Electrical Fire! Help!

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I can't say I've been overly comfortable with these connectors either. I wouldn't use them for high current connections. YMMV.

Kal

John Eberly said:

The fact that these connectors have not been submitted for UL listing means they have not been tested to see if they are safe.
I am pretty sure there is no way they would pass the high potential or heat cycle tests base on the small size of both the contacts and the minimal spacing between the spade lugs.
On top of that, 1/4" spade lugs are not rated for anywhere near 30 amperes.
The only smart approach is to use national electrical manufacturer's association (NEMA) rated receptacles and plugs. You can look these connectors up on the Hubble website

http://ecatalog.hubbell-wiring.com/...ubbell-wiring.com/press/catalog/B.pdf&Page=17

If you need a larger control panel to fit these you don't have safe clearances inside your panel now.

Follow the rules on electrical stuff, or prove that Darwin was right - your choice.

Click to expand...

Do you know for a fact that 1/4" spades cannot be rated for 30amp or are you speculating?

I'm aware of at least one brand of power relay with 30a/240v ratings that is UL listed and all the contacts are spade.

biertourist said:

I hate to say it but I have an update: my Switchcraft connector (power-in) finally caused a fire... Doesn't look like they touched at all the red "hot" wire in my control panel burned up; might have taken my power on contactor with it.

The heat got so significant it fused the female and male switchcraft connectors together. My best guess is that the hot push-on connector wiggled loose while it was running at full on 19 amps and that caused the resistance to spike and burn stuff up. I'm not 100% sure about root cause yet but my SSR also has some melt damage.

I'm going to try to find a new 4 wire connector but I went with a very small and compact control panel box so I don't have room for a NEMA plug.


Adam

Click to expand...

I also had the 2 genuine switchcraft connectors from mouser fail in the last 3 months after 4 years use soon after switching from 4500w loads to 5500w loads which caused them to heat up and fail...
I did discover that there are many different manufacturer and bought a couple recently and found they are not 100% compatible despite using the same number type connector... I recently switched to these 30A connectors and they dont even get slightly warm when drawing 5500w through them..
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171837167866?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I also had a NEC rated 20amp nema connector burn up despite only having 17 amps going through it because the screw terminal inside had worked itself loose over the years apparently so yeah YMMV regardless... my new connectors are soldered so I feel better about them after testing them myself even though they dont have the NEC testing and are 6 times less expensive because of it.

Bobby_M said:

Do you know for a fact that 1/4" spades cannot be rated for 30amp or are you speculating?

I'm aware of at least one brand of power relay with 30a/240v ratings that is UL listed and all the contacts are spade.

Click to expand...

many 25 and 30a relays and contactors come to mind for me as well...

Additional update: I've replaced the switchcraft Korean connector with the made-in-Lichtenstein Neutronik speakOn SPX NL4FX with the 90 degree angle bend (my power-in connector is on the left hand side of my control panel box) and it's a thing of BEAUTY.

I really can't believe how much nicer these are in every way vs. the Switchcraft connectors. I really like how easy these screw on connectors are to wire and how clear their directions are. The connectors still don't fit over the really thick jacketed HD 10/4 wires without using a dremel to open up the cable relief gland, but these were a world easier to wire and a way better physical connection. They twist to lock, too which is just great. 10 AWG wire is the absolute MAX wire size that will fit with these and then only if you haven't twisted the wire too much there's just not any extra clearance in them.

I'm going to replace my spa panel side of the power-in connection with one as well; I like them for when you require a 4 wire solution.



Having said that, replacing my control panel's melted power-in connection didn't fix all my brewery woes- my main power in contactor is what ended up burning up. I accidentally ordered a 24v coil Packard 2 pole contactor instead of a 120v coil so I'm waiting for the new contactor to show up and we'll see if swapping that out gets me back up and working.

I also found out that the Fotek 40 amp SSR that I have been using is very often counterfeited and many of them ship with actual 20 or 30 amp SSRs inside- I've got a new, physically smaller, UXCELL 40 amp SSR that comes highly recommended. It'll either sit as my backup SSR in the event that the Fotek burns out or if the SSR died, too I'll be switching to it immediately. -I've also beefed up my heat sink with a few strategically placed mini heat sinks and am adding an external fan to my heatsink. -I liked the simplicity of passive cooling before but now that I'm jumping from a 4500 watt HLT element to a 5000 watt HLT element I want to focus a bit more on component longevity after burning up my first component.

I'm only powering a single element at a time -4500 watt (19 amp) in the kettle and 5500 watt in the HLT- so a 23 amp max draw- a couple more if the element is running @ 100% with both pumps on.


Eventually I'll probably replace the elements' Switchcraft connectors for Neutrik PowerCon 32 amp connectors. They might not be UL listed, but they've got UK and EU certifications and the Europeans have much more 240v experience than us...


Adam

Bobby_M said:

Do you know for a fact that 1/4" spades cannot be rated for 30amp or are you speculating?



I'm aware of at least one brand of power relay with 30a/240v ratings that is UL listed and all the contacts are spade.

Click to expand...

I looked up connectors and the only spade terminals I could find rated for #10 wire are for 3/8" spades. I don't think you can get a 1/4" spade that will take 30 amp wire.

Bobby_M said:

Do you know for a fact that 1/4" spades cannot be rated for 30amp or are you speculating?



I'm aware of at least one brand of power relay with 30a/240v ratings that is UL listed and all the contacts are spade.

Click to expand...

I looked up connectors and the only spade terminals I could find rated for #10 wire are for 3/8" spades. I don't think you can get a 1/4" spade that will take 30 amp wire.

Do you have a product in mind?