ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Difference in AC and DC disconnects

You can usually put a big diode across a DC contact to put out the fire.

How will that help if the load is not inductive? The diode shorts out the inductive kick from a collapsing magnetic field because the induced voltage is the opposite polarity. A diode or even a RC network across contacts won't do much if the DC load is not inductive.