Pic of melted lug

[ptonsparky]

If I understand it correctly, once torqued correctly, never torque again. Doesn't matter what the center of the setscrew looks like, every other indication is good. I have broken more than one item when I tried to fix something that I should have just left alone.

 

[realolman]

Maybe a wire from some other branch circuit popped outta somebody's hand and inserted the end of itself right in the center of that screw.

Everything else looks OK.

That screw would be a pain to replace in accordance with NFPA 70E wouldn't it?

 

[mcclary's electrical]

Maybe a wire from some other branch circuit popped outta somebody's hand and inserted the end of itself right in the center of that screw.

Everything else looks OK.

That screw would be a pain to replace in accordance with NFPA 70E wouldn't it?

pull the meter

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

We do not know if it can or cant be torqued. I do not check every lug i see. I would have replaced it if i had 1 on truck but if not would be costly for an extra trip that likely fixes nothing. Probably would done same as Scot and would tell customer it is his option. If they say replace then you have another easy service call.
DO NOT PULL THE METER . Poco in some areas do not allow that. If you add waiting on poco to do this repair it could get very costly.

 

[iwire]

Just gotta love them HI guys. They know just enough to cost the customer the price of an electrician to do what they were paid for.

Now be honest Jim, if someone posted a picture of that lug and said an HI looked in the panel and did not report it you would complain about that as well. :grin:

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

Now be honest Jim, if someone posted a picture of that lug and said an HI looked in the panel and did not report it you would complain about that as well. :grin:

Yes , he should report all findings but i somehow get the feeling that nobody could walk a house and not find anything electrical slightly wrong. My point is they be better off starting by hiring a qualified electrician and paying only once. An electrician knows what not to worry about.

 

[iwire]

Yes , he should report all findings but i somehow get the feeling that nobody could walk a house and not find anything electrical slightly wrong. My point is they be better off starting by hiring a qualified electrician and paying only once. An electrician knows what not to worry about.

If I was buying a home and hired someone to look at it I would expect them to tell me everything about it and let me decide what to worry about and what not to worry about.

Even here with all electrical professionals we cannot come to agreement if this lug is a problem or not.

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

If I was buying a home and hired someone to look at it I would expect them to tell me everything about it and let me decide what to worry about and what not to worry about.

Even here with all electrical professionals we cannot come to agreement if this lug is a problem or not.

I half way agree. But the home buyer hired someone because they know nothing. So after paying him they are back to the starting line again.

Only reason we can not agree on the OP is we can not see from a picture what Scott could see live. As to if he made the right choice only time will tell. My gut feelings is he is right.

 

[Volta]

Yes , he should report all findings but i somehow get the feeling that nobody could walk a house and not find anything electrical slightly wrong.

That's the truth!

My point is they be better off starting by hiring a qualified electrician and paying only once. An electrician knows what not to worry about.

And hiring a roofer. And a plumber. And HVAC tech, and structural engineer, and a wood-destroying insect inspector, and so on .

It can certainly be more efficient, on average, to hire an inspector-of-all trades to give an overview, and then bring specialists back to look at specific points of concern.

 

[growler]

Check out this lug. It was pointed out by a home inspector. My feeling is that there is no heat issue here. The panel is part of a 400 amp service installed in the early 70's. Pretty unusual for a dwelling of that era. The owner is a commercial construction guru and his buddies "found" the panels on a job.

Anyway, it looks to me like an Allen wrench was probably blown to bits by some poor guy. There is no evidence of overheating on the wire or lug itself.

If I knew for sure that this panel was installed back in the 70s and hadn't given any problems in all that time I wouldn't worry about it.

On the other hand that copper looks very shinny for a 70s install. Did they send someone around to polish it from time to time. If this is more recent and say the service conductors were changed for some reason then I would question how they torqued these lugs.

 

[AV ELECTRIC]

What maintenance does a lug require?

I cant count how many times conductors were loose in a panel probably not torqued correctly at the beginning even the factory torque was loose at times . Yes I agree the conductor looks good today . It just seems like a minimal job just to replace it and its money in you pocket.

 

[kwired]

Maybe a wire from some other branch circuit popped outta somebody's hand and inserted the end of itself right in the center of that screw.

Everything else looks OK.

That screw would be a pain to replace in accordance with NFPA 70E wouldn't it?

I kind of had that feeling all along. If a wrench was in the socket of the lug there should be a burn mark wherever else the wrench contacted. With (assuming service conducors) this not having any overcurrent protection probably would have melted more than it did.

If someone was making up the branch circuits while the lug was live and had a conductor slip and touch here it could easily do what we see here.

Someone could have had a cheap test meter set to ohms (oops) and touched a test lead here, seen the aftermath of that a few times, meter probably looked much worse.

pull the meter

I don't think that is a recommended thing to do according to 70e either.

We do not know if it can or cant be torqued. I do not check every lug i see. I would have replaced it if i had 1 on truck but if not would be costly for an extra trip that likely fixes nothing. Probably would done same as Scot and would tell customer it is his option. If they say replace then you have another easy service call.
DO NOT PULL THE METER . Poco in some areas do not allow that. If you add waiting on poco to do this repair it could get very costly.

This depends on the POCO. Where I live in a low poplulation area is not a problem at all. All the complaints I see on this site about scheduling with a POCO are always in higher population areas. I do not doubt what you say but your situation does not apply to everyone.

If I wanted to change that lug most POCO around here would ask when I want to do it, and for no longer than it would take would wait for me to do my job and then re energize the service when I am finished. We may even go to coffee shop or lunch together afterward. I know most of the empolyees at the POCO's I work with regularly.