Circuit breaker help

2332 Views 15 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Retiredchief, Jan 19, 2016

Retiredchief

Discussion Starter · Jan 18, 2016

First post, hope for some help. Replacing 15 amp breaker that got sloppy and won't pass voltage to circuit. Any breakers I've worked with always had a plate that held the hot wire in breaker terminal. New breaker just has a screw that holds wire in place. It's cutler hammer BR series which matches challenger BR series removed from panel. Bought from Lowes and all breakers looked the same. Pic attached. Just put wire in terminal and tighten screw, or are these missing the plate that should attach to screw?

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carmusic

· #2 · Jan 18, 2016

normal, just tighten screw but do not over-tight

Reactions: 1

Retiredchief

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 19, 2016

Thanks, it's stranded wire and this breaker design seems poor for that. Maybe I'll search online to see if I can find another manufacturer of this breaker. Anyone have experience with Challenger panels and breakers that have a plate to hold the wire like below?

Retiredchief

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 19, 2016

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brric

· #5 · Jan 19, 2016

the breaker you have will work fine with stranded wire.

Reactions: 3

jbfan

· #6 · Jan 19, 2016

Retiredchief said:
Thanks, it's stranded wire and this breaker design seems poor for that. Maybe I'll search online to see if I can find another manufacturer of this breaker. Anyone have experience with Challenger panels and breakers that have a plate to hold the wire like below?

That is the only breaker that should be used in your panel

Retiredchief

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 19, 2016

Understood, and thanks for the help. Neat place for electrical information.

concrete_joe

· #8 · Jan 19, 2016

strip it to breaker spec length, lightly twist the strands, solder the ends (just enough to fill the strands), wipe clean with some alcohol, insert into breaker and tighten to spec.

brric

· #9 · Jan 19, 2016

concrete_joe said:
strip it to breaker spec length, lightly twist the strands, solder the ends (just enough to fill the strands), wipe clean with some alcohol, insert into breaker and tighten to spec.

Ridiculous

Reactions: 5

carmusic

· #10 · Jan 19, 2016

concrete_joe said:
strip it to breaker spec length, lightly twist the strands, solder the ends (just enough to fill the strands), wipe clean with some alcohol, insert into breaker and tighten to spec.

DO NOT SOLDER! it is against code to do that

Speedy Petey

· #11 · Jan 19, 2016

carmusic said:
DO NOT SOLDER! it is against code to do that

Well, it's not, but still DO NOT solder.

Reactions: 2

concrete_joe

· #12 · Jan 19, 2016

Speedy Petey said:
Well, it's not, but still DO NOT solder.

some just dont understand NEC.

anyways, soldering is fine as long as you clean any residual flux off. this is much better situation than having bare stranded wires splay apart under the screw force. the soldered strands are now more solid solid copper.

if you have some other reasons for no solder than please share.

carmusic

· #13 · Jan 19, 2016

solder is not very hard and will compress under the screw, after few heat cycle wire may become loose and strands may separate from solder. also solder is less conductive than copper

Jim Port

· #14 · Jan 19, 2016

The breaker has already been tested and listed for use with stranded wire. Strip, insert fully and torque to the core t value, done. Keep it simple.

Jump-start

· #15 · Jan 19, 2016

concrete_joe said:
some just dont understand NEC.

anyways, soldering is fine as long as you clean any residual flux off. this is much better situation than having bare stranded wires splay apart under the screw force. the soldered strands are now more solid solid copper.

if you have some other reasons for no solder than please share.

Millions of installations use un-soldered stranded conductors and are doing just fine.

Reactions: 3

Retiredchief

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jan 19, 2016

Thanks for the different thoughts. I just twisted the wire and tried not to crank down on the screw too much. I don't like this circuit breaker terminal design, but that's just a personal preference from an old timer who's never used it before. Appreciate the advice from those who do it more often than me.

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