Electrical snafu...

[PoitNarf]

This is the cut off the electrician installed next to my wall connector in the garage. Went to plug my car in after work and heard some noise coming from the cut off box so I shut off the breaker and checked it out. Looks like one of the wires may have been loose and cooked the inside of it. I’ll be making sure the electrician fixes this for free! Good thing I’ve got about 80% charge right now...

 

[billh13850]

Melty melty bad!

 

[nvx1977]

hard to imagine a competent electrician messing up something so simple....

 

[PoitNarf]

hard to imagine a competent electrician messing up something so simple....

What’s strange is it had been working fine for over 13 months. I’ve never even had to open up the cut off box until now.

 

[C141medic]

Shouldn’t the breaker have tripped before it started to melt?

 

[PoitNarf]

Shouldn’t the breaker have tripped before it started to melt?

If it wasn’t drawing more than the 60 amps the breaker is rated for, probably not.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Need to use the right torque on those terminals!
Aluminum or copper wiring?

 

[PoitNarf]

Need to use the right torque on those terminals!
Aluminum or copper wiring?

Don’t know. That will be one of the things I ask my electrician when he calls me back. Also going to ask for a different type of disconnect to replace the melted one which is the pullout type. Probably one like this:

 

[Daniel in SD]

Don’t know. That will be one of the things I ask my electrician when he calls me back. Also going to ask for a different type of disconnect to replace the melted one which is the pullout type. Probably one like this:

View attachment 407700

I thought disconnects were only required for circuits greater than 60A?

 

[PoitNarf]

I thought disconnects were only required for circuits greater than 60A?

Shrug, I’m in NJ and I don’t know what the code requirements are here. This is what the electrician installed, I didn’t specifically request he install a disconnect next to the wall connector.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Shrug, I’m in NJ and I don’t know what the code requirements are here. This is what the electrician installed, I didn’t specifically request he install a disconnect next to the wall connector.

Other nitpicking:
Using the same color wire for all three conductors.
Wasting copper by using the same gauge for the ground wire.
And of course screwing something up badly enough to nearly cause a fire!

 

[PoitNarf]

Electrician is stopping by Saturday morning to deal with this mess. Luckily I have no long drives planned so I can get by with charging from my mobile connector for now.