So I have a fuse box something like this worked fine for the last 4 years but a few weeks ago a fuse burnt out replaced it worked okay but now it’s burning out non-stop little to no power running can anyone tell me why ?
This house I am in is around 60 years old but uses breakers. However, out in the garage which is much older than the house there is a box with a single fuse that protects the garage circuir.
Reminds me of the box in an estate sale home I helped to redo the wiring and plumbing. Very interesting history to the home. About 7 years ago. The home in question was built in 1887, originally had gas lighting. The 60 amp box similar to this one had the installation date 10/’52. The home still had the 1953 kelvinator electric range. The earliest that home could have gotten electricity was 1908, when we went to replace the old galvanized iron plumbing on the 2nd level, which was originally an attic but the home had been extended over the years, found behind the wooden wall panelling, what used to be the original service panel to the house: mounted in a wooden like box lined with asbestos was a knife switch and 3 ceramic edison fuse holders, fused on both the hot and neutral, the ceramic block had the year 1908 stamped on it. 6 fuses together, but 3 circuits feeding the whole house, again, because the hot AND neutral were fused. And the two wires on the outer wall going to the knife switch were 10 awg if I remember correctly. Meaning the home originally had a 120 volt 30 amp main service. But because the house was 2 miles from town, we are not sure exactly when it was electrified, but we suspect it may have been in the later 1910s or early 1920s. So with the 240 volt 60 amp fuse box in the basement from 1952 and the 1953 electric stove, we suspect the homeowner had the service upgrade to 240 volts 60 amps for the electric range. Also found some knob and tube spliced with romex in the wall (fire hazard!) Now home has a modern 200 amp square D breaker box. Pretty interesting about the known dates. Lol
Hi John, question I have a fuse panel in my garage looks like it was signed off in 96′ when garage was built. Looks like all new Romex wires. I have 5-15 amp fuses that controls different lights and outlets. And I also have 1-20 amp that’s not wired, I’m looking to run a 120 volt 20 amp welder. What should be wire size 12g ? And I will have one dedicated 20amp outlet. Is there anything else you think I should do ? And since it’s for a welder do I need a certain type of 20amp glass fuse, slow blow ? Or something like that.
Thanks because I was thinking you just pull them straight out like a regular fuse. I believe this house has a second fuse box somewhere because there was no main fuse but I have to find it. I think it’s outside and hopefully not under this house since this house is in Mississippi (below sea level) and if it did have a basement or cellar that means it’s open and disconnected from the house (it means air flows under the house and into the opening, like digging a hole then placing a house on top of it to keep the ground dry enough so the cement walls will stay dry and not crumble).
I have an older fuse panel like you are talking that’s in my house and each fuse has a different thread pattern,so you cant screw a bigger amp fuse in place of a smaller amp fuse..
The top two fuse pullouts are both 240V (each one will have 2 fuses). The feed coming in from the street goes into the left pullout (which is 60 amps I’m guessing, based on the label on the door of the panel), which powers the rest of the panel. The right pullout is for a 240V appliance circuit, typically an electric stove.
Thank you for your video, but i have a question, i have a similar fuse box( panel) in my place, just bigger, and i have them all 15 amp ,120V, how can i connect two of them together to get 20 amp 220 Volt( i know we can ), of course from inside,..i do have two empty circuit there , and i know i have to use 12 gauge wire for whatever want to use from the new circuit, ( i do not want to change the whole thing to breaker panel yet ).
Hello! Do you or anyone else on here know if you can replace a type T 30 amp fuse with a type T 30 amp with the coil inside? I’m probably wording that wrong but I tried replacing it with a TL type and it blew again within a matter of hours and the only type T 30 amps I can find in the store or online are the heavy duty kind with the coil inside. I know the old type W work perfectly for it, but they are now discontinued. Thank you! (I am referring to Bussman brand fuses on all of these.)
There’s still a good number of homes in my city that still has this type of fuse box. It’s also a bit on the expensive side to upgrade to a breaker box as (I believe) local regs require the whole home’s wiring to be redone up to modern code if you decide to upgrade to a breaker box, so a lot of older homes kept this style of fuse box.
