Avoiding Landmine Repairs, Part 12

Sept. 24, 2013
For each major piece of equipment, develop quick checklists to help you discover issues before walking away from a repair.

You look foolish if equipment malfunctions again an hour after you repaired it. Maybe you didn't do anything wrong that set a landmine for another failure to occur. But if you fixed only what the issue that precipitated the trouble call, you can easily leave a landmine for yourself.

The adage, "Where there's smoke, there's fire" tends to prove itself in the world of industrial equipment repairs.

A classic mistake that sometimes actually results in fire is simply replacing a blown fuse without determining why it blew. A fuse isn't just some inadvertent weak link that eventually goes past its freshness date and opens. A fuse opens because of a problem. Yes, sometimes a transient problem can cause a fuse to blow, so positively identifying the problem isn't always possible. But you need to rule out other causes before replacing the fuse.

For each major piece of equipment, develop quick checklists to help you discover issues before walking away from a repair.

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of EC&M, create an account today!

Sponsored Recommendations

How to Calculate Labor Costs

Most important to accurately estimating labor costs is knowing the approximate hours required for project completion. Learn how to calculate electrical labor cost.

8 Types of Electrical Conduit and Their Uses

Electrical conduit is a tube or raceway used to house and protect electrical wires within a building or structure. From data centers to underground subways to ports and bridges...

A Powerful Duo: Fiberglass conduit and solar applications

Learn how strong, durable fiberglass conduit excelled in an environment with dense cable and helped make a complex burial much simpler for the contractor to help this customer...

Champion Fiberglass® Conduit Protects Cabling For New York's First Offshore Wind Farm

Learn how fiberglass conduit supported a heavy cable load and a buried installation to help this project reach a successful outcome.