qo breakers

[southernboys]

hey guys Ive got a customer whos got an old square d panel. he installed a gas furnace for his ac heater. well he didnt call me and just hooked a field supplied extension cord into the nearest rec. well the cord ends that plug into the recep had melted dueto the heat i think. the specs call for a max 15a oc protection he had this hooked to a 20a circuit. he claims that all of his receps shut off but no breakers were tripped is this typical of a qo breakers? he says he waited a few minutes and then everything came back on said the lights didnt go out this recep is on a dedicated circuit put ampmeter on wire off breaker pulls 8 amps I will replace 20a breaker with 15a just wondering why breakers would not have tripped. went neutral to hot and got breaker to trip just not on heat trip does this sound fishy to you guys thanks

 

[mdshunk]

Re: qo breakers

Nope, doesn't sound fishy to me at all. It sounds like the circuit opened by a means other than the breaker, cooled off, and remade itself. That would be more typical of a bad backstab or a bad extension cord.

I might add that the QO's have a famously reliable trip curve. The only trouble you may find with them is on circuits that have tripped dozens and dozens of times due to genuine overloads. This tends to "weaken" the breaker, and it starts to trip early.

[ May 25, 2005, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: mdshunk ]

 

[southernboys]

Re: qo breakers

so shunk in your opinion should I change the breaker out and also hardwire the furnace. the panel is within sight of the furnace. there are no backstabs on this circuit as the only thing on this circuit is the recep that the furnace is plugged into and a light fixture. this is a new breaker installed within the past year as I tried to clean up what had been a hack job thanks