I have an old stove which uses these types of fuses. The oven still works and many of the red lights for the various knobs still turn on so it is still getting power to it.
However, the 4 elements are not functioning anymore. I bought 2x 20amp fuses that screw in like this and replaced the old fuses. The diagram specifies 20A fuses are required for the elements. The elements are still not working.
The front elements are on a shared circuit requiring 2x 20A fuses. I tried both the rear and front elements with new fuses and neither worked.
Anyone have any ideas? It’s a really old vintage flair stove.
And then some idiot puts a coin in the socket to bypass it entirely, electrocutes himself in the process, and THEN the building burns down from the short circuit!
Guys I have a old school fuse box, my electric went out in the kitchen, replaced all the fuses but still doesn’t work, refrigerator, microwave and lights all out, any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you.
Thank you- that was so helpful! My house is old and has both a breaker box in basement and an old fuse box upstairs in the pantry. i tried shutting off power at breaker box to switch out a light fixture and of course the power didn’t go out where i needed it to :/ . I did a little investigating and found your video and am now going to attempt to shut off power through fuse box! Wish me luck :p
Great video. I’ve just moved into an older apartment with one of these fuse boxes. There was a water leak from the ceiling and wall above the panel years ago and there is visible rust when simply looking at the interior of the panel. For safety reasons, I feel I should have an electrician take a closer look for water damage. What do you think? I’ve been told fuses are less sensitive to water damage than breakers.
I’ve been told the old fuse boxes are actually safer as long as you’re using the correct fuses depending on the wire, because they can blow faster than a breaker trips. Just bought a house that uses an old fuse panel like this and they had all of them swapped to 30 amp fuses but I found some spares in a cabinet that were 15 amp, immediately swapped all of them back down to the 15 amp fuses. Back then people didn’t have a lot of electronics and appliances actually drew more than they do today, but today appliances actually draw less and the difference is we have more smaller devices that depend on electricity in our everyday lives like TV’s and game systems. 15 amps should easily be able to handle lights and TV’s, etc. but when you’re running lets say a microwave or a washer / dryer, vacuum cleaner you will likely have to run them one at a time to avoid blowing the fuses. You can find out how many amps a device draws by dividing the wattage by the voltage, for example 1500w / 120v = 12.5 amps so you know if you have to run a 15 amp fuse you’re getting close to your limit. While yes it may be annoying that you may have to replace the fuse because you can’t run everything at once, just remember it’s keeping your house from burning down and the fuse blowing is a GOOD thing!. While expensive ($10 a piece) you can get those fuses with a push button to reset them so you don’t have to keep replacing them.
I have a old fuse box and i can find any markings wear the 15amp fuses go or the 20amp,any help would be great.Thanks I do not want to pull out the box to look at the wires. and i cant afford a modern breaker box
Many thanks, John for your useful video. I live in an old 1950s apt building in NYC and have one of these in my apartment. I am not sure if I used the right fuse (20 vs. 15 amps) but one of the fuses blew and I replaced with a 20 amp fuse but it’s causing everything to flicker/ fans making a sizzling sound/ power strips to blow. For safety I removed the fuse altogether which has left a portion of my apartment / power outlets without power. I need to convert to a breaker box but not having luck finding a reasonable quote. Quotes are varying from 500-1200 USD for a 4 circuit conversion.
i want to ask you this, one of my fuse box is for my detached garage( 15 amp , same glass type), anyway in the garage just using LED light, sometime saw, drill, and i just wonder can i change my 15 Amp fuse to 20 Amp fuse( in the panel) so i can run my new Welder( required 20 AMP),.. note again, when i am using just lights, i am using maybe 100 Watts from the fuse.
