Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Next question: what the $%^& is this thing?

From: David Hillman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 10:29:13 -0400 (EDT)

On Sat, 19 Sep 2015, Scott Hall wrote:
> 5) Basically, should I just get rid of this thing, or keep it, or replace
> it with a more-modern something? I suspect it's there to keep the 220-volt
> dryer from burning the house down (good idea), but the whole setup looks
> pretty slapdash.

    It's a fused service disconnect, isn't it?  An old one.

    Out of curiousity, does it have an Underwriters Lab stamp on it?  I'm 
not generally a fan of old electrical bits in my house, so I'd rip it out, 
and then replace if deemed necessary.

--
  David Hillman
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From: "Pat Horne" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 09:49:32 -0500

Looks like a fused disconnect to me. I'd replace or remove it. 

Is that circuit fused/or a breaker before it gets to this box? If so, there
is no need for it.
If there is no fuse or breaker, then a fuse or breaker is needed. I'd get a
small, breaker box and put it in if that is the case.
Since this for a 220v circuit, you should not use fuses, but a double
breaker so that if one side trips the other will trip also.
What is the gauge of the wire? It looks to be too small to run a drier on.
Mist driers are on 8 ga. Wire. If this is smaller than that you should
Replace the wire back to the breaker panel with larger wire.
Also, there does not appear to be a ground wire in this box. For safety you
need a ground wire for any 220v device.

Peace,
Pat

-----Original Message-----
From: Shop-talk [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Scott
Hall
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2015 8:48 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [Shop-talk] Next question: what the $%^& is this thing?

Okay fellas,

This:

http://imgur.com/MGMpgzC

Thing lives in my basement, upstream of where the washer and dryer plug in.

I get that it seems to be some sort of primitive "fuse box", and the 'bulb
socket' is where a screw-in fuse goes. I know this because the thing has a
sticker that references fuses and I found fuses with light-bulb threads on
the back at home depot.

Issues:

1) The sticker references a 20 H.P. (I assume horsepower?) load. Not amps or
volts, "H.P.". The fuses at Home Depot are not listed by horsepower (or
H.P.). What the heck?

2) How's this thing...work? That black wire going out of the picture at
4:00 is the same one you see coming back in the picture at 2:00. I bent is
back that way because it looks like the cut ends should match up. I have no
idea why it's cut, or even if that's where that wire should go. How should I
re-wire this?

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From: Scott Hall <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 11:58:12 -0400

Ah, so it's a primitive breaker? It'll protect the circuit (fuse), and
allow me to just turn it off whenever I want (the switch). That
seems...okay.

But also not a fan of this setup. I'm not sure old is always bad, but I'm
not sure this thing was great when new.

I'll look for a UL sticker.

[email-masked]

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From: Scott Hall <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 12:00:56 -0400

Should I replace it with something?  I'm a big fan of not having electrical
fires (and the wiring on the underside of the floorboards shows evidence of
knob-and-tube through modern insulated copper, just woven together--I need
to just re-do the whole house), so I feel like something keeping the 220v
circuit safe is a good idea. I mean, there's a modern-looking whole-house
breaker box on the other side of the basement, but in the spirit of 'no
electrical fire' I'm willing to add some overkill.

On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Randall <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Just get rid of it!  It doesn't appear to actually be in the circuit
> anyway; someone has wired around the fuse socket.
>
> A shot of that sticker might be interesting.  I've seen electrical devices
> rated by horsepower, but that box doesn't look even
> faintly like it could handle 20kW continuous (which is about what it takes
> for a 20 hp motor).
>
> -- Randall

[email-masked]

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From: Scott Hall <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 12:03:43 -0400

There's a breaker box, Pat. I'll check and make sure the dryer circuit is
actually going through it.

You know...come to think of it, this might be for the washer only. This
contraption is on a board hanging from a ceiling joist. On the same side of
the board as this fuse box is the washing machine plug. The other side has
the 220v dryer plug.

I'll go figure out what's going where.

But why would you fuse a washer circuit. I don't know those to pull a lot
of power. The fridge and oven don't have these things in front of them, and
I assume they suck far more power. Huh.

On Sat, Sep 19, 2015 at 10:49 AM, Pat Horne <[email-masked]> wrote:

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