That moment my panel started screaming at 2 AM

I was finishing up a Honeywell Vista 20p install in a new build outside Richmond when the keypad started blasting a constant alarm tone for no reason I could see. Turns out I had zipped a trim screw right through the zone 1 wire behind the drywall. How do you guys usually recover from a buried short like that without ripping everything apart?

3 comments

3 Comments

evan_wilson1822d ago

Jumped into this exact nightmare last month on a job in Fredericksburg. Ended up taking a tone generator and just tracing the wire from the panel out to the wall, found the screw by the tone drop off. Saved me from tearing out half the drywall. Your mileage may vary, but it's worked for me a couple times now.

wilson.kelly22d ago

Oh man, I gotta say though, a tone generator isn't gonna work if the screw is grounding the wire out to a metal stud or something. I learned that the hard way on a job in Round Rock last year. The tone just dies completely where the short is, and you're left guessing. I've had better luck with a fox and hound setup, the probes that actually pick up the signal through the wall without needing the wire to be intact. But yeah, your method is solid for most drywall screws that just pinch the wire.

dianal9422d ago

wait, hold on - you zipped a screw through zone 1 wire and the panel didn't even show a zone fault before you set it off? that's wild. i've done the tone generator trick too but one time i had a short so bad from a nail the tone barely even changed, i ended up just cutting a small access hole with a drywall saw and patching it later. sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and open the wall up a little.