The reason there are two pull out fuse holders is NOT because there are two lines coming in (two sides of the 240 volt service)! Each pull out has two fuses. One pullout (with its two fuses) is the main fuse and the other is for a 240 volt appliance, usually a range. On some fuse boxes similar to the one in this video, the main pull out feeds the screw in fuses only, and in some boxes the two fuses in the main pullout feeds both the screw in fuses and the range pull out. So, depending on how the box is set up, you can pull out the main fuse and disconnect everything, or you would have to pull out both fuse pullouts to disconnect all circuits. Many older houses have had additional fuse boxes or small breaker boxes added, so it can get complicated. Don’t mess with these unless you are qualified to do so.
How do you know if one of those cylinder fuses needs replacing? Also, i pulled the black square thing out to take a photo of the fuse, but didn’t turn off the main power switch for electricity….could this cause me to be electrocuted? OMG!
I love when people are like just replace the fuse box with a breaker box they are safer. Like it’s as easy as cheap and easy as changing a light bulb. Meanwhile my in my house changing a light fixture means running new romex because pulling the old fixture off the mounts normally breaks the wires. So people that are going just simply replace the fuse box like its nothing are ignoring the actual work to it. And not everyone has the kind of money to rewire a whole house. Yes I know my wires shouldn’t be so brittle they breaking but that’s my neighborhood for you. Which is why I laugh when some one says most homes have been upgraded to the "safer" breakers, which say right on the side they "are only good for one trip" and should be replaced after just like fuse are only good for one trip. But people are repeatedly tripping breakers even though they CAN fail to trip a second time. The only thing that makes breakers safer is the ground bar. Outside of that if used as for only one trip as stated on the side of the breakers they are more complicated to change and you need to open a whole box where I can easily install a ground bar on the inside of a fuse box and have it be safer over all. People under estimate the safety of fuses because they have been taught the breakers are safer all because of a bar of copper that leads to the ground.
This video is so interesting and informative. My circa 1950’s panel has what appears to be one old main fuse box labeled "main" (about twice the size of the two in your video – although my guess is it is "two" but with one silver handle that pulls both out) at the top of the panel, and underneath it, all switch breakers – no glass fuses. I’d like to turn off all the power to my house, and aside from the safety precaution of turning off the HVAC, TV’s, etc., was wondering if I should turn off each breaker before sliding/pulling out the main fuse box? It has been a couple of years since I’ve completely cut the power out, so I’m a bit rusty and want to do it safely. Thank you!
fuse panels are perfectly safe, infact fuses are more safe, breakers fail, like zinsco panels or federal pacific panels (which the fuse panel in your video is the company that became federal pacific) but fuses will always blow, alot of times quicker than a breaker. the issue is human error and the wiring itself, if you are replacing the panel you still only have 6 circuits unless rewired, my house has the original 60 amp panel being used as a subpanel, and the wiring has all been replaced with modern romex, the main panel is a 100 amp and feeds the water heater and air conditioner it has a 60 amp breaker feeding the fuse panel for the outlets and lights. the fuse box is made by a company called colt noark and i was wondering if that is related to federal noark and also federal pacific… anyway, the reason the panel was kept even though the wiring going to it was replaced was because it was already there and it was in good shape. i know technically not up to code, but we dont plan on selling the house ever, and everything has checked out okay, and we all know what size fuse goes where, and it is labeled in case i am not around when they blow. so it will stay.
Here’s a quick review of how to use a fuse box (with the screw-in fuses) safely and some discussion about what to look out for in an old house.
What do you think of breaker fuses. The breakers that screw in like a fuse but has a pin that shuts off like a breaker. Do they work?
So I have a fuse box something like this worked fine for the last 4 years but a few weeks ago a fuse burnt out replaced it worked okay but now it’s burning out non-stop little to no power running can anyone tell me why ?
Good video fella. Way to keep it simple.
Missed talking about a protector that goes over the screw in fuse .How do you open that? (circa 1970)
Is a 15 amp fuse apartment sufficient to a 32 rooming house there are three rooms connecting what is the code
nothing to prevent a larger breaker being inserted in ANY fuse or breaker box..so…no this is not a unique observation to these boxes.
This house I am in is around 60 years old but uses breakers. However, out in the garage which is much older than the house there is a box with a single fuse that protects the garage circuir.
