causing a short

[romex jockey101]

i was working for a guy i was about to work on a circuit that was live so i told him i would turn off the breacker and get started he told me dont bother just cause a short to trip the crk i told him that was a bad i dea bc it could cause a problem in the walls or some were he said all it will do is trip the breacker...he got mad at me for taking the time to try n find the crkb....

 

[ptonsparky]

Try finding someone else to work with. Even I do not allow that procedure.

 

[G._S._Ohm]

An average resi. short of 250 A can cause:
immediate breaker trip [usually]
breaker not tripping and wire overheats along with humming noise
bad wirenut or connection opens up, temporarily or permanently
bad wirenut melts
several breakers tripping

I've heard that people who get mad when their ideas are challenged do not have a firm grip on those ideas, whereas totally assured people do not care what others think.

 

[ptonsparky]

An average resi. short of 250 A can cause:
immediate breaker trip [usually]
breaker not tripping and wire overheats along with humming noise
bad wirenut or connection opens up, temporarily or permanently
bad wirenut melts
several breakers tripping

I've heard that people who get mad when their ideas are challenged do not have a firm grip on those ideas, whereas totally assured people do not care what others think.

I sure like that, can I borrow it?

 

[xformer]

Not only might it cause the dammage named above, It can also trip OCPD protecting the service if the GF protection detects the current.

 

[charlie b]

A basic principle that I learned in my Navy days was this: "Never force a protective feature to actuate." Another way to put it is, "Do not tempt fate." There is even a biblical quotation that applies, but this is not the forum for such quotations.

All you need to consider is what would have happened if the breaker selected that moment to choose not to trip. Breakers are, as we all know, subject to failure. If you intentionally short the circuit, and if the breaker did not trip, then the arcs would not stop, and you have a potentially fatal situation on your hands with no quick way to safely terminate the event. The inconvenience and delay involved in finding the right breaker to turn off before starting the job are as nothing, in comparison to the inconvenience and delay involved in a funeral, and they are well worth having to put up with this other guy getting mad at you.

 

[ZinskI/E]

I agree with all the responses so far. I would add that a circuit breaker's reliability is indirectly proportional to the number of trips, i.e. the more times a breaker is forced to trip, the less reliable the next trip will be.

Intentionally shorting a circuit to find a breaker is a danger to your personal safety, and could very well be a danger to anyone else working that circuit in the future, not to mention the potential damage to equipment or appliances.

 

[hillbilly1]

I knew a HVAC contractor(who would play electrician:roll who would short out the disconnect with a screwdriver to find a circuit, then charge the customer for a new disconnect!

 

[G._S._Ohm]

I sure like that, can I borrow it?

Sure.

I read of a case where three guys on the same psych ward believed that each of them was the son of God, but there were no arguments between them.
And if you read the book "On Being Certain" you may end up not being sure of anything.