[Music]
pretty compelling footage there you saw
what can happen when you take an impact
driver to a consumer unit
are you a one digger or two digger gary
i think the main switch is three diggers
and i think the overcurrent protection
devices are just a couple of diggers
yeah well we'll see how many diggers we
need to sort of cause the damage you've
just seen but the
manufacturers of circuit breakers and
consumers asked us to take a look at
this topic because they get lots of
equipment returned that they suspect
has been over tightened using an impact
driver and obviously people just put it
in the box send it back to the
wholesaler ends up back on the desk of
somebody and then obviously yeah what
happens from there so we're going to
look at some some of the common issues
that that causes yeah so i think your
best case scenario is you've gone in
with your impact driver and actually
you've stopped duggering okay and all of
a sudden you hear that spinning sound
because actually all you've done is
ruined the head on the screw that you're
trying to tighten up yeah and i'm
getting pretty good actually i think
actually my finger is getting calibrated
so i can almost stop that happening now
and i've i've destroyed a lot of
equipment that we're going to look at
closer um to do that but yeah hey i'm
getting better so your calibrated finger
then so i know that this uh impact
driver down here goes from zero to 155
newton meters of torque and you think
you've calibrated your finger to know
how far to pull it maybe to get to three
newton meters i'm getting there but
you've sort of seen what happens that
yeah you saw the screw head it's easy to
you sort of slip the bit a bit and it
damages the head and then you've seen
the catastrophic failure when you slip
with your trigger finger and you rip the
terminal out of the mcb and and
ironically gary yeah this is 155
newton meters okay yeah this here yeah
if you google
afd or ylx afd you'll find them on sale
in cef for
155 pounds okay so a pound per newton
meter or would suggest we're putting
into that now that's okay because we can
see the clear damage can't we have the
the completely destroyed device and
maybe that the head of the screw is not
really going to cause as much problem
when we've left it
but it's the hidden damage isn't it it's
what's going on inside the device that's
the problem that's going to actually be
some time in the future isn't it yeah
that's it
yeah
you easy see the catastrophic damage
it's that in between land that we've
found and i've got a few examples of
that here okay in this sort of
wilderness of destroyed bits and bobs
yes so let's look at this rcbo here that
i've previously uh had had a guy with
the impact driver a couple of duggars
into this
um so the terminal the bus bar is pretty
solidly lodged in there okay i can
waggle it but it's not coming out
and in fact it's probably never coming
out actually because this screw i can
just tighten it now
full eternity it just keeps yeah that's
that's no way that's ever coming out
again so what's happened to the thread
on that one then so i've probably
stripped the threads in there
and that happens a lot that's and you
can even do that with a with a manual
screwdriver right if you just you know
if you're one of those people who uses
two hands to get the tension up there
you just get to a point where
you strip the threads out and again that
comes back to why the manufacturer has
set a torque setting for their terminals
because they know the limits of those
screws don't they yeah it is it's about
getting that that torque setting for a
great electrical connection if you go
beyond it obviously you can strip the
screw heads or
if it gets further obviously inside
these devices there's obviously more and
more becoming more sensitive electronics
so if we start with the the luden one
we've seen there so what was the rcbo
we're going to show me yeah so here's
another
camera stride earlier
okay so there's right away i noticed
that that's a little bit more involved
than the standard circuit breaker
because we've got a pcb board there in
the corner and we yeah and you look
connections to this pcb
through these two fine wires yes that
are immediately behind the terminal so
if you look at the example uh where i
should say
it's completely twisted ah right okay so
that stress would follow itself down
through into there yeah and that's
happening more and more and you know you
sort of get the should we say the we see
a lot of comments from the old timer
electricians who've been at it for years
and they've always um
they've always you know they've always
just done things by feel we didn't have
torx screwdrivers but let's remember
circuit breakers used to look like this
uh classic c50 from one of gary's uh uh
one of his apprenticeship when he was
installing these and there's not a lot
going on in there is it yeah i mean
we've probably got some substantial
terminals top and bottom which i'd like
to have a look at so they are
substantial aren't they so proper large
connections there whether we're on the
buzz bar or the conductors yeah and
obviously it's physically quite a large
device compared to what the modern ones
look like isn't it yeah and different
types of terminal so now everyone
obviously these cage clamp terminals are
popular
um these ones yeah you have to double
the wire over and twist it around and
all sorts of things but there's a lot of
copper in there
the only things in there be the
bi-metallic strip yes the slow load
protection and the the solenoid and the
arc shoot for the instantaneous and some
substantial copper may be connecting
them all together but we know obviously
now they're looking way more delicate
and obviously they're getting smaller
and smaller and we're suggesting that
the hidden damage is the one maybe
that's onto the pcb board or those very
fine connections but it takes an up
another level when you start thinking
