I accidentally drilled a hole in the service entry wire a few months ago. Other than the light briefly flickering when it initially happened but other than that I hadn’t caused any problems at all. I know I got extremely lucky! I got a quote from an electrons of 925$ to replace it but I’m wondering if it needs to be replaced since it hasn’t caused any problems?
Depends. How big of a hole in how bit of a wire? Less material in the wire means less capacity. Tiny hole, no big deal. Big hole can cause problems when you run lots of power.
If you grazed a tiny bit, no big deal, but if you took out 3/4 of a conductor, I'd replace.
Are you talking about your service drop from your POCO or some other wire?
If it goes directly into or out of your electric meter it should be replaced.
Did you wrap the wire with good electrical tape.
Putting in a doggie door, through the wall, a wire was nicked by a sawzall blade. Tapped it -- it was not terrible. Bubba did it. I found it :-)
I guess I'm alsways optimistic because I figured he drilled all the way through the insulation but missed the wire. If it's like that, I'd fill it full of silicone sealant I think. Pack it in good with a wooden paint stirrer.
25 years ago I had my arms over a wrought iron fence to take a picture when I dropped something and by reflex, I quickly bent down to pick it up. Rammed the pointed iron rod into my inner elbow, about 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2". At the emergency clinic he was just going to sew it up when he noticed I'd partly cut the tendon too. He charged an extra 25 dollars to sew that up. How do I know I really cut my tendon? Might have been a scam to get 25 more dollars.JK
The "scam" would be to sew you up and get to cut you open to fix it whenit lets go - and get $2500- instead.
Unless you've got an unusual install, aluminum 4/0 SE cable is about $5/ft and a typical install might need 10 feet so that's about $50 bucks. Add an hour drive time and two hours to swap the cable and you are looking at roughly $350.
Find an honest electrician.
And it will likely fail again.
A lesser used abbreviation. Just kidding.
Yeah, I got off cheap.
I was just kidding before. He was a very nice guy who apologized for having to charge the extra $25.
Sounds like a troll to me. How about the part about the lights flickering? Why would the lights flicker, unless the drill completed a circuit and drew huge amps, in which case there would be a lot more to worry about than the lights flickering and the hole.
Forget the Likely - it WILL fail again . 3 rolls of tape won't make it any beter than one. It needs a "self vulcanizing" or "self sealing" tape, or better yet a jell filled connector. Undeground cable connector kits have a gell-filled heat shrink tube - 2 layers. When you heat the shrink tube the tube shrinks and the jell melts and squeases out the ends. The second longer piece goes over top and double seals the joint.
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