From Today's Inspection

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Name the obvious issues, and see if you recognize some of the less obvious issues...

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

Zinnsco & aluminum wire.......
and all that comes with it.....

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Originally Posted by jhagarty

Zinnsco & aluminum wire.......
and all that comes with it.....

Well, that does sum it up nicely

[Joseph Hagarty, CMI]

arcing at the breaker connection (pic 3)...
arcing and melting of the wire nut (pic 4)... is that the neutral connection?

[John E. Mullarkey]

First picture, appears to be oversized conductors cut to fit the breaker, difficult to be sure
Second picture solid aluminum conductors, excessive conductor exposed #2 and 3
Third picture ZINSCO = Kiss of death, corrosion maybe arcing?
Fourth picture excessive heat in wire nut, something is going on there

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Originally Posted by jhagarty

arcing at the breaker connection (pic 3)...
arcing and melting of the wire nut (pic 4)... is that the neutral connection?

Yes, neutral. My guess is that there is no anti-oxidant paste in the pigtail (from AL to CU) which caused the heat build-up in the wire nut. I don't believe these wire-nuts are rated for that connection anyway.

The breaker happens to be the 125 service breaker and it has almost completed its "fusion" to the bus bar

[dmcmullen]

Would you call out that the strands on what appears to be the SEC were nicked pretty deep? Or the insulation cut back too far? Were the AL wires loose on the breakers or was the insulation cut that far back on all of them?

[Linas Dapkus]

Jeff, do you take any thermal images of these to show the heat/connection issues?

[Sean Fogarty]

Originally Posted by ldapkus1

Jeff, do you take any thermal images of these to show the heat/connection issues?

That would make a nice pic..

[Jeffrey R. Pope]

Originally Posted by dmcmullen

Would you call out that the strands on what appears to be the SEC were nicked pretty deep? Or the insulation cut back too far? Were the AL wires loose on the breakers or was the insulation cut that far back on all of them?

Those were at the AC circuit. I will call out nicked wires if they are severe, but I didn't think it was warranted here. Same with the insulation. I didn't think the missing insulation warranted a call-out at this degree. The wires were good and tight.

Originally Posted by ldapkus1

Jeff, do you take any thermal images of these to show the heat/connection issues?

I do. This particular house was unoccupied. No significant heat "anomalies" developed in the short time I was there. In fact (surprisingly enough), even the voltage-drop measurements were unusually low.

The only indicators of poor connections (other than the obvious visible indications) were at the grounding conductors. Many of the receptacles measured near 2 ohms of impedance on their egc's.

[ROBERT V. YOUNG]

I see the aluminum wire.
I see several skinned back to far ????? Questionable.
In pic. #3 is there arcing in there back top side of the breaker on the bus. #4 is obvious. Its plain arc fault. Is this a paste problem I read about?

[ROBERT V. YOUNG]

even the voltage-drop measurements were unusually low.
Some one point me to doing this testing please. I have read a bit about doing drop testing.
Links please.

[John E. Mullarkey]

You can start here http://www.idealindustries.com/prodD...?prodId=61-165 then go

here http://www.nachi.org/forum/f19/warra...ections-20969/

[ROBERT V. YOUNG]

Thanks Mr.Mallarkey

[Robert Meier]

I'm curious, what do you guys do with the results you get from voltage drop testing?