Subject: [Shop-talk] Mixed fuse sizes?

From: Jim Stone <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 15:12:38 -0400

A friend of mine called me last night with an electrical question that I
couldnt answer, so I am turning to this group.  His 240v electric stove
petered out on him the previous night.  The heat output gradually declined
until it just stopped working.  He checked the fuse and discovered something I
have never heard of before: mixed amperage Buss fuses in a single carrier.
The house is old and the fuse box has never been updated, so he has screw-in
fuses for the 120 circuits and the push-in Buss type (I dont know the proper
name) for the 240 circuits.  When he pulled the carrier (dont know the name
for that either) for the stove he found that it contained one 30 amp fuse and
one 60 amp.  The 30 amp fuse has an adaptor to allow it to fit into the 60 amp
carrier.  The owners manual calls for a 50 amp circuit, so I guess it
averages out about right.  I posted a photo of the holder here
(http://tinyurl.com/k47qq6h) and the new fuse with adaptor here
(http://tinyurl.com/lknxn4f), if anyone is interested.  The 30 amp fuse had
blown and looked burned to him.

I have never heard of mixing two different fuses in the same circuit, but the
stove was professionally installed and has worked fine for 10 years.  The
fuses were much older than that, so the electrician clearly used an existing
circuit for wiring the stove.  It is labeled Water Heater, although the
house didnt have an electric water heater when he bought it. He can certainly
just leave everything the way it was and put in a new 30 amp fuse, but that
makes him, and me, uncomfortable.  Can anyone shed any light on why this might
have been done and what he should do now?

Thanks.
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