Reminds me of the box in an estate sale home I helped to redo the wiring and plumbing. Very interesting history to the home. About 7 years ago. The home in question was built in 1887, originally had gas lighting. The 60 amp box similar to this one had the installation date 10/’52. The home still had the 1953 kelvinator electric range. The earliest that home could have gotten electricity was 1908, when we went to replace the old galvanized iron plumbing on the 2nd level, which was originally an attic but the home had been extended over the years, found behind the wooden wall panelling, what used to be the original service panel to the house: mounted in a wooden like box lined with asbestos was a knife switch and 3 ceramic edison fuse holders, fused on both the hot and neutral, the ceramic block had the year 1908 stamped on it. 6 fuses together, but 3 circuits feeding the whole house, again, because the hot AND neutral were fused. And the two wires on the outer wall going to the knife switch were 10 awg if I remember correctly. Meaning the home originally had a 120 volt 30 amp main service. But because the house was 2 miles from town, we are not sure exactly when it was electrified, but we suspect it may have been in the later 1910s or early 1920s. So with the 240 volt 60 amp fuse box in the basement from 1952 and the 1953 electric stove, we suspect the homeowner had the service upgrade to 240 volts 60 amps for the electric range. Also found some knob and tube spliced with romex in the wall (fire hazard!) Now home has a modern 200 amp square D breaker box. Pretty interesting about the known dates. Lol
Hi John, question I have a fuse panel in my garage looks like it was signed off in 96′ when garage was built. Looks like all new Romex wires. I have 5-15 amp fuses that controls different lights and outlets. And I also have 1-20 amp that’s not wired, I’m looking to run a 120 volt 20 amp welder. What should be wire size 12g ? And I will have one dedicated 20amp outlet. Is there anything else you think I should do ? And since it’s for a welder do I need a certain type of 20amp glass fuse, slow blow ? Or something like that.
All of a sudden my window unit is blowing 20 amp fuses. Can I get some troubleshooting advice?
Thanks because I was thinking you just pull them straight out like a regular fuse. I believe this house has a second fuse box somewhere because there was no main fuse but I have to find it. I think it’s outside and hopefully not under this house since this house is in Mississippi (below sea level) and if it did have a basement or cellar that means it’s open and disconnected from the house (it means air flows under the house and into the opening, like digging a hole then placing a house on top of it to keep the ground dry enough so the cement walls will stay dry and not crumble).
I have an older fuse panel like you are talking that’s in my house and each fuse has a different thread pattern,so you cant screw a bigger amp fuse in place of a smaller amp fuse..
Thanks for all your help
What would happen if one were to put a light bulb in one
My whole appment is on 15 amp does this make sense
Very good thanks a lot
The top two fuse pullouts are both 240V (each one will have 2 fuses). The feed coming in from the street goes into the left pullout (which is 60 amps I’m guessing, based on the label on the door of the panel), which powers the rest of the panel. The right pullout is for a 240V appliance circuit, typically an electric stove.
So 120 come in on each of the pull out fuses
Thank you for your video, but i have a question, i have a similar fuse box( panel) in my place, just bigger, and i have them all 15 amp ,120V, how can i connect two of them together to get 20 amp 220 Volt( i know we can ), of course from inside,..i do have two empty circuit there , and i know i have to use 12 gauge wire for whatever want to use from the new circuit, ( i do not want to change the whole thing to breaker panel yet ).
Hello! Do you or anyone else on here know if you can replace a type T 30 amp fuse with a type T 30 amp with the coil inside? I’m probably wording that wrong but I tried replacing it with a TL type and it blew again within a matter of hours and the only type T 30 amps I can find in the store or online are the heavy duty kind with the coil inside. I know the old type W work perfectly for it, but they are now discontinued. Thank you! (I am referring to Bussman brand fuses on all of these.)
There’s still a good number of homes in my city that still has this type of fuse box. It’s also a bit on the expensive side to upgrade to a breaker box as (I believe) local regs require the whole home’s wiring to be redone up to modern code if you decide to upgrade to a breaker box, so a lot of older homes kept this style of fuse box.
