I saw the same video you're talking about. Pretty crazy stuff. I would think you can tell based on weight when you pick it up if that was the case. The DC breakers have that metal arc block in, among other things vs an empty piece of plastic.
thank you. I'm learning a LOT about dc breakres. I originally had these in-line breakers they use in 12v stereo installations. I found that these thermal breakers heat up and trip over time. I had one 40A breaker which had 20A to 21A continuous for solar. It heated up, melted and then stayed closed and would not trip open. Youch. I came to understand that those breakers were worthless because of the poor design. That was 6 years ago when those were the only DC breakers you could find. Now these new type of DC breakers that look like AC breakers, are the right ones for power applications. Cheap and easy to find on amazon. Thank you so much for making it easy to understand all this.
You didn't talk about the spark arrestor??? I thought that was of major importance. extremely important for good quality circuit breakers? And can you tell us sizing for a normal solar system for off grid? example system : (24v 100ah batt. Bank)+(40amp 150v charge controller)+(24v 2000watt inverter)(4* 100watt panels in series) we all need to know breaker sizes between all 3 components, please help. I assume 15 amp inline fuse on each solar panel for starters ,then 1* 200 amp fuse/ breaker at + batt. terminal , Then the hard part... Inline battery Isolator (size?) for complete disconnect? Then what??size (amp) between solar panels and charge controller for complete disconnect like if you want to do maintenance? Then what size breaker between inverter and batt.??? Thanks for sharing your videos, learning alot.
Ben, I have 2 Square D breakers I purchased a couple of years ago that have nothing but a copper clad aluminum mesh ribbon cable attached to a switching mechanism. After sending to Square D, they replied that they were counterfeit breakers, so people need to compare what they purchase online with manufacturers specs.
It's not certified at all? Not UL, not EC, not CCC, nothing? Hmmm, seems a little sus, especially given what slipped past quality control. In all fairness the input terminal probably had a decent connection when it was tested but shook loose during shipping due to it not being tacked down. But still it makes me consider looking at other options for DC breakers.
Yes I’m not sure what to use these days, even fuses that are ANL don’t seem to be the right ones these days. I usually just pull out the fuses to my charge controllers when shutting down my PV panels. There must be a better way? 🤔
I have been using 4x32A Langir for a few years in between my battery and those cheap grid-tie inverters with limiters, after going through a couple of different brands. We get weird electrical stuff out here in the desert from the grid, and that would cause the inverters to send a current blip back into the battery, and it cooked a couple of other polarized MCB's. I haven't had a problem with the Langir though. Unless there is some American company actually fronting and pushing the product, it seams even "good" stuff direct from Chinese manufactures are hit and miss.
Very interesting video, i was told a while ago these Langmuir breakers were one of the better one's available & was a decent quality breaker. Looks like some good guts in there but i'm no expert,would you agree and still use them ? i did see Big Clive's video showing the one he took apart that was dam near hollow inside, Thanks for sharing.
I'd say they tried to do it right. It appears to have everything I would expect for a DC breaker minus a magnet. (I've heard that midnite solar breakers have a magnet to help with fast tripping) The only thing that caused this one to not work was a bad spot weld.
@@benssolarandbattery The magnet helps push the arc into the snuffer/quencher blades and improves the breaker potential rating, but means that the breaker will only stop fault currents in one direction as the magnetic field will push the arc back onto the contacts if the fault current is going the other way. Only their 160V breakers have magnets. The 80V ones don't but will interrupt fault currents in both directions.
Always check if you owe it from me cheap Chinese website whether it has overcurrent protection or not because sometimes which translates as circuit breaker
I guess you watched BigClive's shocking breaker teardown. These jackasses will stand around warming their hands as they watch your house burning down. After watching that I decided to go for touchsafe 1000V fuses and holders for the new array seeing as It'll be putting out over 450V.
@@vincei4252 there are a ton of older grid tie solar inverters that use those fuses. Definitely scary to think that the thing you rely on to trip in the event of a fault could be empty inside!
@@benssolarandbattery I hear that. I have several of those "Renogy" branded in-line fuses that I bought from Amazon but I think those are fakes that have nothing to do with Renogy - this is the world we live in now. I decide that for peace of mind this would be the way to go. I did not know that fuses were used in the older inverters. I wonder what they knew that we're only just rediscovering :)
I would almost bet if you take apart an expensive breaker it looks almost the same. it's 2021, how hard can it be to make these safely? From other videos, I've watched polarity being wrong is the largest mistake. Using AC breakers in a DC setup is a mistake also.
Some do, but blowout magnets polarize the breaker so it can only interrupt faults going one way. Otherwise, the blowout magnet forces the arc back onto the breaker contacts and away from the quenching plates.
I saw the same video you're talking about. Pretty crazy stuff. I would think you can tell based on weight when you pick it up if that was the case. The DC breakers have that metal arc block in, among other things vs an empty piece of plastic.
thank you. I'm learning a LOT about dc breakres. I originally had these in-line breakers they use in 12v stereo installations. I found that these thermal breakers heat up and trip over time. I had one 40A breaker which had 20A to 21A continuous for solar. It heated up, melted and then stayed closed and would not trip open. Youch. I came to understand that those breakers were worthless because of the poor design.
