Breaker replacement

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xformer

Senior Member
Location
Dallas, Tx
Occupation
Master Electrician
A customer has a concern about an old 60A 2 pole humming push-o-matic

breaker feeding a water heater. Upon closing, the breaker hums. Is this a

safety concern or fire hazard? Should the breaker be replaced? Or, is he worried

about nothing?
 
humming is not necessarily a problem....
what size wire and what size (watts) heater.. 60 amp is UNUSUAL for a residential water heater.
 
X, try measuring from line to load (panel bus to load conductor) across each pole of the breaker while under load. This voltage is called 'fall of potential' and will disclose undue voltage drop.
 
Some older panels had a break in the panel buss and one of the "main" breakers would actually feed a set of branch breakers in the same panel.
On these, often you would have 3 or 4 dp breakers to range, heat, etc and then 1 or 2 dp breakers which fed the one below them.
It was a means to limit your mains to no more than 6 and still have 1 panel.
As I reall, it was a common push-matic panel.
 
Just had a flashback of Frank Zappa's "Dinah-Moe Humm"... :cool:

If it were anything other than Pushmatic, I wouldn't be concerned about the hum. But because of the nature of how a Pushmatic hold the circuit closed, that bothers me a lot. the Line-Load voltage test should be a good guide as to integrity though.
 
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