"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
TURTLE wrote:
"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...

TURTLE wrote:


"Matt" wrote in message
egroups.com...


Perhaps you are right Turtle.... but nothing ****es me off more than to
take the time to try to help someone, at their request, and then have
them come back and insult me for it.

Even if I'm completely off base with my answer, it just irks me to have
the OP slam me for trying to help. We all know the others here will do
a nice job of gutting anyone who gives a completely wrong answer....
and I can accept that, ask for forgiveness, and move on.... but not

from the OP.

In this case, the guy had a disconnect that's overheating. His
solution? Replace a fused disconenct with a non fused one. This does
nothing to address the core problem (which I believe you and others
have very well pinpointed - his disco is undersized). No, his brilliant
solution was that GE makes crappy disconnects, he heard it from someone
who knows somebody who knows an electrician, after all.

Maybe I was off base by getting my panties in a twist. If so, I
apologize to the OP and others. And as you mentioned what I admitted,
I'm not an electrician.

But it doesn't take an expert to know that when an electrical circuit
is overheating to the point where cartridge fuses are melting,
something is wrong somewhere, and the very last possibility to consider
is that someone mfrs a crappy product. This guy even went to the
trouble of replacing his "crappy" product with the same "crap", and
surprise! Got the same results. Yeah, it's gotta be a bad disconnect.
I'll replace it with a non fused one... that will fix it!

Had he gone ahead and done that, what do you think the outcome would
have been, assuming he replaced it with the same specs as the disco.
Fire? I think it's likely, especially in an attic.

Which is all I was trying to point out in the first place.
And now I'll jump off my soapbox.....



This is Turtle

Get a Grip This is UserNet !

TURTLE

We know that, but you'll never convice Matt. He seems so touchy I think maybe
he sleeps on sandpaper sheets or a bed of nails every night.

I should be the one ****ing and moaning about the distortions he makes about
my posts and the sarcastic things he says about me, all because I told him he
missed the central point in my OP and then I asked him to explain why he
thought replacing the fused disconnect with a non-fused one was going to set
fire to my house.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to accept Matt's garbage graciously, the
phrase noblesse oblige comes to mind...

I'm gonna check the paper label inside that GE fused disconnect when I get
home tonight, I'm curious to know if I missed seeing something on it about
the maximum continuous current rating being lower than 60 amps. If so you've
sure tought me something - along the lines of "The big print giveth and the
fine print taketh away." G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"


This is Turtle.

Sometimes it is written on the plastic cover in the front and in the plastic
where you can't see it very well. Most of the rating they give these
disconnects is they run the disconnect at different amp rating for a day and
find out just how much it will take to burn it up. Then what ever the
disconnect will run at for a day. That is the amp rating it is set at. Most
of the time if the rating is for 60 amps and you run 61 amps on it for a day.
It will fry and burn so the set it just below that burn level at 60 amps.

Alway stick to the Disconnect rules of only run 1/2 the amps of a disconnect
rating and call it Max.

Hey i was tring to support old Matt and give him some support in his feeling
of being disrespected in his post by what he as saying and low and behold he
chops on me for be a Asshole disrespecting others and me tring to give him
some support and respect. i guess the only respect old Matt will find is by
looking respect up in the dictionary and get it there by reading about it.

TURTLE

Well TURTLE, once again you are the voice of experience I was looking for with
my OP.

I climed up and looked at the paper label inside the GE fused disconnect last
nnite (Cat #TG3222-MOD6 to be specific). Off at the bottom of the label in
type so small I had to work hard to pick it out, it reads, "Contact current
not to exceed 80% of fuse rating for other than motor circuits." Now that's
still 48 amps, and the draw I measure with the auxillary heaters on is a bit
below 40 amps, but I won't quibble with the results I've got (on a sample of
two), namely that the switch contacts oxidize and heat up enough to melt the
solder in the fuse end caps 1-2 years after I clean them up all pretty again.
And those auxillary heaters aren't working 100 percent of the time the heat's
on, except in really cold weather.

There were also words on the disconnect's label cautioning against the use of
replaceable link fuses in that unit. It was a caution, not a rating, but
there's probably good reason for them to say that.

My 45 years of designing everything from fuel oil truck delivery nozzles to
atomic clocks tought me that a month or so of lab testing does not equal years
of running in the field. I used to have a sign on my office wall which read,
"One good field test is worth a thousand expert opinions.", and another one
which read, "Ther's no right way to do the wrong thing."

Thanks again,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

This is Turtle.

So if you put copper pipes as the fuses your still limited to 48 amps which is
the burn limit point where they will burn at. If your pulling 40 amps on it and
the burn limit is 48 amps. Running 40 amps on it is just too close for me unless
your testing their product for them. I install these disconnects on A/C
condenser and if the contenous draw is going to be over 30 amps . I use
something else to put there. They do make a electric furnace disconnect but it
runs about $70.00 or so and nobody buys them.

Now here is a example of this on a set of contactor on a HVAC system. The
contactors on the new condenser units are rated at 30 amps and the most they
will be subjected to in a contenous run condition is at max. maybe 15 amps. They
will burn up in about 10 to 15 years. Now if you put 50 amp rated contactor on
the same unit. They will run and work a life time and never burn up.

Your right about the testing of items. A fellow using a YoYo for 5 years and
then tell you how it worked out or a 1,000 engineer studing it . The YoYo
operator will tell you the most

TURTLE

Guys,

I was as serious about the copper pipes as Jeff was with his "wiring in
series" suggestion.

Just so you know.

Matt

"Matt" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey,

Say hello to the folks from the fire dept for me, would ya?

Thanks man!


This is Turtle.

Matt the Boxes in question are all metal and totally enclosed and there is very
little chance of a fire because the manufactoring companys does know how to
cover theirself.

TURTLE

P.S. Now was I too mean to you ?

Maybe it's just me, I guess I'm crazy.

You are saying that it's OK to gamble the safety of your family, and
the very existence of what for most people is the biggest investment of
their lives.....

Because a mfr company knows how to cover their ass?

Tell me turtle -

Does the mfr company take into account people who put in equipment that
is not sized for the job?
Does their engineering cover the 1 time where the cover is left hanging
open on the undersized equipment when it overheats?

Now I know why you are more commonly referred to as a hack.
As for your "meanness"..... hahahhaah that's a good one. ROFL.

Matt wrote:
Maybe it's just me, I guess I'm crazy.

You are saying that it's OK to gamble the safety of your family, and
the very existence of what for most people is the biggest investment of
their lives.....

Because a mfr company knows how to cover their ass?

Tell me turtle -

Does the mfr company take into account people who put in equipment that
is not sized for the job?
Does their engineering cover the 1 time where the cover is left hanging
open on the undersized equipment when it overheats?

Now I know why you are more commonly referred to as a hack.
As for your "meanness"..... hahahhaah that's a good one. ROFL.


TURTLE, I TOLD you you'd never get him to calm down, stop trying.

I wouldn't be suprised to see Matt's mentioned in the New England
Journal of Medicine as being the first person to survive having his
entire alimentary tract surgically reversed.

Jeff (Who, if he desired to hear from an arsehole, would feed his dog a
bean burrito.)

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"