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Friendly little electrical fire

K

ko67

Member
I had a nice little minor electrical fire today. The 20 amp fuse on the hot lead to my flexalite fan not only failed, it melted and burned a little. I checked, and this was the fuse holder that the PO said came with the install hit. It was a 12AWG wired fuse holder that was crimped to 10AWG wire connecting to the fan. I checked with the MFG and the running amperage of the fan is 15-25 amps. I measured 17 amp load with the fan running.I assume that there would be a spike in amperage on startup, but I do not know how high. I replaced the 20 amp fuse that burned up with a 40 amp fuse with new 10awg wire throughout, including the ground, all connections soldered and heat shrinked. I left the smaller wire on the low amperage AC relay. (that turns the fan on when the ac is turned on.) I checked everything with the meter and did not find any shorts or ground problems. My questions are, what could cause a fuse like this to fail in this way? Is my 40 amp fuse the right one? Should I consider a self resetting circuit breaker or a fusable link? What about a slow acting fuse? I am not an electrical expert, but I want this to be correct and safe

Kevin
 
IME, those molded fuse holders use low grade materials. Over time with heat chycles, the metal in the holder itself loosens, and that causes the heat. The one in ht epic is a classic case of high amps running through a loose connection.

Unlikely you have a short - if that happened, I'd expect the wire to have some damage. The 40 amp fuse s/b fine. I run one 25 amp fuse for each of my fans (19 amps running) with no issues. But, it runs through a high grade fuse panel.
 
"apollard" said:
IME, those molded fuse holders use low grade materials. Over time with heat chycles, the metal in the holder itself loosens, and that causes the heat. The one in ht epic is a classic case of high amps running through a loose connection.

Unlikely you have a short - if that happened, I'd expect the wire to have some damage. The 40 amp fuse s/b fine. I run one 25 amp fuse for each of my fans (19 amps running) with no issues. But, it runs through a high grade fuse panel.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Looks like a typical loose fitting fuse to me. Get a better holder and make sure the fuse fits in it super tight. Soldering and heatshrinking is always a best practice, good call on that.
 
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