Thursday's pic

Status
Not open for further replies.
K8MHZ

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Isn't this an interesting breaker combination?

View attachment 6196

The 25 amp breakers that have the handle ties are for the water heater. And they actually worked!

I went out to see what was initially considered to be nuisance tripping of the 25 A breakers. I found a thermostat and lower heating element completely soaked with water and evidence of sparking across the terminals of the lower element. Also everything was rusted to the point of it likely being impossible to work with.

I condemned the heater. I also showed the HO the char marks on the plastic cover and one of the brass terminals, along with a much larger char mark on the styrofoam insulation.

But in all my years, I have never seen breakers set up that way. It's unusual enough to see 2 pole breakers with different ratings, but to see two of them paired up like that is a new one on me.

Just to be clear, I know the breakers had nothing to do with the problem, I just thought they were unique enough to get a pic of.
 
steve66

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
I agree, very strange. Where do you get 15A / 25A tandem breakers?

At first I thought they were 2 seperate tandem breakers that someone added a handle tie to - then I noticed from the labeling its a single 4 tandem assembly.

At the lower left corner I also see 30A/20A tandems with another handle tie!!
 
J

jim dungar

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Wisconsin
Occupation
PE (Retired) - Power Systems
Never thought about it. But I see that there are equivalent Square D Homelines (even one with 15A on the outside and 50A in the center), so I assume other companies also offer them.
 
Sierrasparky

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
Never seen the 25 amp quad style but I stock the 15/20-20/15, the 20/30-30/20 and such because of existing panels and all electric homes with electric heaters in each room. It becomes a frequent pain in the XXX when working on these older panels and someone used single pole breakers and no handle ties.
 
A

Article 90.1

Senior Member
zbang said:
To hold the main onto the bus (required).

I have a couple of those tandem breakers- my garage has a 15/20/15 for receptacles/220v power saw/lights.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's what I thought, we have a few in the truck, but have not had to use them yet, for some reason it just looked like an odd location.
 
N

norcal

Senior Member
ceb58 said:
Common type breaker in mobile homes.
Click to expand...

My 1st guess that the panel was in a trailer, it just had the "look". You can call them mobile homes, manufactured homes, or factory built homes, but a trailer by any other name is still a trailer.
 
H

hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Since this area is trailer haven, and we have some of the largest manufactures of mobile homes just 50 miles to our east in South Bend, In. these breakers here can even be found at some of the big box stores, or any mobile home supply, as soon as I saw the photo I said trailer, and those breakers come in many flavors, (combinations) would you believe that there are even tandem double pole quads, yes two two pole common trip tandems, the inside is a two pole 20, and the out side is a two pole 30 or visa versa, how they make the outside two common trip is a mystery to me, but i guess if ITE can stack 4 100 amp breakers together for 200 amp main breaker with all 4 poles common trip then these should be a piece of cake.
 
N

norcal

Senior Member
hurk27 said:
Since this area is trailer haven, and we have some of the largest manufactures of mobile homes just 50 miles to our east in South Bend, In. these breakers here can even be found at some of the big box stores, or any mobile home supply, as soon as I saw the photo I said trailer, and those breakers come in many flavors, (combinations) would you believe that there are even tandem double pole quads, yes two two pole common trip tandems, the inside is a two pole 20, and the out side is a two pole 30 or visa versa, how they make the outside two common trip is a mystery to me, but i guess if ITE can stack 4 100 amp breakers together for 200 amp main breaker with all 4 poles common trip then these should be a piece of cake.
Click to expand...

ITE was the first to build a 200A breaker that way but besides ITE, GE, & Cutler-Hammer did it too as seen here:

IMG_0051.jpg
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
ceb58 said:
Common type breaker in mobile homes.
Click to expand...

That is generally the only place you find them on original installations. They are usually more expensive for us in the field to install than going with larger panel and full size breakers.

Mobile home manufacturers buy them in larger quantities and get a better price. They also have concerns using less weight where possible. Smaller panel with tandems is less weight. They are looking at more than just the electrical system at ways to reduce weight.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top