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sijmen @sijmen@shrimp.vijf.life
1mo
Oh dear, I’m at my parents’ place and I’m hearing complaints that the outlet in the kitchen isn’t working. I start by plugging in a phone charger and immediately hear that characteristic crackling of a bad connection.

Alright, so I go look for the breaker (apparently the outlet was on the circuit “Oven 2” - new construction, by the way), unscrew everything, and cut through a bead of sealant because apparently gluing your outlet in place is convenient.

Turns out: there’s a stranded wire coming out of the wall. Unconventional, but sure. But here’s where it goes wrong: the end of this wire was tinned and, together with a solid-core wire (which goes to outlet 2), shoved into the screw terminal of outlet 1. This tinned wire had deformed (because yeah, tin is soft) and had come loose.

Oh, and the live wire coming out of the wall is black (switch controlled live) instead of brown (live).

I really hope this was installed by some amateur handyman and not a real electrician, because otherwise it would be very embarrassing.