From your description, that's what it sounded like to me. Once that
"railing", which is called buss, is annealed from overheating, it looses
it's conductive properties, and needs to be replaced. This would probably
mean replacing the entire panel. Have a qualified electrician inspect it, if
the metal is still in decent shape, it can possibly be cleaned, although the
breaker will certainly have to be replaced.



"tysteel" wrote in message
...
On Nov 25, 1:41 pm, "RBM" rbm2(remove wrote:
Your water heater wiring, while incorrect, has nothing to do with the
main
disconnect problem. You are correct that a 4500 watt heater requires a 30
amp circuit and #10 wiring and that a 3500 watt unit would work fine with
the existing wiring and breaker



Thanks for the response. I went back outside and checked the 100
rated amp circuit breaker under the meter, removed the paneling, and
when I switched the breaker off and then on, I noticed that the arcing
(or sparks) is coming from the railing that the circuit breaker plugs
into,....