ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Safe to unscrew edison fuses to fix wall outlet

My inlaws need a broken 2 prong T slot replaced. I have a replacement 2 prong outlet from Lowes (not a t slot).

Their house has a 60 amp fuse box that has both the pull out bakelite fuse holders that hold cartrige fuses....and they also have edison fuses.

As I have learned, the outlet I need to replace, can only be turned off by pulling one of the three bakelite fuse holders out, but that turns off all of the lights to the house. I have thought of trying to unscew each of the 4 edison fuses until the power to that outlet goes out.

Question I have (before I try it) is if it's safe to just unscrew one edison fuse at a time, until the power to said outlet goes out, even though their may be other items on the same circuit in operation?

Thanks in advance.

It is OK but you have the same problem you have with breakers. Anything with a digital clock or other settings will usually end up blinking 12:00 and the settings are gone.

The good news is you probably only have 4 to unscrew

Thanks Greg...I read those edison fuses are for a different branch...maybe I'll get lucky and disconnect power to the outlet I need to replace on the first fuse I unscrew.

well it's done all the time Dawg, but to be specific, i really don't think lotto exists for them.....~S~

Of course it's safe ... just how else would one replace a fuse?

Well....when a fuse is blown, it no longer transmits current. When a fuse is not blown, it does. My thoughts were perhaps if I were to unscrew the fuse with it still transferring current, it might emit an arc of electricity. I suppose I could try to locate all the appliances on that one curcuit and unplug them before unscrewing the live fuse....or just pull the main, but I wanted to avert both if at all possible. I didn't mean for it to sound like such a stupid question. Just that I'm used to dealing with flip type circuit breakers, and not with 58 year old fuse boxes. I didn't want to just reach in there and start unscrewing fuses unless there was some sort of precaution to follow first. Of course now that I think about it, the same probably happens when you flip a breaker while something is in operation.

It is not a bad idea to turn off everything on a circuit before you open the overcurrent device but people seldom do it and I really have not seen much bad ever happen because of it. I suppose if you were using an Edison fuse as a switching device the button in the bottom would get burned up pretty badly after a while.

I find that a quick 1/4 to 1/2 turn on the Edison base fuses while pulling lightly outward gives a fairly clean break. About the same for the Type S, but those porcelain threads sometimes don’t seem to turn as smoothly.
Same thing in reverse for reconnecting. The last 1/4 to 1/2 turn quickly while pushing lightly inward and one then one final snug with the fingers. I don't get to hear that little "tick" sound when screwing in a fuse under load very much anymore, although I still have boxes full of brand new assorted screw-in fuses just waiting to leap into action.

Even to this day, I've never been able to find the elusive Type S removal tool so that I could easily replace the 30A adapter that the HO installed on the 14 gauge wire with the correct 15A that it should have been. It would have been much easier than using a screwdriver and needlenose pliers like I used to.

I had to do that in my grandma's house years ago. Replace a keyless light fixture. Turned out 2 fuses unscrewed would turn it off. And one of those fuses was in the neutral! Had I not known that, I could have been working with hot wires, had I only pulled the neutral fuse.

Wa2ise:

"And one of those fuses was in the neutral!"

Hopefully, the fused neutral in no more!