Hi again everyone

[CountryLiving34]

I have not posted in a while but have another problem and thought perhaps someone here could give me some advice. I got some great advice here a few months ago about my hot water heater and it was much appreciated. Ok, here is my current problem.

I am not much of a DIYer btw and I am going to have to pay someone to diagnose and repair my problem. Here is my question.
1. I live in a double wide mobile home.
2. Roommate was in kitchen cooking.
3. 4 kitchen lights were on and, the electric stove, and the hood vent over the stove.
4. With no warning, all 4 kitchen lights went off and the stove hood vent.
5. The stove still works.
6. All electrical outlets in kitchen still work.
7. No breakers were tripped in electrical panel.
8. ground-fault circuit interrupter in kitchen was not tripped but I did manually trip and reset it.
9. I tested all breakers in electrical panel by turning them off one by one to see what lights and outlets in the mobile home were affected and noted them.
10. All but two of the breakers did something.
11. My question is I have contacted Mr. Electric to come out and diagnose and quote me a repair. They may be too expensive, I dunno yet.
12. They charge a $29 dollar dispatch fee, but if you allow them to do the work, they waive this fee and you pay what the electrician quotes you on what the job will cost. If you decline, you pay the dispatch fee, get a free diagnosis I suppose, but then must still find someone else to repair if you can not DIY and I can not DIY.
13. My question is can breakers themselves go bad sometimes and need replacing like the two I tripped and found they did nothing so perhaps these two were supplying electrical current to my 4 kitchen lights and stove hood vent.
14. Please, if you have any comments or suggestions on what might be wrong, I would appreciate your comments and feedback.
15. I don't think a mouse has chewed into a wire or anything like that and caused some kind of a short because no breakers were tripped and mobile home is kept in very good shape. It is 15 years old though.


* Thanks for reading and any tips or suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.
If just two breakers are bad and need replacing, how much should you or would you be willing to pay for a job like this?


Have you ever hired Mr. Electric for any kind of residential electrical work? Are they good and how expensive are they? They say they are open and available 24/7, so this must be some kind of a franchise. Any comments or feedback most appreciated. Thanks!

http://www.mrelectric.com/

Here is a picture of Mr. electric I pulled off google so you guys will know exactly who I am talking about.

[CountryLiving34]

Also, what is the best way of going about hiring a good residential electrician? Would you consider Craigslist?

[Greg]

Also, what is the best way of going about hiring a good residential electrician? Would you consider Craigslist?

Yellow pages, B.B.B.

It may be a very simple repair, I would start at the switch.

Greg

[CountryLiving34]

Thanks Greg. An industrial electrician I use to work with came by my house today and diagnosed the problem. It is a self contained rocker wall switch. All I need is for someone to come by and replace this switch for me and I have one more that is going bad also. I am going by the mobile home place tomorrow and pick up the two switches.

I have another question for you Greg. I need to also replace my vented range hood over my stove.
I am just going to let the Mr. Electric guy do this while he is here to replace the two light switches. My question is, is this a fairly easy thing to install? It looks to me like it should not be that difficult. Also, can't I buy the range hood from like a home depot? It looks like I am going to have to go to the local mobile home parts store to buy the self contained rocker wall switch. I don't think places like home depot would carry these, would they? Thanks again for your reply friend.

[bobfather99]

Be VERY careful around your home's electrical. You can cause property damage(fire), and risk injury or death if you make a mistake. If you aren't 100% sure about what to do, its best to call in a pro.

[CountryLiving34]

Thanks bobfather99 and yes I agree with what you said. I am going to let a pro do the installation work. I just went by the local mobile home parts place today and picked up the two switches and the range vent hood. Thanks for your reply back.

[Greg]

The way I do switches & outlets is simple. I replace them with stick built boxes & switches with screws to hold the wires in place. In MY opinion the Mobile home type switches & outlets should be BANNED, have the Electrician show you how they are connected and you will understand.

Measure up the range hood and any hood that size should work fine, the only problem may be the outside vent if you plan on connecting that. The location may be in a slightly different place

This is the type of box I use.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_70990-223-B114R ... facetInfo=

Greg

[CountryLiving34]

Ok, thanks Greg. Why do they even use the self contained rocker wall switches in mobile homes. I use to be able to replace the other ones myself? The electrician who came by to troubleshoot the problem told me the same thing that you said. Do they put these in mobile homes because they are cheap?

