Electrical Meltdown!

[snfexpress]

Kat went to turn the bedroom wall sconce on the other night and it wouldn't illuminate. So, I decided to check the fuse for that circuit. Here is what I found:



I found someone online who had my obsolete Iota 12 volt distribution panel, ordered it and today it arrived.

After 6 hours of tracing wires, I found the stretch of wire that had a short - in the front cap. Must have happened when the front cap was removed a few times last summer at the Service Center. No finger pointing, just that something must have happened and after a lot of driving the short must have occurred.

Once I bypassed this stretch by pulling new wire and re-splicing the circuit wires that I cut to isolate the problem, it took another hour to put everything back so that Kat wouldn't have to live in a disaster zone for the evening.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out why the fuse did not burn out but instead allowed the wire from the panel to start to burn along with the panel itself. Any ideas?

[1Happycamper]

Glad you caught it when you did.

[steelpony5555]

That could have got ugly....glad it burned out and did not
burn up the rig......

[Rondo]

Michael and Kat-- Glad you caught it when you did. It could have turned out real ugly if you hadn't! Can't figure out why the fuse didn't stop the circuit from shorting out and canceling any further shorting. Did the wire you found in the nose look like it had been pinched or scraped to cause the short?

[HamRad]

Michael and Kat,
That is scary! So glad the fire was not worse! It could have been a disaster! Good luck. Dennis

[stiles watson]

Electrical problems are scary to me. We had a satellite box suddenly go up in flames once. It also fried the converter or vice-a-verse. I was going to make some smart remark about all those LED lights, but decided you didn't really need that. Hope you can get complete resolution to the problem.

[1retired06]

Is it possible the circuit was overfused, ie a fuse with much higher capacity was in placenthen called for?

[nosticks]

I'm with 1retired06 on this one. The circuit does not seem to be fused with the correct one. You might want to lower the value of the fuse on the circuit that caused the problem since you have isolated which one it was.

[DQDick]

Pretty scary. Glad it worked out as well as it did.

[RickW]

I agree double check the size of the fuse. I have seen way too many people "fix" a blowing fuse problem by replacing it with a larger fuse. If you are blowing the correct size fuse there is a reason.

With the fuse panel being in the stool closet, we do not keep the covers on the fuse panel. This allows me to take a quick look at the panel while in there. The wife does not mind because nobody notices unless they are in there.

[swanny]

Thank god it only went this far. yes the electric in these things is scary. Glad you found the bad area so fast, this could have been a nightmare.

kevin

[snfexpress]

What I think happened is that because the short was nearly at the end of the run (about 35 feet or so from the panel), the amperage draw was more than 5 amps but less than 15 amps and so the wire started to burn at the panel.

I've replaced all the LED light circuits with smaller fuses (5 amp) based on suggestions here. No sense in having a circuit with a fuse in it that is 3 times the load.

[BB_TX]

Wow, that just ain't supposed to happen. If the circuit is designed for a 15 amp fuse, then it should be able to carry the full 15 amps continuosly without ever overheating. The wire should be sized in excess of 15 amps and should also not fail. And if it exceeds 15 amps due to a short, the fuse should blow before anything over heats.
Overheating (and eventual burning) is frequently caused by marginal connections. A bad connection adds resistance, and resistance plus amps equals heat. It is possible the wire connection at the Iota was becoming loose or corroded or otherwise bad and caused localized heating and eventual failure. Could have even been a bad connection on the Iota circuit board itself.

[DonandJudy_12]

I think your suspicion that the wire was compromised while the front cover was off is right on target- JMHO- Don

[Tom S.]

That's scary! I'm glad it wasn't any worse than that - we'd like you guys to stick around for a while longer! I can live with any disasters, natural or otherwise, but fire scares the crap out of me.

[kab449]

Michael:
It could have been the same scenario as those duplex receptacles they install. If in the process of forcing the wire into the slot the insulation is not pierced enough to make ample contact with the internal wire you excessive resistance under load and heat buildup. At the wire compromise spot under the cap the insulation may only partially been displaced and shorted to your chassis causing a draw not enough to blow the fuse.
You probably also had a loose or poor connection in the distribution panel that contributed to the melted wire.
Without seeing it this is the best I can offer. Hope you get it repaired and glad no one got hurt.

[snfexpress]

Fire certainly scares me, too. As for fixing it, we did, but it took about 7 hours and rerouting and splicing wire into the circuit.

I spoke with IOTA today and after pushing the matter with them, they thought that either a bad fuse or perhaps a bad connector in the panel contributed to the problem. They are sending me another panel even though I already replaced it.

[Ozz]

I agree with Bill and Keith, the heat caused by a bad connection. It just acted like a heater, drawing enough to get red hot, but not enough amp draw to short. Could have been a bad solder connection, or just poor assembly on the panel from the factory.

[SlickWillie]

I did some work for a friend that had a Montana. I found the plugs behind the panel were not tight when plugged in. Contacted Iota, and they said the panel was obsolete and should be replaced. Apparently there were issues with those panels. Sure would help if folks knew about these problems before they went up in smoke.

[snfexpress]

Will,

If they are obsolete, what panel was substituted for replacement?