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Everyone says just torque it and move on, but that almost cost me a whole panel in Reno
Last month I was finishing a subpanel swap in a rental in Reno and the common wisdom around the shop was to just snug the lugs, no torque wrench needed, it is fine. I did it the fast way on the first three breakers and then smelled hot plastic on the fourth one about ten minutes after energizing. Turned out the lug was only finger tight and the wire was backing out, so I killed the main and redid every single termination with my torque wrench at the spec on the door. It cost me an extra 40 minutes and I took some ribbing from the other guy on site, but the panel passed inspection clean and I sleep fine. Curious if anyone here actually follows torque specs on every lug or if I am the odd one out.
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xena_hernandez989d ago
Learned that same lesson when a loose neutral nearly started a fire in Boise, so now I torque every single lug by the door spec.
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craig.max9d ago
Man, that is scary stuff. A loose neutral can go bad fast and you don't even know it until something smells hot. Good on you for sticking with the torque spec now, that habit is worth it.
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