Do it yourself

Plugged in a lamp I haven't used in years
and blew a fuse. So it's pitch dark and
I find my way to the office which is on a
different line. Find a flashlight, go to the
fuse box in the basement. Dark down there
too. Luckily I bought a new box of 6 fuses
last fall and there are 5 left.

They are kept on top of an air duct near
the box, as I'm fumbling with the flashlight,
I knock the new fuses into a box where I
throw the old fuses away. Damn. Now I don't
know which are good and which are bad. It
used to be easy to tell, not so much anymore.

So I start playing Russian roulette with them,
examining with the light, see if they look OK,
screwing them in, trekking upstairs to see if
they work. Did this 3 times, no luck. To hell
with it, I take two good fuses out of the well
pump box and will deal with it tomorrow.

Get back upstairs and it's still dark. Discover
I have made a rookie mistake and left the
lamp that blew in the first place plugged in.
Arrrgggh! Go back down and steal a fuse out
of kitchen circuit and it works.

Next day I gather a bunch of fuses out of the
dead fuse throw away box and am going to
test them with a meter. Then I remember the
battery in the meter is dead, been meaning
to replace it. So I take a 100 foot extension
cord and plug it into the blown line upstairs,
go outside and into the basement, attach a utility
light to the cord and hang it where I can see
it. Took me five tries before I found two fuses
that weren't blown as evidenced by the light
coming on.

All of this because I left the stupid lamp plugged in
and knocked the good fuses in with the bad.
It was an episode of the 3 Stooges. I was thankful
it wasn't January.

My brother in law is an electrical engineer and says
he would rather have a fuse box than a breaker box.
Fuses will always blow, they have no choice. Breakers
frequently freeze up and can be worthless unless
you exercise them on a regular basis. Where he works
there are hundreds of breaker boxes and they go
around once a month and make sure they aren't
stuck. Fuses never fail, no matter how old they are.

Quote: Evenbob

Luckily I bought a new box of 6 fuses
last fall and there are 5 left.

The fuses are going for a reason.

Quote:

... box where I
throw the old fuses away.

You shouldn't be going through that many fuses.

Quote:

..I take two good fuses out of the well
pump box and will deal with it tomorrow.

So I take it your well is either 208/240? That's two fuses, how many are in your panel? Are they all 15's? I haven't used low voltage 120/240 volt fuses in a long time, but yes good equipment is still good equipment. Contact surfaces, workmanship, and materials were all better then the newer cheaper throw away model.

Quote:

Go back down and steal a fuse out
of kitchen circuit and it works.

All the same amp size?

Quote:

My brother in law is an electrical engineer and says
he would rather have a fuse box than a breaker box.
Fuses will always blow, they have no choice. Breakers
frequently freeze up and can be worthless unless
you exercise them on a regular basis. Where he works
there are hundreds of breaker boxes and they go
around once a month and make sure they aren't
stuck. Fuses never fail, no matter how old they are.

Everything seems to have a life span. I did troubleshooting at a few power company's. Breakers, panels, and all sorts of stuff seems to wear out around twenty or so years. Also many people don't know to turn a breaker off before going back on with it.

Seeing as how you have fuses, do you also have knob and tube insulators and open wire wiring in your attic? This is really dated stuff. The reason I ask is I was reading an old local paper where an acquaintance died in a house fire. The reason they gave was when the wiring was run for his house some went through drilled holes, through insulation which they thought over the years had [packed] or compressed over the years and caused the wiring to get hotter then it used too. A 15 amp fuse will burn when it is supposed to +/-, but a fire can easily start before a fuse reaches the standard 15 amps. The fuses are "burning" through and interrupting the electrical flow, dry tinder will ignite just as easy as a fuse will interrupt.

It was also stated that when family members arrived before emt that although he had three smoke detectors none could be heard. He lost his dog in the fire as well as his life. If you can, peek at the old wiring.

Quote: petroglyph

You shouldn't.....

Please, sonny, save the lecture. Been living
in this house for over 30 years, I know what's
going on.

Quote: Evenbob

Please, sonny, save the lecture. Been living
in this house for over 30 years, I know what's
going on.

Obviously you think so, but your garbage can filling up with burnt fuses tells a different story.