Interesting, I was trying to find how to connect the wires for 220 to the fuse box in my garage. Guess I’ll keep looking
I have an old stove which uses these types of fuses. The oven still works and many of the red lights for the various knobs still turn on so it is still getting power to it.
However, the 4 elements are not functioning anymore. I bought 2x 20amp fuses that screw in like this and replaced the old fuses. The diagram specifies 20A fuses are required for the elements. The elements are still not working.
The front elements are on a shared circuit requiring 2x 20A fuses. I tried both the rear and front elements with new fuses and neither worked.
Anyone have any ideas? It’s a really old vintage flair stove.
And then some idiot puts a coin in the socket to bypass it entirely, electrocutes himself in the process, and THEN the building burns down from the short circuit!
2020…..what sorcery is this
Helpful.. thank you!
Guys I have a old school fuse box, my electric went out in the kitchen, replaced all the fuses but still doesn’t work, refrigerator, microwave and lights all out, any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you.
Thank you- that was so helpful! My house is old and has both a breaker box in basement and an old fuse box upstairs in the pantry. i tried shutting off power at breaker box to switch out a light fixture and of course the power didn’t go out where i needed it to :/ . I did a little investigating and found your video and am now going to attempt to shut off power through fuse box! Wish me luck :p
the power to my gfci outlet tripped and i this electrical panel.. how do i reset the breaker?? do i have to replace a fuse?
If I remove the two silver boxes, will it shut off all power inside the house so I can disconnect a 220 baseboard heater?
So if i pull the main it cuts power coming in…is it possible to back feed with the main pulled?
Great video. I’ve just moved into an older apartment with one of these fuse boxes. There was a water leak from the ceiling and wall above the panel years ago and there is visible rust when simply looking at the interior of the panel. For safety reasons, I feel I should have an electrician take a closer look for water damage. What do you think? I’ve been told fuses are less sensitive to water damage than breakers.
What is the normal fuse amp for a heat and air conditioning unit?
This was great, good info for newbies.
My apartment has a fuse box and one of my rooms’ power went out 😭 so like im just tryna learn how to reset the damn thing
I’ve been told the old fuse boxes are actually safer as long as you’re using the correct fuses depending on the wire, because they can blow faster than a breaker trips. Just bought a house that uses an old fuse panel like this and they had all of them swapped to 30 amp fuses but I found some spares in a cabinet that were 15 amp, immediately swapped all of them back down to the 15 amp fuses. Back then people didn’t have a lot of electronics and appliances actually drew more than they do today, but today appliances actually draw less and the difference is we have more smaller devices that depend on electricity in our everyday lives like TV’s and game systems. 15 amps should easily be able to handle lights and TV’s, etc. but when you’re running lets say a microwave or a washer / dryer, vacuum cleaner you will likely have to run them one at a time to avoid blowing the fuses. You can find out how many amps a device draws by dividing the wattage by the voltage, for example 1500w / 120v = 12.5 amps so you know if you have to run a 15 amp fuse you’re getting close to your limit. While yes it may be annoying that you may have to replace the fuse because you can’t run everything at once, just remember it’s keeping your house from burning down and the fuse blowing is a GOOD thing!. While expensive ($10 a piece) you can get those fuses with a push button to reset them so you don’t have to keep replacing them.
I have a old fuse box and i can find any markings wear the 15amp fuses go or the 20amp,any help would be great.Thanks I do not want to pull out the box to look at the wires. and i cant afford a modern breaker box
Many thanks, John for your useful video. I live in an old 1950s apt building in NYC and have one of these in my apartment. I am not sure if I used the right fuse (20 vs. 15 amps) but one of the fuses blew and I replaced with a 20 amp fuse but it’s causing everything to flicker/ fans making a sizzling sound/ power strips to blow. For safety I removed the fuse altogether which has left a portion of my apartment / power outlets without power. I need to convert to a breaker box but not having luck finding a reasonable quote. Quotes are varying from 500-1200 USD for a 4 circuit conversion.
i want to ask you this, one of my fuse box is for my detached garage( 15 amp , same glass type), anyway in the garage just using LED light, sometime saw, drill, and i just wonder can i change my 15 Amp fuse to 20 Amp fuse( in the panel) so i can run my new Welder( required 20 AMP),.. note again, when i am using just lights, i am using maybe 100 Watts from the fuse.
