Recent content by gcronau

I found this article as part of research I'm doing to rebuild the deck on the back of my parent's house. I have a couple of questions to start with and a couple of observations. First off, I've gone through all the posts in this thread, and unless I missed something, I didn't see any...

They sure as heck do, at least in my neck of the woods, 1000' spool for $269.00+Tax: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-Romex-SIMpull-1000-ft-12-2-Type-NM-B-Cable-Wire-Yellow-28828201/202316226#.Uj5w3qzd35g If you want a particular Homedepot item, and they don't stock it in the store, you...

No such thing as a stupid question, just stupid answers... Ok to use? Yes, certainly. Spade, ring, faston and others are used all over the place with AC. Look at the control panel inside your dishwasher or washing machine or dryer or microwave. Or the main wiring inside your furnace. Crimped...

When dealing with *anything* of a technological nature, you'll be well served by remembering the phrase "Things are often not what they seem". Those breakers, especially the Cutler-Hammer BR and the Bryant, may *look* like 2 regular breakers that have been simply riveted together, but without...

I'm still not sold. The header says "Common trip", but the text uses the phrase "...for Common Switching". Switching is what a human does with his hand. Tripping is what a breaker does to itself when it senses an overload or short. <insert obligatory 60's joke here...> The information is self...

Tying only the handles together does not assure that each side will common trip. Most breakers trip to a position that is about 2/3rds of the way from off to on. There's often not enough pull from the tripping breaker to also trip the handle of the other breaker. A 2-pole...

The only problem with the above arrangement is that the resulting 2-pole breaker is considered to be "independent trip". If you manually throw the breaker, both sides of the circuit will be off. OTOH, depending how an overload/short situation plays out, you could be left with only 1 side of your...

Yes, sorry. I meant $173.00. Typo on my part. I didn't realize the QOVP2 was the actual part number. SqrD panel part numbers are usually a lot longer. Like "QO3040M200VP" for instance. :) Ok, I just looked it up, the QOVP2 is a 100amp 32/32 main breaker panel with 5 included QO 20a 1-pole...

Is that a recent photo? And is the label on the shelf above really for that panel or for something else? The reason I'm asking is that the price label in the photo isn't a yellow or red HD sale style tag, and that item is currently $178 on the HD web site. The SKU code on that label also...

Re: Any reason for 10/2 over 14/2? Ok, first thought: I'm deeply jealous of your car lift. Second thought: The clearance between the downstairs ceiling and the top of the lift seems a bit small. Wouldn't want to jacking up the upstairs would you? Or, more likely, jacking down the roof of the car.

Re: Any reason for 10/2 over 14/2? Just my 2 cents here: I see no use anymore for 14 gauge wire. If it's my property, I don't use anything smaller than 12ga for anything. Unless I'm connecting a phone. :-) When you consider voltage drop and safety issues, I think 12ga is just the better...

Uh, yeah. Gee, this is the first thread in internet history where the conversation continued long after the OP left. My very bad. not. It was a long thread, I was replying to individual messages as I read the whole thread. Others have done the same. I'm not the only one who left...

Actually, if you're having trouble getting the outlet apart, the proper tool for the job is a milspec AQJ1114/BQ9 Deoutleter. It looks like this: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/recreational_trails/publications/fs_publications/84232602/fig03a.jpg

Only problem with that, is that she said it was really loud and she just had a computer plugged in. A computer is only going to draw a couple of amps, and in my experience, that's not enough current to make much noise when the wire burns out. Usually all you hear is a very faint crack(like...

$350 is absolutely crazy for a service call just to evaluate the problem. Even if he does end up changing an outlet, the total shouldn't even be a $100. $50 to $75 would be more appropriate. You probably let too much blond creep into your voice while on the phone and he thought he had someone...