Serious question, why do so many guys not torque their breaker connections?

I was fixing a flickering light in a house in Springfield and found the main breaker lug was barely finger tight. The owner said his buddy 'helped' him a year ago. That's a fire waiting to happen, not a fix. How do you get people to understand a torque wrench isn't just for cars? Anyone else run into this way too often?

3 comments

3 Comments

finley9391d ago

Honestly, I used to think snug was good enough. Then I saw a melted bus bar at my uncle's cabin. The electrician pointed to the scorch marks and said that loose screw was basically a tiny space heater running inside the wall for months. Changed how I look at every connection now. Tight is safe, but only torque is right.

troyjackson1d ago

Man, that's scary. I saw the same thing on a service call last month, but it was a subpanel feeding a garage workshop. Loose neutral on a 50-amp breaker had melted the insulation. You're right, it's like some folks think electricity is magic and just needs to be 'touching'. How do we get the word out that a loose connection is a heater, not a conductor?

kim.wren1d ago

Ugh, saw a melted dryer outlet last week from the same thing, just scary how common this is.

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