Losing 1 leg of power......

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Your problem sounds based in heat. You could maybe cause it to happen if you turn on a lot of stuff on that leg for a bit.
 
I tend to agree with you. I have done the "feel test" on the panel and breakers and not found them to be warm to the touch.
 
The next time it happens, you might try shutting all the breakers on that leg before resetting the main. Then flip them on one at a time to see if any one is causing the problem.
 
beachguy005 said:
I know what you're saying bud, but it's a very simple check when it happens. It could be a bad thermal in the main breaker or it could be a loose connection at the line side lug on the main.
Thing is that you have someone explaining what they think is happening, but they don't really know. If it was an inexpensive branch breaker, I'd say sure...change it out. Worst case, you'd have a spare. A new main will likely have to have the meter pulled and an electrician, plus the cost of the main. That adds up quickly.
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I have pulled a main breaker, just turned off all the other breakers so I would have no arcing, Is that wrong?:(
 
Unless that main you pulled is being fed by another disconnect that you turned off, you would still have hot conductors feeding into it. That's why you usually pull the meter, so the feed into the main is dead. Most mains in a panel don't have much room around them and working with hot feeds isn't a great idea.
 
nealtw said:
Not if you turn off the main, ???
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Only problem with that is if the main is the problem with a loose connection, turning it off could bring the power back on before the testing confirms where the problem is.
That would be my second test.
 
If I was going to have the meter removed for anything I think I would change the main, expensive yes or at least have one on hand if needed.

I have seen where people lose ground connection and have trouble, but I'm I right in thinking if that only effected one side the 240v parts of the stove would still work?
 
The power failed yesterday and I was able to get a meter on the wires in and out of the main breaker. I had a dead leg coming in from the pole. I called the power company and the repair guy had his meter on it an confirmed the dead leg going into the meter. As soon as he saw that, the power came back on. At that point he shook wires etc. and it would not fail again. The connection at the weatherhead to the house was done by the electrician a few years ago and was nothing but wires twisted together and electrical tape. The repair guy cut those off and used the proper crimpers. He said if it happens again they will replace the entire drop. Time will tell.
 
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Good going. Goes to show you never rule anything out.

Glad you hopefully got it solved now.
 
As luck would have it, the power failed again despite the fix on Sunday. However, this time the failure became more frequent. The power company came out and while I was outside giving them the details we both heard something. We walked back to the pole and just them we both saw sparks coming from a connection to the overhead line. He looked at me and said "I think I see your problem". Anyway they replaced the connectors on the pole and hopefully this will be the end of this saga. I hope so, we are headed for -15 F tonight for a low....
 
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