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I was cleaning my bathroom due to limestone being everywhere with a corded power drill (with a brush-like drill bit) and suddenly the lights began flickering when I was powering it on. I began to feel a minor electric shock when pressing the button. Since then whenever I plug in appliances and turn them on, the lights are flickering. Especially if it draws a lot of power like the drill mentioned.

The drill getting wet was most likely the cause of the problem as this was not occuring before. What happened to the circuit and is it easily fixable? I am throwing this drill out and have already ordered a new one.

Michael Karas
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  • Sounds like a brush problem to me is the case plastic or metal? If the windings are damp this can cause a much higher current draw drying the drill out will probably save it but check the brushes, I have picked up 300$ drills for 5$ and all they needed was a pair of 5$ brushes. – Ed Beal Dec 29 '20 at 15:13
  • Run the drill with a long extension cord plugged into another circuit. You may discover if the problem is in the drill or in the circuit. – John Canon Dec 31 '20 at 04:45

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This could be a "floating neutral," which is a serious electrical problem. See this other question here on stackexchange. In my case I resolved the problem by calling the power company. They asked "Do your lights flicker?" They replaced a nearby power pole within a few hours.

You could also have a poor/ineffective electrical ground. Does the drill have a three-pronged plug?

nibot
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  • Two-pronged - it is an old piece of equipment. Something happened for sure while I was using it cause prior to this I did not have this problem whatsoever. The drill most definitely got a little wet while using it and it must have done something to the power circuit. –  Dec 26 '20 at 08:47
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If the drill dried out and still worked, it is fine. please don't waste a perfectly good drill. Dumps are getting full because we throw everything away for the smallest reasons.

About lights flickering whenever a large current draw occurs... the other poster mentioned a floating neutral which is a good possibility. Any power tool should have a 3-prong plug also as was mentioned - this is for your protection.

You may want to buy a cheap electrical outlet tester to confirm your outlets are all wired correctly. It will tell you if there are any issues with grounding, or reverses, or hot neutrals, by lighting up 3 lights in certain patterns. Worth it to have one around in the house junk drawer.

John R
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  • The drill is two-proned and an old piece of equipment. For my own safety I have ordered a new one. I also ordered an outlet tester like you mentioned to further identify the problem. Could the drill getting wet cause something to happen within the power circuit of my home? This was definitely not a problem before and I do not suspect it is caused by something else. –  Dec 26 '20 at 08:51
  • NO! Even if the drill was dunked in the toilet and completely shorted your breaker would have tripped. If getting the drill wet did anything what it did was cause a latent problem in your electrical system to manifest. Double insulated drills should not need (and are not required to have) a ground prong. Maybe your outlet is on a GFCI breaker and that breaker went bad. Or the outlet had poor connections and started arcing internally. If you felt a minor electric shock from a wet drill that would be a symptom of bad or missing GFCI protection which in a bathroom could kill you. – Ted Mittelstaedt Dec 26 '20 at 12:36
  • @TedMittelstaedt I agree completely with Ted. There's no way a defective drill could damage a properly wired electrical system. But they could damage YOU! I've had old power tools before grounding and before double insulation and before GFCIs that would leak a bit of power thru me! Not fun. If your lights are LED, they are extremely sensitive to any voltage variation and can flicker. You still may have other problems, but the drill didn't cause them. – George Anderson Dec 26 '20 at 13:14
  • Thanks for the responds. The drill was an old Metaba from before 30 years (produced in West Germany) so I suspect the malfunction could have been due to either the equipment being old or the wiring in the home. The building is a dorm from the 1970's with everything old and almost nothing replaced. My bulbs are LED indeed so they all reacted to the drill. I have ordered a socket tester and will check if they have the correct voltage/power going through. Thanks for the responds. –  Dec 30 '20 at 21:43
  • An older Arrow hot-glue gun shot sparks and caught fire right in front of me on the bench. It was like a scene from an old Flash Gordon movie. There was old varnished paper insulation inside. Luckily, I was in the room when it ignited. – John Canon Dec 31 '20 at 21:09