about our fault detection devices
doesn't it yeah so we've gone through a
process of miniaturization yes yeah so
people didn't like uh you know our cbrs
when there were two modules wide at
first we went you know sort of longer
and yeah we got them into one module but
i mean i must say that wilex have done a
fantastic job on their single module afd
yeah you've done a fantastic job on it
as well lots of things it's built like a
swiss watch okay literally like a switch
watch there is a lot of very small
components in there and quite sensitive
components okay um but you know they do
have torque settings so if we look at
the side of the device okay i don't like
it on the side i'll come to that in a
minute so show me where it is on the
side yeah so we've got a torque setting
for the incoming terminal on the bus bar
three newton meters okay and another
setting for the outgoing terminals two
newton meters and the specify the screw
head type that you should use for it
which is good so why don't you light
them on the side
because once i've installed them
obviously and i've come back maybe i'm
working on them i can't see them on the
side i do like them when they're on the
front and the loot and ones in front of
us here i've got it clearly on the front
so obviously by this screw head that i'm
going in out i can clearly see the
newton meters of torque so you want to
bring one of those in for me
so let's have a little look so let's
show yeah so that is 2.5 newton meters
for where it goes onto the bus bar isn't
it we've got any more on there on there
we've got the same that means the same
on the switch top and bottom yep okay so
i've been two positions though clearly
by the side of the terminals where
you're gonna make those connections yeah
i mean that we think that is best
practice it's the future uh i mean but
you know on that ylx one still two new
meters is quite generous on the
terminals for that uh afd yeah we've
seen some of the new ones come to the
market now where you're down at 1.2
newton meters yeah and that takes us
back to when we we tried to prove
whether or not an electrician's arm is
calibrating if you haven't checked out
that video i'm sure we'll leave it in
the eye above your head and obviously in
the description but we had this one here
at 0.8 newton meters of talk didn't we
and it was incredible how little effort
you put in and 1.2 is not much more is
it no it's not so
that's a great reason to have a torx
screwdriver
that's one thing but think of the other
thing that financial reason
you know people aren't really bothered
manufacturers well they probably are
actually but
in the grand scheme of things in mcb
what we are two pounds just over two
pounds
two to five let's go there yes okay our
cbo's were probably going from nine to
25 quid maybe in that region yeah fcds
probably a hundred and forty six pound
ninety eight to 146 pound ninety seven
yeah or 155 pounds if you're at
your cf super if you've got a consume
unit full of those and you're working on
the development as we saw when we're
down at park erin yes where all of the
houses had fcds in if you were
using the impact driver across there and
you start having problems both now or in
the future a little bit down the road
the manufacturer is more likely to
investigate yeah and i think that'll be
turn up on site won't it look at yeah
absolutely and if you've got failure
after failure after failure they're
gonna obviously first of all look at
what you're doing before they suggest
they've got a product failure aren't
they yeah so and it's it's just just
general thing we see more in electrical
installations there's more electronics
coming in yeah which means there tends
to be more products with pcb boards in
there yeah we see all the way through
from
ev charges
where there's a lot of electronics in
there you're taking quite a big chunky
cable on there if you
i've never seen anyone use an impact
driver on those terminals yet but you
could probably guarantee it would just
wrench it straight off the pcb
but let's not forget in these fdds there
are some tiny pcbs in that i mean it was
worth having a look at this game this is
you love this don't you yeah
yeah this is the pcb that's inside and
the fdd or the inside the the wireless
one there's a digital signal processor
flexible circuit boards between it up to
the little test switch the little
there's the little leds there
to uh for the glow on the indicator yeah
there's a lot of
that looks like technology you expect to
see in a latest iphone for me now
getting it super tight doesn't make it a
better electrical connection and i don't
believe that using an impact driver
inside a consumer unit maybe if you're
doing
new builds and you're up against time
actually is really going to save you any
real time is it no no i mean it's as i
say there's lots of reasons why you
should be using the talk drop following
those manufacturer's instructions so if
you're ignoring that then yeah you are
obviously putting the installation at
risk but you're also putting yourself at
a financial risk because this equipment
now we're installing is going up in
price but as always we're interested in
your feedback is this practice you've
seen and witnessed on site and you've
got some great stories you want to tell
the community please leave those
comments below you perhaps watch the
videos in this series and actually you
can see why the torque screwdriver
should be used in the locations where
they're specifying the torque setting
and that includes things like the front
of ev chargers doesn't it with the
gasket seal etc in order that you can
obviously have that warranty maintained
from the manufacturer we'd be interested
in all those comments if you leave them
below me and gordon we will try and get
back to as many as we can we've got a
new ending and we have just remember
there's no such thing as a calibrated
arm
there isn't