Another... "My dryer doesn't work and he new one...

Mule Meat

Well-known Member
does the same thing.." After three people looked at it and even Lowes (where the dryer was purchased from) sent out a guy. I got me crack at it. When I hit the start button I noticed that a light flickered in the hall way. Told the Lowes guy to hit the button when I was at the breaker box. Sure enough I hear the eggs frying sound from the box. Cut the main and opened it up. Pulled the dryer breaker and it was fine. A little arced but not to bad. turned the main back on and got to see a sizzling light show. shut it back off and pulled it from the box which took some effort to do.

Here is what I found. Called the power company and got a maintenance number (keeps you out of jail for breaking the seal) to pull the meter. Pulled it and begin pulling breakers.

Got the box make and model number No one had anything the would work in the box due to age and C & H being bought and sold so many times over the years. So a new breaker box will need to be installed.


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30+ year old Crouse-Hinds breaker box with severely burnt main breaker lugs in the load center.

And people laughed at me for buying an extra load center to fit the box that was installed in my house when I had it build 10 years ago. :shock:
 
cut my seals years ago used to pull the meter and spin it upside down it would spin backwards but now with the new meters it wont work that way
 
grizz02; Turn the meter upside down to make it spin backward? Did you have a legitimate reason to do that which I'm having trouble thinking of, or was it just to lower your electric bill? If it was to lower your bill I'm surprised that you would come right out and admit it. Petty crime like that is sometimes referred to as chiseling. One of the last things I'd ever want to be known as is a chiseler.

Stan
 
(quoted from post at 19:29:11 05/11/18) cut my seals years ago used to pull the meter and spin it upside down it would spin backwards but now with the new meters it wont work that way

A lot of tricks back when they had needles and dials. Not so in this day and time.. The power company has clamped down hard on people breaking seals and pulling the plastic tabs after their power had been shut off around here. They can tell when and where one of the LED meters have been tampered with from the office.. But doing electrical work you can call and they will give you a "maintence number" that you can use to pull a meter and not be charged or taken to jail for it.. But if you do pull a mter without a company rep the electrical must be inspected and pass before they will turn it back on. Like this new breaker box. It will need to be inpected and pass befor the people can have power restored to their house.. I loaned them a generator to power their fridge, freezer and couple of lights and the TV.. Even tho it was not really my job to bigin with. I did not want them to be left totally in the dark so to speak or lose any food due to a bad box. For it will take some time to install a new one mainly due to the sheetrock being finished snug with the box and will have to be cut out..

I am just glad that it did not cause a fire.
 

I may have that box and a boat load of breakers my uncle that's retired has them stored in a shipping container at my house.

When I upgraded (added a room on) I added a main breaker panel on the outside and used the one in the house as a sub panel for light loads such as lights. It was performed by a licences electrician with a permit. I put all the heavy loads on the exterior panel. Prior to that I had to pull the meter to hook up a generator because I did not have a main disconnect. I never had a problem with the electric co because I did that probably because the bill was inline and never a big drop in power usage.

BTW the one in the house uses fuses :( built in 1963...
 
My God, I can't imagine the lug would burn before it would trip the breaker. The breaker must have fit loose or malfunctioned altogether.
 
I had one like that in a house I bought 20 years ago. The house had been rewired a long, time ago with a Murray Circuit breaker panel. The previous owner had put in a few more circuits with what ever brand of breaker would fit. When I bought the place, I was having brownouts and buzzing at the breaker panel. I checked the breaker connections, and found a lot of the connections at the buss bar were just like your pictures. Lucky for me, I was able to purchease another new Murray box with breakers that was the same as the one in the house. Disconnect all the wires changed the buss bar and hook up the wires with all new breakers. Didn't have to pull the wires out of the box to change the whole panel
 
I had one that looked a lot like that. Showed up after several lightning strikes in the area. I would have brownouts in half of the house. All of the individual breakers looked just fine. I finally pulled the main 200 amp breaker and the contacts inside were burned. I was able to find parts to replace the "rail" where the breakers mount. Replaced the main and the rails and all works fine now. I was dreading having to replace the whole box as the wiring was pretty tight and there wasn't any room for error.
 
dr sportster; Legally it may be grand larceny, but socially it's more like using slugs in a vending machine or stealing library materials by claiming you returned them and it was the library that lost them. They don't make movies like Ocean's 11 about people who turn the meter upside down. Maybe Midnight Cowboy.

Stan
 
Wow.

Nice job of troubleshooting. I think most folks would have wondered what caught their house on fire after the fact.
 
Got her back up and running. Just need to go back and tidy up the sheetrock that had to be cut. I moved her box up about 12"and the center of the box is still eye level.. Lucky I could do it for it gave me a lot of extra wire to work with. Installed a new 200 Amp Square D box and breakers. The power companies inspector came by and looked everything over. He was kind of surprised to find that I used Nye Nyogel 760G Hydrocarbon Grease on all of the connections and contacts. Said a lot of people just use any type or brand of cheap Die-electric grease that they can get their hands on.. After he OHM'ed the second ground rod (only had one before) He signed off and stuck the meter back in the base with a new seal..

Threw the Main and then the dryer breaker and the dryer started right up and got warm as it should after a few seconds.. Then tested all of the lights and got a 124.2 Volts reading at a few different outlets throughout the house with the lights on. Told her once I got the wall repaired that I would stop by in about two weeks to inspect the breakers and make sure all was well after they had time to "cycle" a few times and the power load gets balanced out and back to normal usage.


As I was leaving I thought.. Am I the only numb nuts that actually pulls his breakers once a year to inspect them and the load center??

If so I am kind of glad that I am one of a kind..
 

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