The day a loose neutral almost burned down a client's house in Phoenix

I was out in Phoenix last July doing a service call for a lady who said her lights were flickering and one outlet smelled like melting plastic. I popped open the panel and found a loose neutral on the main lug, it had been arcing and heating up the bus bar for weeks. The whole thing was discolored, almost black, and I could feel the warmth coming off it just from standing there. I tightened it down, replaced that section of bus bar with a new one, and tested every circuit to make sure nothing else was damaged. She told me her husband had tried to replace a breaker himself a month ago, and I bet that's when it got loose. You ever run into a homeowner special that almost caused a fire? What do you check first when you smell something weird in a panel?

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wesley_thompson4mo ago

That loose neutral at the main lug is a scary one because the whole panel becomes a heater. I always grab my IR gun first and scan the main lugs and the bus bar around the breakers for hot spots before pulling the dead front. Did you find any other signs of heat damage downstream from that arcing or was the bus bar the only thing that got cooked?

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barbara844mo ago

Oh man, @wesley_thompson is right on the money with that IR gun tip - I bet that lady's panel could've fried an egg on it if you'd left it another week. Nothing like a "handy homeowner" making your job a whole lot more exciting, am I right? That bus bar was toast, but somehow the rest of the panel was still in one piece, which was a huge relief. Just glad I didn't have to explain to her why the whole house needed rewiring because her hubby thought he was an electrician.

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