[Greg]

Time is money when you are building homes, so if you can save 5 min/outlet it would add up over time. I Blame it on corporate bean counters & American greed for more profit.

Greg

[bobfather99]

Yes the "mobile home" switches are cheap junk. They actually "pinch" the bare wires behind the switch, rather than using the attached screw connectors on standard house switches. "Scotch-lock" connectors are similar, if youve ever seen them. Over time the wire will rub itself loose, causing flickering lights, tripped breakers, and eventually ruining the switch and/or wires. In an extreme case, could cause a fire. Replace with the better switches if at all possible, its only a few bucks more.....

[CountryLiving34]

Yes the "mobile home" switches are cheap junk. They actually "pinch" the bare wires behind the switch, rather than using the attached screw connectors on standard house switches. "Scotch-lock" connectors are similar, if youve ever seen them. Over time the wire will rub itself loose, causing flickering lights, tripped breakers, and eventually ruining the switch and/or wires. In an extreme case, could cause a fire. Replace with the better switches if at all possible, its only a few bucks more.....

Hi Bob, thanks for your reply. My question is can you even replace these type switches in mobile homes? I do not like them either.

[CountryLiving34]

Followup: I did go with Mr. Electric to replace the range vent hood and the 2 self contained rocker light switches.
@Greg, you were correct btw. The problem with all the lights in the kictchen turned out to be the one bad switch in the kitchen. This switch was feeding power to two adjacent switches, thus the reason for the other two sets of kitchen lights not working.

Now, back to Mr. Electric. I did not have a problem with the electrical technician, but I thought the price for the repair was a little outrageous. They have this laminated book that lists all these various electrical jobs and what it will cost to do the repair or installation and I am not even talking about diagnosing the problem. I had already diagnosed the problem myself. I purchased the two switches myself. I purchased the range hood. All the tech. had to do was come by my house and do the electrical installation. It took him about 1 hour and 15 minutes to do the work. The charge was $350.00. I really think they over charge and I will not use them anymore.

The lady at the local mobile home parts store had some business cards of people that did nothing but mobile home handyman repairs. I picked up two of the cards and called but both handymen told me they were really busy and tied up for the next two weeks and I did not want to wait another 2 weeks before getting this problem fixed, so I went ahead with Mr. Electric. Had I known Mr. Electric was going to come with a $350 price-tag, I would have waited 2 weeks on the handyman. I think your best bet is if you can't or don't want to do the work yourself, go with one of these guys that do strictly mobile homes repair jobs. I think the work will be just as good (better in some cases because these people only work on mobile homes) and you will save yourself some money to boot. I cringe of what Mr. Electric would have charged me if they also had to do a diagnosis. Again, the work was ok, but their prices are overly inflated in my opinion so only use them as a last resort.

[Greg]

OK, I will agree that $350 is high BUT you had situation that could have turned very ugly. I think that I would contact the owner of the company and see if he will work with you on the pricing. I would ask first what his hourly rate is (they just charged you $280/hr.). If the guy that was there is not the owner he may be pocketing a little extra that the owner needs to know about.

Greg

[CountryLiving34]

Hi Greg,
The techs can't really pocket anything extra because they do not accept cash. I wrote the guy a check for $350.00. I then went online several days later after my check had cleared and looked at the photo copy. The tech. even told me his boss wanted to charge me 20 dollars more but he was able to negotiate the extra 20 dollars on my behalf. I don't know if they were truly being honest with me or not. You are somewhat at their mercy I am afraid.

This Mr. Electric is like a franchise...just like a McDonald's restaurant. The technicians seem courteous and competent but I think they really over charge for many of the simple electrical installations they do but IDK, I could be wrong. Anyway, thanks for the feedback Greg. Much appreciated friend.

[cmanningjr]

This is just MY opinion...I'm a State Licensed electrician. You did the right thing calling a professional to do a job you are not comfortable with. Mr. Electric is well known professionals BUT like you found out VERY expensive. I personally don't like the compact switches and change them for standard ones myself.

Call and get quotes and references next time you have a situation like that. If they can't or wont give a quote...Move on to one that will.

Glad they got you fixed up though..