How can improper grounding lead to dangerous situations in a kitchen renovation project?
Having proper grounding is crucial, you wouldn’t believe the trouble a little scuff can cause! I went on a service call to check the dishwasher outlet, and while I was under the sink, the customer mentioned that the dishwasher sparked when opened too far towards the refrigerator door. Well, that definitely changed things up a bit!
To cut a long troubleshooting story short, it turns out that during the kitchen remodel, they used a two-wire circuit to power the gas range, two countertop outlets, and the fridge. They extended the wiring with a 12/2 with ground to connect everything and reused the existing metal boxes. So, when that little nick happened and contacted the metal box, all the grounds ended up becoming hot, along with every grounded appliance connected to it.
Surprisingly, the GFCIs didn’t trip because they only check for imbalances between the hot and neutral wires. It’s likely that this was done by one of those “we do it all” remodeler companies or a less experienced contractor.
Sometimes those ‘shiners’ can be really hard to find. Nice catch.
Is absolutely right.
Definitely sees eye to eye on this.
Nicked neutrals are even worse. If a hot is nicked, it will arc or trip a breaker. A nicked neutral can lead to nuisance FI tripping and can be hard to find since they don’t arc.
That situation was pretty dangerous. If someone had touched both appliances at the same time, they could have been electrocuted. It’s lucky you caught it.