Quote: petroglyph

Obviously you think so, but your garbage can filling up with burnt fuses tells a different story.

Sigh. It's a small cardboard box that has 20
years worth of fuses in it. I never blow a fuse
here unless I do something I shouldn't,
like rewire a lamp poorly. I go years and years
and years without blowing fuses. Try to
keep your imagination under control.

This house was wired for electric in 1950,
using state of the art (for 1950) Romex.
Five years ago I ran a modern Romex
cable to the bedroom and my office,
from an unused box in the basement.
That way I can safely run anything I
want. In the rest of the house, I'm
very careful about too much on any
one circuit.

Quote: Evenbob

I know what's going on.

And now so do we. Storing fuses in a poorly selected place and attempting a non-critical repair under less than optimal conditions such as a flood lamp battery or head lamp battery. You will rarely be replacing fuses in daylight. There is also a reason a casino won't allow a waste basket near where bags of blacks are stacked.

Its an interesting problem and you dealt with it cleverly if not optimally and its entertaining, but as you said we might all have different opinions of this if it had been in some January blizzard that shuts down the roads for days.

Quote: Fleastiff

And now so do we. Storing fuses in a poorly selected place and attempting a non-critical repair.

Poor place, like next to the fuse box?
Are you kidding?

I repaired nothing, what are you talking
about. I changed a fuse, try and control
yourself.. It was humorous, I knew it when
it was happening. A small mishap was
transformed into an hour long ordeal.

What's wrong with you people..

I worked on an old house recently that had just nasty wiring. The insulation had the consistency of stale graham cracker. Any manipulation of it whatsoever caused it to crumble off and leave the wire exposed. Just a disaster.

Balls to fuse boxes. I don't even think you can sell a house that still has one anymore. I know when I was looking, every house that still had one HAD to be updated before we moved in, if we chose to take the house.

I much prefer the breaker. Just flip a switch. Ain't never heard of them seizing up or going bad, but mine do get worked at least roughly once a year. Seems I'm always installing a new line or new plug or ceiling fan or something. And I #$%^ing hate being electrocuted, so I flip every damn switch in there, main and all =p I did take some 220 to the hand last year because I'm stupid, and the breaker never flipped. Of course, I never shut anything off before removing the plug cover and poking it with a screwdriver. I suppose the hammer blow of electricity is as good as any breaker in keeping you safe in the future. And if not, well... one less stupid person stupiding up the gene pool =p

Quote: Face

Balls to fuse boxes...I much prefer the breaker.

Fuses are reliable, breakers are not. Read
up on it. But fuses are inconvenient, so
they get a bad rep. Fuses are far more
sensitive than breakers, that's a fact.
Breakers do stick, but hey, they are less
hassle, so that's what's important..

Quote: Face

I worked on an old house recently that had just nasty wiring. The insulation had the consistency of stale graham cracker. Any manipulation of it whatsoever caused it to crumble off and leave the wire exposed. Just a disaster.

Balls to fuse boxes. I don't even think you can sell a house that still has one anymore. I know when I was looking, every house that still had one HAD to be updated before we moved in, if we chose to take the house.

I much prefer the breaker. Just flip a switch. Ain't never heard of them seizing up or going bad, but mine do get worked at least roughly once a year. Seems I'm always installing a new line or new plug or ceiling fan or something. And I #$%^ing hate being electrocuted, so I flip every damn switch in there, main and all =p I did take some 220 to the hand last year because I'm stupid, and the breaker never flipped. Of course, I never shut anything off before removing the plug cover and poking it with a screwdriver. I suppose the hammer blow of electricity is as good as any breaker in keeping you safe in the future. And if not, well... one less stupid person stupiding up the gene pool =p

If that is the case it is a NYS thing as I bought my place with 2 fuse boxes that I ripped out and put in breakers. My brother runs a good side hustle doing that. Makes a few hundred net for a days work, almost always in green. He has been off doing it a few years with a family but I think he has a few jobs coming up. It is a hard hustle to quit as the money is so good. Add in the local free gasoline when you buy gift cards to buy supplies then a credit card rebate on that can easily add almost another $100 profit to a job. There is gold in them there fuse boxes!