That was 6 years ago when those were the only DC breakers you could find. Now these new type of DC breakers that look like AC breakers, are the right ones for power applications. Cheap and easy to find on amazon.
Thank you so much for making it easy to understand all this.
Thanks for sharing.
You didn't talk about the spark arrestor??? I thought that was of major importance. extremely important for good quality circuit breakers? And can you tell us sizing for a normal solar system for off grid? example system : (24v 100ah batt. Bank)+(40amp 150v charge controller)+(24v 2000watt inverter)(4* 100watt panels in series) we all need to know breaker sizes between all 3 components, please help. I assume 15 amp inline fuse on each solar panel for starters ,then 1* 200 amp fuse/ breaker at + batt. terminal , Then the hard part... Inline battery Isolator (size?) for complete disconnect? Then what??size (amp) between solar panels and charge controller for complete disconnect like if you want to do maintenance? Then what size breaker between inverter and batt.??? Thanks for sharing your videos, learning alot.
Ben, I have 2 Square D breakers I purchased a couple of years ago that have nothing but a copper clad aluminum mesh ribbon cable attached to a switching mechanism. After sending to Square D, they replied that they were counterfeit breakers, so people need to compare what they purchase online with manufacturers specs.
It's not certified at all? Not UL, not EC, not CCC, nothing? Hmmm, seems a little sus, especially given what slipped past quality control. In all fairness the input terminal probably had a decent connection when it was tested but shook loose during shipping due to it not being tacked down. But still it makes me consider looking at other options for DC breakers.
Yes I’m not sure what to use these days, even fuses that are ANL don’t seem to be the right ones these days. I usually just pull out the fuses to my charge controllers when shutting down my PV panels. There must be a better way? 🤔
I know the Midnite solar breakers us a magnet to help pull down to brake the DC ark. That was cool thanks for sharing. God Bless brother.
Interesting! I have one left over from a project, maybe I'll pull that apart too and see the difference.
@@benssolarandbattery Do it that would be so cool!!
only some do... the polarized ones. And they're against code almost everywhere now since polarized ones are stupid
Great Vid!
what is the pint out? I bought it on amazon but it has no instruction , where does the positive goes ? right or left?
I put the PV coming into the top, positive on one side, negative on the other. It isn't polarized so you can install it either way.
Nice video thanks for sharing
how did it failed? under what condition and what happened?
I have been using 4x32A Langir for a few years in between my battery and those cheap grid-tie inverters with limiters, after going through a couple of different brands. We get weird electrical stuff out here in the desert from the grid, and that would cause the inverters to send a current blip back into the battery, and it cooked a couple of other polarized MCB's. I haven't had a problem with the Langir though. Unless there is some American company actually fronting and pushing the product, it seams even "good" stuff direct from Chinese manufactures are hit and miss.
Very interesting video, i was told a while ago these Langmuir breakers were one of the better one's available & was a decent quality breaker. Looks like some good guts in there but i'm no expert,would you agree and still use them ? i did see Big Clive's video showing the one he took apart that was dam near hollow inside, Thanks for sharing.
I'd say they tried to do it right. It appears to have everything I would expect for a DC breaker minus a magnet. (I've heard that midnite solar breakers have a magnet to help with fast tripping)
The only thing that caused this one to not work was a bad spot weld.
@@benssolarandbattery The magnet helps push the arc into the snuffer/quencher blades and improves the breaker potential rating, but means that the breaker will only stop fault currents in one direction as the magnetic field will push the arc back onto the contacts if the fault current is going the other way. Only their 160V breakers have magnets. The 80V ones don't but will interrupt fault currents in both directions.
Always check if you owe it from me cheap Chinese website whether it has overcurrent protection or not because sometimes which translates as circuit breaker
I guess you watched BigClive's shocking breaker teardown. These jackasses will stand around warming their hands as they watch your house burning down. After watching that I decided to go for touchsafe 1000V fuses and holders for the new array seeing as It'll be putting out over 450V.
You guessed it! Can't go wrong with quality fuses.
@@benssolarandbattery Hi Ben, here's what I bought from McMaster.
ruclips.net/video/D6AZPkAaSx4/видео.html
@@vincei4252 there are a ton of older grid tie solar inverters that use those fuses. Definitely scary to think that the thing you rely on to trip in the event of a fault could be empty inside!
@@benssolarandbattery I hear that. I have several of those "Renogy" branded in-line fuses that I bought from Amazon but I think those are fakes that have nothing to do with Renogy - this is the world we live in now. I decide that for peace of mind this would be the way to go. I did not know that fuses were used in the older inverters. I wonder what they knew that we're only just rediscovering :)
I would almost bet if you take apart an expensive breaker it looks almost the same. it's 2021, how hard can it be to make these safely? From other videos, I've watched polarity being wrong is the largest mistake. Using AC breakers in a DC setup is a mistake also.
huh I thought DC breakers had a magnet to help fast disconnect to prevent the arc.
Definitely no magnet in there, just a decent sized spring. There is what looks like a arc quenching device in the middle though.
Some do, but blowout magnets polarize the breaker so it can only interrupt faults going one way. Otherwise, the blowout magnet forces the arc back onto the breaker contacts and away from the quenching plates.
Thumbs up
Thanks for the L@@K "inside"
COOP
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L