Swapped out a fuse panel on a Saturday job and ate my words

I've been doing residential service calls for about 8 years now. Last month I was at a house in Oak Park replacing a 60 amp fuse panel from the 50s. The homeowner asked if I could install a whole house surge protector while I had it open. I told him no, those things are snake oil and don't really do much for a house this old. Two hours later I'm buttoning up the new panel and a neighbor hits a transformer down the street. Big brownout, lights flickered twice, and I watched the homeowner's brand new furnace control board smoke out through the vents. I stood there with my multimeter feeling like a total clown. I ended up putting a square D surge breaker in the panel the next day for free. Has anyone else had a moment where you got proven wrong on the job and had to fix it out of pocket?

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kai6024mo ago

Rolled up to a tenant's unit after they said "it's probably the breaker" and found the main lug melted right off the bus bar.

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blair6304mo ago

Gotta push back on that a little. Tenants say "prob the breaker" all the time, that's just their guess theyre not electricians. The real issue is you showed up and saw the melted lug with your own eyes, which means the problem was already screaming at you. If you rely on what tenants say instead of checking everything yourself youre gonna miss stuff like that. They dont know the difference between a tripped breaker and a bus bar melting down, and expecting them to is kind of on us.

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