I m washing an older house tomorrow and am a little worried about the exposed lines running to the house. Only worried about the two thicker power wires that run to the meter box. Should i be worried?
Nope. If the rain and weather hasn’t affected it you’ll be fine. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but rain soap down over it and don’t spray directly into the weatherhead and you’ll be golden. You can mostly soap and rinse around it
If their lights flicker every time it rains then it would be a concern.
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I always tend to get a pucker effect when washing houses with power lines lines like that🤯
My buddy was washing a house over the summer and he was getting a slight shock while washing a 2nd story fiberglass deck. He moved onto aluminum ladder and it increased significantly. He finished and told them home owner but never found out what the problem was. I assumed it was a bad ground.
Good to hear, figured it should be ok.
There are a few threads on here about people starting fires. It does deserve respect. Take a good look at it and make sure it’s sealed up tight. Tape up anything that looks iffy. Spray around it carefully. Be extra careful if the meter is on a porch or under an overhang where it doesn’t get routinely tested by Mother Nature.
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Totally fair
I’d be more concerned about the utility boxes underneath.
Don’t spray large volumes across the 2 lines going into the weather head. Don’t spray into the weatherhead. Inspect and bag the meter box. Always be 15 foot from the meter box and never stand under the lines during or shortly after washing,
I have a custom pair of brown underwear that says if you do it wrong you can re design tidy whities.
Arch flash is real and it will kill you.
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Water will track. Rain is not an issue because it wets everything individually; however, if you spray directly and the sream touches the neutral and the hot lead at the same time…well, you may not be posting after pics. Be safe!
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Alrighty, now im back to being a little nervous.
Thanks guys for the help, and tips.
A little nervous is good.
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I’ve been washing around them for years and I’m still nervous about it.
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Its only 480 volts of electricity! What is there to be worried about lol
I can tell you from experience that this is exactly what it looks and sounds like in person!
Just be careful and you will be fine.
I’ve never had any issues and I’ve washed thousands of houses and sprayed them directly. Where I occasionally have trouble is if I don’t tape above the meter box and water runs through a whole in the back of the box and burns up the main breaker. They are usually weather proof so I get complacent and don’t tape some of them but I had one that caught fire and the breaker wouldn’t flip until it burned up. Scared the crap out of me but it didn’t damage the house. Just needed a new main breaker and some silicone around the box and was good to go.
Yea you should count your blessings and not spray the weatherheads directly. And always tape boxes or bag.
Safest is to call electric company to turn off/on
That wouldn’t fly for many reasons.
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Can you imagine the logistical nightmare it would be trying to schedule having the power turned off and then back on for every single house wash. 
Especially when you have those weeks where you have 3-5 house washes a day scheduled. Not to mention if the power company just pulled the meter to kill power to the house the wires at the weather head and down to the meter base would still be hot. They’d have to completely unhook both hot legs and the neutral for it to do anything. They would get so many disconnect calls they’d end up starting to charge which would cost as much as the house wash. If not more.
I imagine those are a few of your reasons why it wouldn’t fly.
