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DerbyDad03 DerbyDad03 is offline
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Default Problem w/Circuit Breaker on Door Panel of Forced Air System

On Nov 17, 3:13*pm, Mikepier wrote:
On Nov 17, 2:51*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:





On Nov 17, 2:33*pm, "cmsan" wrote:


Hello all. *I broke the forced air system, while simply removing the front
panel to replace the air filter! *I can see exactly where the problem is
occurring though and it's right on the silly front panel frame!


The problem is a circuit breaker (says Carlingswitch 0534 10A) that is
mounted to the inside front panel frame (an area where the removed panel
screws *onto*). *This is an odd breaker, though I'm no expert on them, but
looks weird b/c has grease that's been I'd gather manually applied, and the
fuse part is exposed and the first I ever noticed this thing, it has a
"tongue" of metal which does *not* look like it broke off due to normal
circuit breaker tripping, no breakage marks but just looks like it fell out
of where it's supposed to be. *If I take this tongue of metal and push
w/plastic so it touches two contacts I can see, the system comes back on.
But there's nothing I can figure out to keep it touching the contacts and it
jiggles off with any slight jarring.


Before this problem occurred I banged on the front panel a bit with a hammer
to get it to seat properly and shift down a bit and I'm thinking this jarred
this little tongue out of whatever proper position it was in.


Weird question and a weird circuit breaker. *I'd prefer not to spend alot on
an electrician just to deal with this simple thing.


Anyone help? *If noone wants to help can anyone explain the purpose of an
odd circuit breaker mounted to the door frame like this?


Sounds like a safety interlock switch that shuts the system down when
the panel is removed. It's for "user protection" so you don't get your
tie or shirt sucked into the blower or wrapped around the pulley as
you lean in to change the filter.


If that is indeed what it is, I'll leave to you to decide if you
should bypass it so it never turns the system off, and then label the
panel in a clear and permanent manner to inform all others that the
safety switch has been bypassed and that danger lurks behind the
panel.


The worst case is when the blower is off, you reach in and the blower
turns on.- Hide quoted text -


- Show quoted text -


Thats exactly what it is ,an interlock. My Trane furnace has the same
thing.
Like DerbyDad says, mark the panel cautioning other users that it has
been jumped out. But you have to remember to shut it off through
another switch whenever you have to service it or change the filter.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


We used to jump out the interlocks on room-sized transmitters that
normally ran at 15KV.

Sometimes they would arc to the chassis and you couldn't see the
problem area with the panels on. We'd remove the panels, jump out the
interlocks, turn off the lights in the transmitter room and run the
unit up to 15KV, then 20KV, then 25KV. When it finally arced, trust
me, you'd know where the problem was.

First we'd clean our pants, then we'd fix the problem.