jteam

Now I have walked out to the garage and the lights and outlets are working there and also work in the front room a little puzzling for a novice like me.

Sparky723

Without multiple pics, and the ongoing problems-you need to get a $1,500 home improvement loan and get a whole house rewire.
SOLVE all these problems. I don't care what others say (Neal), its gonna get used at a higher capacity of amps overall. Whether its you or the next tenant...it needs to be safe.
It's a fire waiting to happen. Period.

JoeD

Sounds like one of the fuses had a poor connection. Some times the clips that hold the fuses become stretched and do not grip and contact the fuse properly.

jteam

Yes I applied for home improvement help to get help with the upgrade I will hope for the best.

nealtw

I beleive the stove should have had 30 amp fuses in these old boxes.

JoeD

It would be a small stove with 30 amp fuses. Most I have seen need 40 amp. However if you don't use too many burners at once it could work just fine a 30 amp circuit.

Fireguy5674

I would say Joe is correct about there being a contact problem in the main box. And while it could be just not getting proper contact with the fuse it could also be where the clip for the fuse is attached to the box. From the description and age of your equipment you can have many issues as described in all the previous posts. My concern is if it only took pulling the fuses out and putting them back in to "fix" the problem then you obviously have a loose connection, probably in your main panel, that will now heat up because you are drawing current through it. Monitor your main often to be sure you don't burn the place down till you can get it fixed right.

I bought an old home once knowing one of my first priorities would be to replace the electric service. On the morning I arrived home from work and the power company was coming to change me over to my new service, I walked in the back door and smelled something really hot. I checked my main service boxes (two 60 amp boxes side by side) and found a fuse socket sizzling and glowing red. The girls had two minutes to finish getting ready for work/school before the power was shut off. It can and does happen all the time. I went to a fire call on an old home and found the only reason the building was not burning was because the panel caught fire and melted the plastic water line directly above the main box and extinguished the fire before it could get rolling. Unintentional sprinkler system.

nealtw

Joe: the stove may need 40 amps but that is not a consideration. I suspect a 40 amp stove blew the fuses and someone upgraded, without checking wire size I would guess 30 amps.

Sparky, No one here has dissagreed with you on the need to upgrade the system including the homeowner, the idea is to make it as safe as possible until he can get that done.

jteam; Smoke detectors, even battery ones for now?

CallMeVilla

Let me piggyback on Neal ... smoke detectors near the panel !!

bud16415

What most likely happened is they plugged in the pool filter that was shorted and crowbarred the circuit. All that current went thru that one 30 amp fuse and cooked the tip or the outside contact and burnt it up along with blowing the fuse. In his OP he said he changed all the fuses not sure why he did that but he should remove the one he now knows controls that line again and look and see if things inside the socket look blackened compared to the one next to it. My guess is its burnt where it’s visible. Somehow screwing the fuse in and out a few times gave him a better contact.

The secondary set of fuses marked range can be used for hot water tank , stove , air conditioner etc. I believe they don’t go thru the mains and to totally kill the house you need to pull both. Of course the disconnect switch isolates both first. At least I have seen them set up that way. I have always seen them with 30 amp fuses.

All these systems are past their expiration date.

Has the OP seen any problems now that he has the 15 amp fuses in place? I would think whoever bumped them up to 30 amp did it for a reason. If so all the more reason to replace ASAP as that extra current prolonged combined with this fault has taken its wear and tear on the panel. For now keep the low fuses in there no matter what and make sure the bad one is clean inside and that the screw in fuses are tight. It goes without saying don’t try cleaning the contact point unless the power is off.