Im rewiring a 100 year old home that has 100 amp pushmatic panel in it. Im temporarily tighing in a 20 amp circuit in for a bedroom.

Im pretty sure i have the answer to this question but want to make sure. I tighed in the new 20amp circuit but the breaker was off i then turned the main breaker back on and heard a pop sound so i quick shut the main off again.

I forgot to turn off alot of the branch circuits before i turned the main back on so was that the pop i heard because of the load? There was nothing on in the house just the fridge and the lights in the basement.

I first thought there was a short in the circuit i just ran because i had to use wiremold thinking i chafed a wire. I only hooked the circuit up to the breaker and the neutral to the ground bar i never turned the circuit breaker on so i dont see how that is the problem.

So was this pop sound because of the fridge and light loads? Nothing was burning or smelled burnt in the panel.

So at the end i turned off all the branch circuits and then turned the main on then each branch circuit without any pop noise.

I'd venture a guess that you heard the breaker mechanism closing.

The pushamatics make 'odd' noises occasionally. Some guys call them 'pop-o-matics'

Does tighed = tied and tighing = tying, not trying to be smart just want to make sure I understand your post. I assume you're getting it inspected right?

I think he meant tying in

Where is Ohia?

Don't they require AFCI's in Pennsylvania in bedroom circuits?

I don't think they make a Pushmatic AFCI.

Sorry yes i meant tying haha. I remember winning awards for spelling back when i was in school now i cant spell for **** ha.

Anyway still don't know what that pop sound was but everything works nothing is burnt. But when i finally turned the 20 amp breaker on for the circuit i ran it tripped right away. Turned out i smashed a wire putting on the internal 90 cover on the wiremold! I hate wiremold!

Anyway case closed everything is fine and dandy now haha.

That's over!

Leland:
Think she means Ohio?

"Pop" always meant that an arc either welded or blew open, to me. I am not sure where it happened in that can but that's what happened. Maybe that is just the way Pushmatics close the circuit. Never saw one.

Greg:
They were made orig by 'Bulldog', then later I believe ITE bought the brand/design. I used to have a bunch of then in the shop, single, double and three pole.

IMHO, they were a pain in the butt. Bolt-in, tight panel space, and I wonder if they ever had a SWD rating.

It was 'push-on; push-off' with an indicator in the 'push' part.

ITE-Bulldog-

60's vintage- here in NewEngland.
Still plenty around and holding up impressively.
Rugged little system. I have several of the breakers in stock for the occasional fail.
The big ones- 100A mains,30-50 A 2 poles.
Just for the emergency replacements.
Never heard one 'POP' tho.

I wrote the underline the three pole verison that is super rare beast I have one in the shop on the shelf somewhere back in the state.

pushmatic one instering twist and kinda rare to see it in three phase verison

Merci,Marc

Marc:
I had a few 3 pole from a rip-out job, only 3 phase pushamatic panel I came accross in all my years.

When I closed shop, the collection now resides with the EC who bought my assets

Wow, I was a huge fan of these panels back in their day. When you think about it, they were the only residential grade panels with a bolted bus bar. Not to mention that they made it easy to keep the loads distributed evenly. I probably installed my last one in the late 1970's. I never saw a three-phase version though. I don't see how it could even be done.

I grew up in the computer room biz where square D was the gold standard. You seldom saw anything else.

Leland, I see you noticed Ohia. You are supposed to picture a scene on the banks of the Ohio R. and a conversation that goes on between two salt of the earth type folk where one says to the other: "Y'all crosin the crik?, and the other replies as he steps into a rust bucket of a John boat "Yup I 'a goin back Ohia uhuh"

,Many of the same tales Here in NewEngland! The more North east the better the tales get.:)

I remember half the time doing service work that you would shut them off and then after you were done they wouldn't come back on
almost as good of an idea as the split-buss panel