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Huge spark from dryer duct.?
My house seems like an electrical nightmare, it just about burned down last week due to dryer duct under house caught on fire. I thought it was due to ember from dryer due to flex duct was improperly installed way too long and had about 4 loops in it before reaching outside wall. Well I checked my outlets most read open ground some are normal and one on porch reads reversed polarity! Well I bought rigid duct pipe and was gonna install it I clamped a 2 foot section to elbow coming out of floor and it touched a water pipe and a huge spark scorched side of copper water pipe and burnt a hole in duct pipe, lucky I didn't get shocked, so now I know how the fire started but have no clue about the spark and what to do? Any thoughts on this?
2 Answers
- Paraiba BlueLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
I'm just a meathead so don't accept what I say as gospel. I'm a little familiar with electricity, by no means an expert. Sounds like there is current or voltage going through either that rigid duct, as it was.....or running through the water pipe itself. Be careful, current ( amperage ) kills. I would take a multimeter and measure the potential of both objects to ground. Which one has the electricity
running through it? I would guess the duct pipe, because a normal water pipe is ground. Check anyhow. The multimeter should be able to indicate which one has the electricity.
If it's the duct pipe that is carrying that voltage, there must be some " live " electrical wiring touching it
some where, or maybe an appliance connected to the duct pipe has a short circuit in it?
I don't know. I know this answer is clumsy , but maybe it will give you some correct ideas about what to do. ....It's obvious you do not want to touch the duct and the water pipe at the same time. In fact you don't want to touch the duct and anything that is "ground" at the same time.
- CoolCatLv 71 decade ago
Yes, call an electrician to checl things out before the house does burn down.
