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Fuse or Breaker ?

PhatRV

Well Known Member
For the traditionalist who want to use the circuit breakers instead of fuses for your electrical system, there could be a compromise. This thing has the same footprint as a fuse box but it has the resettable circuit breakers instead of fuses.

This is just another tool to save you time.
 

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Why do we need a compromise. I would argue that one of the benefits of CB's on the panel is knowing if one has Popped and having the ability to easily reset it. Not sure how having this under the panel improves anything, as it is typically not hard to find space for the CBs.

Larry
 
Why do we need a compromise? I would argue that one of the benefits of CB's on the panel is knowing if one has Popped and having the ability to easily reset it. Not sure how having this under the panel improves anything, as it is typically not hard to find space for the CBs. I suppose it may be better for those that don't see it that way.

Personally I have had several issues with my charging systems that would pop the breaker. I even limped home once by resetting the CB every 30 seconds. This a unique example due to the crowbar for OV, but does make a point.

I have always believed that airplanes don't bury their fuse boxes like cars do, is because we can't just pull over to address the issue. Looking for popped breakers is part of my pre-flight checklist.

Larry
 
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Just my humble opinion .. but if it pops, it should stay popped until it's corrected.

The big Boeings have a list of cb's that can be reset in flight, there aren't many. And only in an Emergency situation (that's PIC and FAR talk :eek:), requires an Irregular ops report to the company and must be written up in the maintenance log upon landing. You get the idea that Boeing doesn't like the idea much either.

Careful out there
 
Just my humble opinion .. but if it pops, it should stay popped until it's corrected.

The big Boeings have a list of cb's that can be reset in flight, there aren't many. And only in an Emergency situation (that's PIC and FAR talk :eek:), requires an Irregular ops report to the company and must be written up in the maintenance log upon landing. You get the idea that Boeing doesn't like the idea much either.

Careful out there

Totally agree (same with Airbus). If it popped or blew a fuse, it's for a reason. Do you really want to continually reset a CB and risk, smoke, fumes or worse, fire? Find the problem and correct it before further flight.

Reminds me of a Valujet accident that happened a while back in BNA. Air/ground sensing switch was not working properly. Crew member reset the CB in that kept popping. Pilot flying pulls the power back to idle to flare, ground spoilers deploy while still airborne because the aircraft senses it's on the ground, aircraft lands short of the runway, breaks in half, bounces up onto the runway, crashes down breaking the fuselage again. Went skidding down the runway in three pieces, all for resetting a CB.

Not that something like that will happen to an RV but I think having a fuse instead of a CB takes that possibility or temptation of resetting away until you're safely on the ground and can find the root cause.

As far as the OP CB panel, looks nice. Can you configure it with different amp values for every CB or is this how it comes pre-configured?

Be safe out there.
 
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For the traditionalist who want to use the circuit breakers instead of fuses for your electrical system, there could be a compromise. This thing has the same footprint as a fuse box but it has the resettable circuit breakers instead of fuses.

This is just another tool to save you time.

Can you please post the source for this. Hopefully they have it with different size CB.
 
I'm not so sure this is a good idea...

In my case it was simply having an alt field breaker that couldn't satisfy the current required by the voltage regulator at full output. I fully understood at the time why it was tripping. My point was more about knowing something has tripped more than being able to reset as the latter tends to be uncommonly an option.

Larry
 
Hmmmm...

Fuses or breakers?
High wing or Low wing?
Ford or Chevy?
Coke or Pepsi?

Life has so many unanswered questions! :D
 
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