Electrical Shock .... /%#@

[larryinnewyork]

Just curious what's the worst anyone has experienced (and lived to tell).

Myself: Shock from Spark Plug on Lawn Mower (as a Kid).
The shock went up to my Elbow.
If someone asked, it would be hard to explain exactly what it felt like.

Doing any home wiring, I am always extra careful.

 

[Papa Bear]

I'm a retired TV tech - too many 25-35,000 volt shocks to mention

 

[The_German]

when I was a kid got shocked from a broken outlet and touched the line (hot).

It felt like a gear tearing up my finger but it wasn't horrible as i wasn't fully part of the circuit.

 

[spackard]

As teen, bare feet, wet floor, grabbed hot timer knob on an electric clothes dryer.
Looking backward, fortunate most timers only use 120VAC instead of the 240VAC the
element used.

 

[Delta]

Gotten shocked by 120 many of times, mostly in the electrical class I took, lol. We were wiring push buttons, timers, and contactors, which typically would be on a panel, but were laid out on a table. One wrong slip of the finger and it was a nice zap. One thing I don't want to get bit by is the 500a 480v panels we work with. Don't think I'd be around after that!

 

[bioburner]

120 plenty. Worst wazzzzz while welding in a water filled ditch while installing a pipe for irrigation

 

[KD0AXS]

I've been zapped by 120VAC a few times and 240VAC once. That will get your attention.

I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I've been shocked by spark plugs. Even done that one intentionally a few times back in the day. They're high voltage, but it's Amps that will kill you. Spark plugs don't have enough Amperage to really hurt you.

 

[MolaKule]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
I'm a retired TV tech - too many 25-35,000 volt shocks to mention

Last big shock was from 875VDC across one hand from a Ham rig.

No damage but got my attention.

 

[Brolly]

Flash capacitor in a disposable camera

 

[redbone3]

Worst I had was when I was a youngster fishing at night. I peed on an electric fence.

 

[JC1]

When I was 7 I jumped up to grab a garage door rail to swing off of. There was an armoured cable that energizes the rail and i was stuck on it. After about 30 seconds I fell off and landed on my butt. Scariest day of my life.

I've had a few other zaps from florescent light fixtures when the marrete came loose. I was removing lights from a fixture. We didn't kill the power since we would be working in the dark. I used to work at Sylvania lighting relmaping fixtures in office towers at night.

 

[Fleetmon]

I leaned over my condensor with the fan shroud off and put my hands on the rim to lean over and got a good bite from the capacitor!

 

[dirtymudder]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
I'm a retired TV tech - too many 25-35,000 volt shocks to mention

Same here. One time when I reinstalled a chassis into a set, I was in the front of the tv waiting for the high voltage to come up . I had my hands close to the picture tube, got my knocked on my butt when it hit. You should of seen the look on the lady's face after I got up.

 

[sciphi]

Shocked by 120v when replacing some outlets. It stung for a second before the GFCI did its thing.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
I leaned over my condensor with the fan shroud off and put my hands on the rim to lean over and got a good bite from the capacitor!


Capacitor?

 

[beanoil]

120 lots of times, 240 a few. Worst was I got knocked on my butt one night working on a printer that the SS relay for xerographics latched on, and all the corotrons were fired up. The photobelt in that machine gets charged to a nominal 940 volts, so charge is a little higher. Woke up about a minute later. That was ugly, a little scary.

 

[Rick in PA]

When I was a young tech, I brushed my hand against 5,000 volts at 3 milliamp. My arm felt as though it was buzzing for the rest of the afternoon. That taught me some respect.

The voltage has to be high enough to break through skin resistance. I think about 48 volts is considered the threshold. That's why the 12 volt systems in cars don't generally give shocks.

There's a current threshold too. Over about 10 milliamp causes loss of muscle control. If you're grasping the part, you can lock on. That's when you have real trouble.

High frequency AC (at high voltage) does some weird stuff. It can induce a current by capacitive coupling. Under the right circumstances, you can get a shock without even touching the conductor. For example; holding an insulated wire and brushing your hand against an electrical ground can give a surprising shock at the ground point.

 

[oldhp]

Back of hand "brushed" against 1 leg of 575 3 phase feed for circuit breaker. Was throw back about 5 feet. Arm hurt like #$%& for about a hour. Was lucky as all get out. "Leather gloved" from then on out, no matter what.

 

[Drew99GT]

I got shocked from a 220 (is that right???) outlet for a stove that had a short. All I did was grab it and start unplugging and WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM. It popped my shoulder joint out.

And about 10 seconds later we heard a loud pop; it was my shoulder popping back into place. It was sore for about a month...

To this day I will NEVER touch a 220 plug unless it's off at the breaker. That shock hurt. We had the plug tested by an electrician and they found no problems.

 

[Ojustracing]

The worst for me was a 50,000 volt ignition system on our race vehicle. With close too 700 Milli-amps available at the plug. As luck will have it I missed any rotating parts