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?

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.

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.

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.

Take the switch out, take it to the parts store and drop the 25 bucks to
replace it. Why defeat a safety device needlessly when it could cost you or
one of your family members their life?


"cmsan" wrote in message
m...
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?

Search the Internet for the part number. You might get someone to
bring it to your house.


On Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:06:40 -0500, "Mark" wrote:

Take the switch out, take it to the parts store and drop the 25 bucks to
replace it. Why defeat a safety device needlessly when it could cost you or
one of your family members their life?


"cmsan" wrote in message
om...
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?

"DerbyDad03" wrote...
Did it occur to you to read the responses before you posted?

You know I did, or thought I did. This is my next quandary I guess. I'm
using Windows Vista Mail and I do the command Tools:Synchronize:Get New
Messages as my way of getting new messages. Using that, I didn't see any of
these messages except for this one you wrote above.

After seeing these other messages on google groups, I downloaded the entire
newsgroup into the Mail program,which was over 100k messages and still in
this thread didn't see anything but your message.

But now I deleted the database files on my machine and the backup files it
kept as well and then reloaded this newsgroup and now I'm seeing all the
messages!

Perhaps it's just my news provider had it's head up its ass for a bit there
but I'm amazed I'm seeing the messages all of a sudden when I delete the
database. There was a gap of time in between.

Unfortunately the news provider doesn't have a way to browse their server
via web as a definitive way to see how their server sees the newsgroup...

"Mikepier" wrote...
Ok, stop what you are doing, and slowly back away from
the furnace.

I'm still here. Thankfully I wasn't contemplating the essence of the
tongue-shaped piece of metal while hovering over the blower with a necktie
on or anything.

"Lp1331 1p1331" wrote...
FWIW, the switch is not there to prevent anyone from sticking their
hands into the blower or getting shocked. It is there to insure that the
blower door is put on properly so that the blower does not cause a
negative pressure in the furnace room or closet and cause deadly fumes
to be sucked into the system. That is the most common cause of CO
poisoning with central heat, at least around here. Preventing injuries
from the blower itself or live electrical connnections is a fringe
beneft of the switch. If it was the main concern, they would have them
on air handlers and electric furnaces also, which they do not-- at least
on any I ever saw. Larry

Makes sense. Quite interesting. Not such a silly thing after all I guess.
Can you explain how this thing works a little more with the "negative
pressure" business? I guess what you're saying is that the air should be
drawn from the cold-air intake and not from the furnace room surrounding
area and this thing is built to ensure that? That seems a bit surprising
since it's not like vapor-lock sealed or anything of course, and I had
always assumed a certain amount of air would be sucked in from the
surroundings but you're saying no that absolutely should not happen. So
very interesting... But isn't it still a problem if there's CO in the
surrounding air of the furnace anyway? I mean, that's part of the house
too... How does CO escape from the natural gas and blower system anyway?

"metspitzer" wrote...
That is the way I fix things. I have a large assortment of hammers.


I feel a need for a rubber hammer - always seemed like the ultimate in
hammerless hammering to me.

"Mark" wrote...
Take the switch out, take it to the parts store and drop the 25 bucks to
replace it. Why defeat a safety device needlessly when it could cost you
or one of your family members their life?


Agree. There's a simple on/off switch next to the furnace that shuts power
off which I was using as well, so I think this would be pretty easy to do
safely. The only issue would be how easy to get the two wires off which
lead into the button and then get them back on the new switch. Do you think
that would be at worst a quick stripping operation or something even simpler
than that?

I wish to nominate the OP for the ignorant of the week award.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Mikepier" wrote in message
...


Anyone know where I can get a new switch like this if I need it in the
future? It would have to fit quite precisely it looks to me? Any electric
supply specialty place should have it?

Ok, stop what you are doing, and slowly back away from the furnace.

Simpler.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"cmsan" wrote in message
...
"Mark" wrote...
Take the switch out, take it to the parts store and drop the 25 bucks to
replace it. Why defeat a safety device needlessly when it could cost you
or one of your family members their life?


Agree. There's a simple on/off switch next to the furnace that shuts power
off which I was using as well, so I think this would be pretty easy to do
safely. The only issue would be how easy to get the two wires off which
lead into the button and then get them back on the new switch. Do you think
that would be at worst a quick stripping operation or something even simpler
than that?