Customer’s Home Meter Socket was Broken! | Day in the Life of an Electrical Contractor

All right, guys. Welcome back to another YouTube video. Today, we got service calls left and right. Customer called. We're dealing with a strain meter socket here in New Jersey, and we're about to get this fixed right now, repaired. Let's go. All right. So, right now, as you can see, customer has an underground service. And you can see here, here are his two hot wires and his neutral here. And originally, the pipe was being recessed to the ground. So, which was causing these wires to strain. You can see this neutral wire is a little short and that's where the neutral goes. So, our goal is to get this pipe attached back to here and uh this meter socket repaired. So, stay tuned. We're about to get this fixed. Yo, it's my brother Ken, guys. >> Yo, Ken, say hello to the camera. >> What's up? What's up, y'all? >> So, this is Ken. This is my brother. He is a expert technician. He is the man. >> I'm not the expert. I'm not an expert. Yeah, but I'll get there. >> He is the man. So, >> I'll get there, boys. >> He knows there. >> He He's got the skills. He knows what to do. And guys, this is what it's like running an electrical business, dealing with customers. Uh emergency service calls, daily service calls. You know, power comes first. So, customer doesn't have power, we're right there. So, New Jersey, guys, we service all of New Jersey. uh mainly central Jersey, but if you were in North Jersey, Central Jersey, South Jersey, we'll come right to your house and give you rapid fast service. That's what we do here. >> All right, Ken. So, you expansion fitting about to put that in. Nice. Awesome. We got to cut the uh the 3-in pipe. This 3-in PVC going underground. Going to split it right in the middle, boys. [Music] Best tool on Earth, y'all. A freaking um oscillator. >> Multi-tool. >> Yes. This some thick wire, John. See this four odd aluminum. For you guys that don't know, four odd aluminum is rated for 200 amps. This is a 200 amp service right here. >> How many volts? >> How many volts? 240. Every residential home in Jersey is 120 240 volts. >> That's a residential standard. >> Yes, sir. Now, this could be copper. This could be copper, but it's aluminum. So, anytime you use aluminum, you have to size up. So, for a 200 amp service, you can use three copper or you can use four aluminum. In this case, this is four out aluminum. So, just remember if you're using aluminum, just size up. Give another adapter. This job, everybody, took a long time to schedule. Believe it or not, it took months. It takes months to get the utility from New Jersey to to make a shutdown. It's really about getting the shut off everybody for these jobs. So, we had to call the utility out five months just for this job. >> That see nice. So, after the permits, after getting the utilities approval, five months later, we're doing this job because you can't work on this wire live. That's just dangerous. So, this is the old meter and we are now putting in once we get this fixed, guys, the smart meter. So, in New Jersey, they're installing smart meters and they're going out of these outdated old meters because of EV charging. Utility is now moving to smart meters because everyone's getting EVs. So if you do need an EV or you do have a Tesla, you got a Mercedes EV, a Rolls-Royce EV, Ford, you know who to call. We get your fuel right away. hlec.com. >> Chris, go get me paper towels. >> All right, I'll be right back. >> It turns like ugly yellow. >> All right. All right, guys. I'm getting a phone call from a customer. So, when you're in electrical business, you got to make sure you're always answering the phone because if you don't answer the phone, that's time is money. That that's a job. So, always got to be on call. Uh we got a customer right here and let's see what he's about to say. We gave him a quote, actually, backstory. So, he went to his property. He's a landlord and basically the property does need a lot of work. There was a lot of code violations. So, and the previous tenant did say he was a little on the cheap side. So, let's see how he is on the phone. Last time I talked to him, he was a little tough. So, let's see. What? Whoa. Guys, we got a phone call from the customer and uh sound like he was just waking up out of bed, but he'll call back probably. All right, the customer just called back. Let's listen what he says. >> Hello. >> Hey, Kevin. It's Chris from Henelech. How you doing? >> Okay. Okay. Hey, listen. get that quote in on in paper in writing and can you itemize it? >> Of course. Yeah. Um what's your email? Uh yeah, no problem, Kevin. I can get you a PDF. