Can’t Make This Stuff Up

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KenB259

KenB259

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2017
Messages
4,128
Location
Michigan
Was out mowing, my wife came home and asked if I shut off the air conditioner, house was getting warm. I hadn't but we could not get it to turn on. I checked the breaker and it had not tripped. Called the HVAC company we use, they come out and found a garter snake had climbed up inside and caused a short circuit, wiring was badly burned, snake was no longer in this world. All fixed and blowing cool air.
 
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Snakes in Michigan! Or are you talking about shorting out the wiring? Ha Ha. I guess it's not that funny to you. I've seen snakes and mice but ants seem to like the AC units around here.
 
Found this guy in the yard a few days ago. Not sure what kind he is.
5398D600-90B0-4B46-AB94-82610E437AC4.jpeg
 
Been there!

We have our AC serviced every year, and a few years ago, the service guy found a dead mouse with its teeth embedded in the cable feeding the compressor. He shut down the system until we were able to get that cable replaced. And when the electrician came to replace it, he found that when the house was built, the breaker that the original electrician installed on the AC compressor circuit was oversized - could have been a problem!
 
montmill said:
Would heat pumps be susceptible to something like that or are they sealed?
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Animals can't get into the coolant loop itself, but it's hard to keep them out of the overall housing or the electrical fittings. Most installers use a plastic putty material (called Duxseal) to close off entry points, but over time it can shrink and fall out leaving the openings that animals can get into. In particular, mice tend to look for openings that they can crawl into in the Fall as the weather starts to get cool - they want to build nests where it's warm, either inside the house or in machinery enclosures where there are sources of heat.

In our case, there was a power connection box on the side of the house, and the Duxseal around the cable opening disappeared to create a path for the mouse to get in. He (maybe it was a she - I didn't do a close inspection of the carcass) then knawed into the cable enough to be electrocuted.
 
Critters of all kinds can cause problems: squirrels chewing through wiring and causing fires; squirrels chewing through auto wiring as parents had this happen twice to a neighbor in FL which required all wiring to be replaced. Mice can get into any area as long as they can get their head through as the body will compact. BTW, a local power company suggested putting a lock on the main breaker or fuse box which was outside for some reason. Kids would pull the breaker or fuse block, turning off power. What was even worse, they would toss the block in the trash somewhere. No poser until it was replaced.
Trivia: We hear of something having a bug in it. Well, in the early days, computers used contact switches. A mishap showed a bug had gotten between the contacts, rendering the computer useless. Since then, any problem is referred to as a bug in the system.
 
Woodchipper said:
Critters of all kinds can cause problems: squirrels chewing through wiring and causing fires; squirrels chewing through auto wiring as parents had this happen twice to a neighbor in FL which required all wiring to be replaced. Mice can get into any area as long as they can get their head through as the body will compact. BTW, a local power company suggested putting a lock on the main breaker or fuse box which was outside for some reason. Kids would pull the breaker or fuse block, turning off power. What was even worse, they would toss the block in the trash somewhere. No poser until it was replaced.
Trivia: We hear of something having a bug in it. Well, in the early days, computers used contact switches. A mishap showed a bug had gotten between the contacts, rendering the computer useless. Since then, any problem is referred to as a bug in the system.
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Yup, squirrel at work chewed up the wiring in 4 cars in the executive parking lot a few years ago. Mine had $8000 in damage. Pesky little rodents. (We have the red kind. I've heard they are the most aggressive kind and will drive the gray squirrels out).

Dave
 
Dieseldoc said:
Kern: Did you skin out the snake to make a snake skin blank??
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Nothing left but a charred piece of something that resembled a snake. 220 volts and I'm not sure if the capacitor changes that or not, but in any case he was charcoal.
 
Woodchipper said:
Critters of all kinds can cause problems: squirrels chewing through wiring and causing fires; squirrels chewing through auto wiring as parents had this happen twice to a neighbor in FL which required all wiring to be replaced. Mice can get into any area as long as they can get their head through as the body will compact. BTW, a local power company suggested putting a lock on the main breaker or fuse box which was outside for some reason. Kids would pull the breaker or fuse block, turning off power. What was even worse, they would toss the block in the trash somewhere. No poser until it was replaced.
Trivia: We hear of something having a bug in it. Well, in the early days, computers used contact switches. A mishap showed a bug had gotten between the contacts, rendering the computer useless. Since then, any problem is referred to as a bug in the system.
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Grace Hopper is sometimes considered the first person to use this term. I attended one of her lectures back in college in the 70's. She told the famous story of finding a cockroach in a relay. She might have been the first to use that term on a computer. I just read that term predates her, back to the Edison days. Then again, not to start a debate, Edison claimed he invented everything.
 
KenB259 said:
Was out mowing, my wife came home and asked if I shut off the air conditioner, house was getting warm. I hadn't but we could not get it to turn on. I checked the breaker and it had not tripped. Called the HVAC company we use, they come out and found a garter snake had climbed up inside and caused a short circuit, wiring was badly burned, snake was no longer in this world. All fixed and blowing cool air.
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We had mice/chipmunks/etc chew through our new 5G cable last year - 4 times in 2 weeks. The cable company finally used a different wire with sheathing that was 'not as tasty' to the critters. No issues the last 11 months.
 
mark james said:
We had mice/chipmunks/etc chew through our new 5G cable last year - 4 times in 2 weeks. The cable company finally used a different wire with sheathing that was 'not as tasty' to the critters. No issues the last 11 months.
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I red somewhere that a lot of the wire coverings in cars and trucks is soy based... so may be reason the rodents like them so much.
 
KenB259 said:
Was out mowing, my wife came home and asked if I shut off the air conditioner, house was getting warm. I hadn't but we could not get it to turn on. I checked the breaker and it had not tripped. Called the HVAC company we use, they come out and found a garter snake had climbed up inside and caused a short circuit, wiring was badly burned, snake was no longer in this world. All fixed and blowing cool air.
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Reminds me of the time a buddy had to service a copier. The customer complained of a line in every copy. That's easy - the drum was scratched. But wait, this line was MOVING - different on every page. And then sometimes, would disappear completely!
How is that even possible???
Turns out a mouse had built a nest above the drum and its tail was hanging over, landing between the original and drum, getting captured every time.
 
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