Good video and educational. What is the grease you use that makes the main breakers easier to slide in and out? Thanks
The reason there are two pull out fuse holders is NOT because there are two lines coming in (two sides of the 240 volt service)! Each pull out has two fuses. One pullout (with its two fuses) is the main fuse and the other is for a 240 volt appliance, usually a range. On some fuse boxes similar to the one in this video, the main pull out feeds the screw in fuses only, and in some boxes the two fuses in the main pullout feeds both the screw in fuses and the range pull out. So, depending on how the box is set up, you can pull out the main fuse and disconnect everything, or you would have to pull out both fuse pullouts to disconnect all circuits. Many older houses have had additional fuse boxes or small breaker boxes added, so it can get complicated. Don’t mess with these unless you are qualified to do so.
What would cause a low voltage reading 42v coming out to fuse?
How do you know if one of those cylinder fuses needs replacing? Also, i pulled the black square thing out to take a photo of the fuse, but didn’t turn off the main power switch for electricity….could this cause me to be electrocuted? OMG!
I love when people are like just replace the fuse box with a breaker box they are safer. Like it’s as easy as cheap and easy as changing a light bulb. Meanwhile my in my house changing a light fixture means running new romex because pulling the old fixture off the mounts normally breaks the wires. So people that are going just simply replace the fuse box like its nothing are ignoring the actual work to it. And not everyone has the kind of money to rewire a whole house. Yes I know my wires shouldn’t be so brittle they breaking but that’s my neighborhood for you. Which is why I laugh when some one says most homes have been upgraded to the "safer" breakers, which say right on the side they "are only good for one trip" and should be replaced after just like fuse are only good for one trip. But people are repeatedly tripping breakers even though they CAN fail to trip a second time. The only thing that makes breakers safer is the ground bar. Outside of that if used as for only one trip as stated on the side of the breakers they are more complicated to change and you need to open a whole box where I can easily install a ground bar on the inside of a fuse box and have it be safer over all. People under estimate the safety of fuses because they have been taught the breakers are safer all because of a bar of copper that leads to the ground.
This video is so interesting and informative. My circa 1950’s panel has what appears to be one old main fuse box labeled "main" (about twice the size of the two in your video – although my guess is it is "two" but with one silver handle that pulls both out) at the top of the panel, and underneath it, all switch breakers – no glass fuses. I’d like to turn off all the power to my house, and aside from the safety precaution of turning off the HVAC, TV’s, etc., was wondering if I should turn off each breaker before sliding/pulling out the main fuse box? It has been a couple of years since I’ve completely cut the power out, so I’m a bit rusty and want to do it safely. Thank you!
The one on the left looks old like early 1900s
I’m so glad I have a circuit breaker
Do i need to flip the switches off or at all before unscrewing the fuse?
Thats a really nice box though a person wouldnt have to replace that .
fuse panels are perfectly safe, infact fuses are more safe, breakers fail, like zinsco panels or federal pacific panels (which the fuse panel in your video is the company that became federal pacific) but fuses will always blow, alot of times quicker than a breaker. the issue is human error and the wiring itself, if you are replacing the panel you still only have 6 circuits unless rewired, my house has the original 60 amp panel being used as a subpanel, and the wiring has all been replaced with modern romex, the main panel is a 100 amp and feeds the water heater and air conditioner it has a 60 amp breaker feeding the fuse panel for the outlets and lights. the fuse box is made by a company called colt noark and i was wondering if that is related to federal noark and also federal pacific… anyway, the reason the panel was kept even though the wiring going to it was replaced was because it was already there and it was in good shape. i know technically not up to code, but we dont plan on selling the house ever, and everything has checked out okay, and we all know what size fuse goes where, and it is labeled in case i am not around when they blow. so it will stay.