MDShunk

Here's a tool I've mentioned several times over the years that is very valuable to use for troubleshooting loose service hot legs and neutrals. It is "The Best of Burden", by H.J.Arnett Industries. It is marketed to lineworkers, but is very helpful to the electrician.





It is bascially a "load bank" that you can alternately heavily load one hot leg or the other, with dual voltage meters, so that you can watch what happens. If one leg goes down, and the other goes up, you've found a loose neutral. If one leg sorely sags, and the other leg remains the same, you've found a loose hot. If both legs sag a little, but about the same, you've found a normal condition, or maybe an undersized aerial drop.

Here's a few more views of the equipment. You can use the alligator clips that come out of the adaptor base on the main lugs in the panel, or on a multiwire branch circuit. You can remove the tool from the adaptor base, and plug it right into the meter socket. (you do need to plug a clip on the neutral in the meter base first, before you insert the tool).

bobelectric

Looks like the ideal unit for troubleshooting the power company's problems. We arn't permitted to pull meters around here.

Bob O.84,Pa.15330

MDShunk

Bob, the tool is easily utilized with the adapter base, which permits it to be used with alligator clips on the main lugs of panels and such.

frenchelectrican

wow Marc, now that is nice gimzo to use insead of lugging hevey duty load bank to test it out for loose netural / weak or loose hot line

majorty of the load bank i have to get proper breaker by useing largest one by type of load centre or / disubation centre

Merci , Marc

Magnettica

That thing really is a beast!

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mdcorreia

Looks good, I still use old fashion methods, however good to know about.

brian john

What methods?

MDShunk

I have sometimes used boiling a cup of water in the microwave, running a hair dryer, etc. while measureing the voltage at each leg with a meter as an alternate method in a resi/light commercial environment.

brian john

Marc:

More load is always better in this situation, I was looking for other ideas?

MDShunk

Yeah.... The "Super Beast" I have is the same tool most utility trouble trucks carry. It only puts a 20 amp load on. Somebody needs to make a reasonably sized load bank for electricians that puts maybe a 50-60 amp load on. When I last looked into this, it seemed like the next size up from the Super Beast was a load bank on wheels with a handle, about the size of a small television set.

mdcorreia

I will post them more clear later - I use a drill, grouded piece of wire, amprobe, v. tester, hometer etc. just normal tools for small loads.

mdcorreia

That is exactly what I use! It works well and I feel proud that this way I use some special skills and don1t have to fork out big bucks for that tester! Just my opinion.

cannio

Couldnt you use an electric heating element out of an electric furnace or heat pump.

You could just get the elements and wire them up to suit your needs....

maybe build an enclosure for the element....

5,10,15,20 kw elements are lying around in hvac company scrap yards just waiting to be taken away and put to use.

randomkiller

The company I started out with up in NY had a version similar to what you mentioned that was built on a handtruck frame with dual dials to adjust the load and asbestos wrapped leads with huge brass ring terminals.
I think T A Edison Labs was the name plate on the front. Loose conductor connections were always problems in some of the ancient buildings in NYC.

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Roger123

Hey guys,
I'm trying to follow this thread and I'm a bit lost.

Are you guys saying that if say a 20amp load is placed on the service that one phase should be delivering 20amps and the other should be returning 20amps. If not there may be a loose connection in the service wires?

MDShunk

No, the voltages are what will go wacky when a load is placed on one phase if the neutral is loose or open. One phase might read 130 volts, and the other might drop to 100 volts, for instance.

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Roger123

Thanks Marc,

But, how does at 120V load with an opened neutral affect the other phase conductor?

MDShunk

We're talking about the service drop here, which is essentially a multiwire circuit. With an open or loose neutral in that situation, the only thing you have to attenuate the 240 that you're stuck with now is the load on the opposite leg.

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Roger123

Oh, now I get it! Da!!

brian john

You now have your 120 VAC loads on a 240 VAC in series, depending on the impendance of the loads will depend on the VD across the load. SMOKE SMOKE SMOKE