Can we talk about how a customer's offhand comment changed my diagnostic approach?

I was swapping a power supply for a regular guy in Boise, and he casually mentioned the PC only acted up when his space heater was on... I never would have thought to ask about room appliances. Now I always ask 'what else is plugged into that circuit?' during initial troubleshooting. Anyone else have a simple question that catches weird power issues?

3 comments

3 Comments

derek_burns872mo ago

Yeah, that space heater one is a classic. I started asking about high draw appliances on the same circuit after a similar call. Had a modem that would reset every time the fridge's compressor kicked in. A cheap outlet tester showed a bad ground that was causing voltage to sag.

anna_hill2mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually, voltage sag wouldn't trip a GFCI.

james5331mo ago

Wait would a bad ground actually make the voltage drop that much when the fridge kicks on? I always thought that was more of a loose neutral or undersized wire thing but I guess a bad ground could cause some weird stuff too with how the circuit paths work.