# arc fault breakers



## Green CTE2 (Jan 2, 2009)

went to test to see if power was working,, took the temp service and stuck it into the meter. Turned some cirks on. lights didn't seem to work and by the time I got back to the panel the arch fault breakers were fried.


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## DEAD SHORT (May 24, 2010)

That sucks..... I had many problems with those breakers but nothing like that..when we did them they were residental buildings... One was 30fls 21fls. 13fls But never burnt up like u said


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

So, this is a new house that you hot wired thru the meter somehow.

Explain this


> took the temp service and stuck it into the meter


 because I have no idea what you did.


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

I think he's saying he took a temporary and put it into the meter can for the new service that isn't hot yet ?

anyhow, only thing I can think is that maybe you put 240 accross the 120 arc fault by mistake ?


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

Dennis Alwon said:


> So, this is a new house that you hot wired thru the meter somehow.
> 
> Explain this because I have no idea what you did.


I got a nickel that says he ran an SO cord or some NM from the temp service to the empty meter socket of the house in order to energize the main panel for testing purposes.

Although I don't know why it was done to 'test the lights', as by the time I install the lights in a new house, permanent power is on.




wildleg said:


> ...........anyhow, only thing I can think is that maybe you put 240 accross the 120 arc fault by mistake ?


Or ended up with an open neutral. But would the AFCIs with low voltage get fried?


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

don't know, I have yet to hold an arc fault in my hand. I did wire a gfi to 208 by mistake a while back, and amazingly it worked fine (?) - the light bulbs weren't so lucky.


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## Innovative (Jan 26, 2010)

Damn, we dont have power on a new house for weeks or sometimes months after we finish the final electric. We have a 50 amp male plug that plugs into the t-pole with jumper cable clamps on the other end to clamp to the meter socket to hot check the houses.


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

DEAD SHORT said:


> That sucks..... I had many problems with those breakers but nothing like that..when we did them they were residental buildings... One was 30fls 21fls. 13fls But never burnt up like u said


I wouldn't be too quick to blame the circuit breaker.


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## DEAD SHORT (May 24, 2010)

RIVETER said:


> I wouldn't be too quick to blame the circuit breaker.


I never blamed the breaker... I don't blame anyone... I just fixed them..... I really hate to say but there were a few eletricians that wired them up and didn't know and didn't asked and didn't know the concept on how they work or how they get wired up..... Lot of the problems I found that the nuetral was shared with another ckt... Or used a nuetral from another ckt ... In the deck pipe there were multi ckts pulled and when they were spliced out... People just wired them wrong...


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## sbrn33 (Mar 15, 2007)

I think 480 is right on this one.
Would be willing to bet the grounded conductor came loose and either low or high voltage fried the breakers. Although wouldn't that require some 240 volt load??


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## 480sparky (Sep 20, 2007)

sbrn33 said:


> ..... Although wouldn't that require some 240 volt load??



No, just a load on each leg of the service.


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## RIVETER (Sep 26, 2009)

DEAD SHORT said:


> I never blamed the breaker... I don't blame anyone... I just fixed them..... I really hate to say but there were a few eletricians that wired them up and didn't know and didn't asked and didn't know the concept on how they work or how they get wired up..... Lot of the problems I found that the nuetral was shared with another ckt... Or used a nuetral from another ckt ... In the deck pipe there were multi ckts pulled and when they were spliced out... People just wired them wrong...


That is what I thought. Good catch.:thumbsup:


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

wildleg said:


> I think he's saying he took a temporary and put it into the meter can for the new service that isn't hot yet ?
> 
> anyhow, only thing I can think is that maybe you put 240 accross the 120 arc fault by mistake ?


Yeah, I figured he meant that but I want to know what he actually did. 240 volts with no neutral? AFCI don't usually just fry on their own- I suspect something was done iimproperly.


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## Old man (Mar 24, 2010)

If you put power on the house to label or check the house out you better make darn sure you got a good tight connection with the nuetral or it WILL burn up some AFCIs. I know this for a fact as I have done it several times b4 I caught on as to what was going on.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Depending on the order that you hooked up your temp to the meter can, I can absolutely see how you could fry the AFCI's. If you were dumb enough to leave all the breakers on, connect the temp hot, and hook up the hots before the neutral... yup.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

Green CTE2 said:


> went to test to see if power was working,, took the temp service and stuck it into the meter. Turned some cirks on. lights didn't seem to work and by the time I got back to the panel the arch fault breakers were fried.


Welcome to the junk corporate is enforcing us to use. Your best bet is to go to a big Orange store, buy the same breakers, repackage the old ones and return the junk back to corporate.


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