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. All right, talk to >> Yep. Bye. >> That customer right there, he's a landlord. just by what we were hearing from his tenant. You know, sometimes these landlords, guys, when as an electrician or a contractor when you're dealing with them, you got to be a little they sometimes can be a little tough and they always want to get the best price. So, he asked me to send them a PDF and there's nothing wrong with that, but usually that's uh a sign of a red flag. Usually they'll agree to the price when you tell them over the phone or, you know, a text message. But when it gets to that extent, you know, sometimes it's just raising a little red flag. So, just letting you guys know, any contractors listening. So, he wanted a PDF to send, buddy. >> I don't know. >> He wanted a itemized bill. When the customer says itemized, that's when you know, guys, watch out for those. >> Well, he's asking for an itemized bill. He's going to complain about something. Well guys, we'll give him an uh we'll give him an itemized PDF, but we'll see where it goes. But based on our experience, we'll see. Guys, we we deal with so much stuff in this trade. We got all types of customers we deal with, but we answer everybody. So, if you're you're trying to call us, you know, we're going to get right back to you. That's what we do around here, >> guys. I put a mechanical lug like a butt splice in here. really solid braid up to 250 MCM from 250 MCM to 6 gauge. I like to put a shrink wrap around this. >> That looks good, dude. >> And then we'll put some white tape >> nice on it. >> Good stuff, man. >> So, you light this up and it's just going to contract. >> Nice. >> Spin it around. >> Yeah. Light it up. Light it up. Up. Light it up. >> Just going to suck in. >> Mhm. >> And then eventually it will turn you made me want to go smoke a cigar or a cigarette now. >> You don't smoke? >> Not really. It's not good for you. It's not good for your lungs. No. be like, "Ah, I wake up at 6:00 a.m. Got to get a pack of sigs in the morning. Have a morning sig before work." Really, guys, is it really good for your lungs? I don't know. Not like when you're 60 when you're about to get your pension. That pension money is going to go to hospital bills. So, would you rather spend your pension money on like something nice, a nice house, a nice vacation home, >> beer? Beer. Beer. Not want to have some beer when you come home. >> Yeah. What's your favorite? >> I like corors. Kors now. Ultra. >> What about you, Wes? >> I'm a big uh Corona guy. >> Yeah, with a blind. >> Hell yeah. >> Can't go wrong with that. Me, too. I like Corona blind. >> And that right there, >> is it melted? Not melted. >> Nice. >> Nice rubber. Yeah, as you can see, there's my lug. You know, you guys know that shape here. I'll show you guys right now. If you guys are curious, this is ulisted. >> Awesome. >> I made sure our the electric company is fine with this and the inspector is fine with this. >> Yeah, >> not telling you where we are, but don't worry. I believe >> it's all about the utility and what they allow. >> If you want to really want to find it, look up RO230. Find it. >> It's all about the 230. >> All about those local codes. >> Yeah, local codes. Yeah. You want to you want to code me up then? >> Yeah, sure, bro. >> I would die if there's just a giant arc of electricity that just came out after that. He's like want to talk about me about codes. >> All right, we got >> Ken's on fire. >> Bring your spices back. I'm >> telling you, new fear unlocked. Put jam like a glove in there or something cuz if you drop, >> you drop these in that tubing. >> Yep. >> Unless you have them. >> Dunzo. It's going to make your day a whole lot worse, man. Let's get some tape on there before I do this. We got you got to identify here. >> Done. Zo, >> I'm going to clean out this area. >> Yeah, you can start cleaning. >> Almost done basically, right? >> Mhm. >> Tools in there. >> Yeah. >> And then tools in there. That's not the right logo either the way. >> Mission complete. >> Always apply no locks. No locks, everybody is a conductive paste. basically allows for a better better conductivity for the electricity. >> No, it's because no aluminum expands and contracts. So if you don't put it, this will it could like literally solder into the connector and then you can't really pull it off. Aluminum just So you put Noah locks to kind of prevent that from that expansion and contraction. >> Exactly. Sorry, but dude, you were way off. >> Exactly. It's all right. You hear that, everybody? That's what it is. Here, I'll put I'll throw it. Watch. This might help. >> Fine, man. Nice. Should be higher up. Done. >> Yeah, about Guys, I remember a wise man said, "Too tight brakes." Sometimes I love those torque wrenches. I know they're like a set of standards of how tight things are or need to be, but let's take a test. Look, I haven't touched this all day. Look at that. This house is still fun, right? That's all she wrote, right? >> That is all she wrote. Big pipe right here. Check out our work fans, everybody. This is our service van. We got 4D Transit 350. These are all electric, actually. 130 mi range. Don't mind me, guys. We had a service call earlier in the week. I'd use my extension ladder. Throwing this baby in. All righty. You know, we always got to have our Milwaukee. If you're not uh if you don't have Milwaukee, what are you really doing? >> Workers. You like the green vans? >> I like the green vans. >> We went We went green, everybody, because we want to specialize in electric vehicle chargers, as you can see. So that's why we chose green because I feel like that's the EV color. Going green, saving energy, no gas, and it stands out to the eye. So if anybody watching, why did we choose green? That's why