upon what is yours? Who can't see that this also suggests marriage should not be tto an attractive mate, if you don't want to seem to harsh to the worker.....or at least make sure the mate is always covered in a birka. Who would fail to see that it must surely be ethical to avoid at least the appearance of developing your surroundings in such a way as to derive some pleasure therefrom?

I think he was playing the devil's advocate.

Fact is, the workmen, contractors and the utility company all exhibited a casual lack of concern for my property and public safety.

That will be the thrust of my letter. All I got were empty words from some girl on the phone.

Aha the defendant has readily admitted he was not present when alleged violations took place, and therefore can have no firsthand knowledge that the accused is indeed the perpetrator...and indeed may not have been present during these heinous acts....In fact it may have been neighborhood hooligans or wild dogs or any number of possible culprits responsible for claimed violations....Therefore your assumptions are invalid...

You are right, we certainly need to reassess things such that the defendant and the accused lose any distinction as separate individuals.

Can we repair the defendant/accused and return them to acceptable oneness? Gentlemen, we have the technology.

.

.

Is this the man who soiled your pump?

By the way, those things that look like wild dogs, are committing hyena acts, not heinous acts.

Hi Lyn, When ever such civil contractor comes to my house for any similar work I first ask him what is nature of the work. Then I ask him how is he going to do it, I also give him my instructions about my property safety and nothing should be damaged. I inform him to see me before completing the job and do joint inspection of the work completed. If I find any bad job done I ask them to redo it. Only after my satisfaction I allow them to go otherwise I lodge complaint with concerned authorities. Tendency of the contractors is to finish the job and rush back as soon as possible let the problems generated due to repairs be attended by the property owner.

I just diagnosed and replaced a motor start/run capacitor in a large fan application that had been reliably operating for almost 7 years. The capacitor failed within a couple weeks after some "minor" airflow changes caused the motor/capacitor to run a little hotter that usual. The new capacitor was purchased for less than $10 (shipped) and replaced in about 10 minutes. Airflow pattern was returned to normal and we expect to get another 7+ years of reliable fan operation.

It's unlikely the missing ground was the cause of your capacitor failure. I suspect age and heat caused the failure. If the recent work restricted airflow around the motor/capacitor, that could have contributed to the capacitor's early(?) demise. Good luck proving that and collecting damages. IMHO the failure is coincidental and replacement cost is not worth pursuing a damage claim.

The other issues are annoying but unfortunately common. I've heard many similar complaints about collateral construction damage caused by careless contractors and their hires. Have not heard a single story(yet) where they admitted responsibility and cleaned up their mess.

When you say "3 lead single phase, with ground", what are the 3 leads? All I can think of is refrigeration compressor connections of Common, Run, and Start.

I'm assuming there would only be L1/L2 (240VAC operation), with internal start operation using mechanical centrifugal switch.

Capacitor failure could just be random, or centrifugal switch stuck closed (electrical contact), or fly-ball mechanism failure.

I don't think the utility work would have caused this, unless you had very low line voltage, causing the motor to cycle through a start cycle many times overheating the start capacitor.

Did the capacitor fail open or short?

I installed a new capacitor this morning and, so far-so good.

To answer ignator, it failed open. Checked it with capacitor tester and OHM meter, and had the pool supply store check it, too. They charged it and shorted it, no spark.

Yes, I assume you're right about three leads. I don't do electricity. I've got an electrical contractor friend that I make do all that.

I also composed a full page letter last night to send to the utility company, state corp. commission and the news papers, although I doubt the construction caused the cap to blow. That'll be on my nickel.

Thanks for all the help.

My 2 cents worth: take some pictures of the effected area with some sort of date stamp ( the front page of the local telegraph maybe). Then when someone comes back in 3-4 months, you will have proof .

Contractors dug up my back yard to replace the main power feed to the neighborhood transformer. The ditch went close to my pool pump/motor/filter. (This was a month long ordeal)

Think about that part of your statement. Why do you think the work was required in the first place? Utilities don't do preventative maintenance in my experience, they do things like this because there has ALREADY been an incident. They will NEVER admit it, but trust me, it happened. That incident is likely what fried your capacitor.

I live in an area with all underground utilities (except, ironically, the 35kV transmission lines in the old railroad right of way behind my house). The neighborhood transformer vault is in the corner of my front yard. I generally never notice it, it's just a grate in a concrete pad. But about 10 years ago, the 11kV primary feed failed and literally blew up under the sidewalk, cracking and heaving it right across my driveway access. I had a similar experience wherein they arrived and began immediately digging up the feed cable and transformer, BEFORE notifying us so that we could get my wife's car out of the driveway. Once they trenched, it became impossible. I did raise a stink and the utility apologized, then paid for a rental car. But one thing they made VERY clear was that in my house deed was a utility access clause notifying me that not only do they retain the right to access without notification, they are also NOT responsible for damage to landscaping or even structures that impede their work. I had known of that clause when I bought the house because there is also a drain pipe 25ft down under a portion of my yard on the other side, so I had the seller pay to remove a large tree they had planted over it because i would be responsible for that should anything happen to it. I also had to change my plans to expand the house. I had never given a thought to the transformer vault and the effects it might have on my landscaping, but when they finished, I made sure not to replace it with anything expensive.

Good Post, thanks.

I remember some video from electrical faults, here are a few examples, not all from London. City electrical failures are like fireworks displays.....

Watch here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_jLmAB3leA&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_kLqxyfdMk&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdQR7-Ap6YQ&hd=1

The last one here is a good reason NOT to have a UPS!!

UPS Explosion