ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Switching the neutral

Can a standard 3 pole disconnect switch be used to switch 2 phase conductors and 1 neutral. My concern is the lack of accurate synchronization of the blades making to their respective contacts. If the neutral blade makes last it could cause over-voltage in the phase to neutral loads. Seems like the neutral blade would have to make 1st and break last. What about a 3 pole molded case circuit breaker ?
What do you think?
Thanks in advance.

It is "legal" but certainly a design issue, for exactly the reason you brought up. Whether a millisecond or so of unbalanced load would hurt anything is really a question of what the load is.
It is also a situation where you fail very "hard" if the neutral fails to make totally.
I would avoid it if at all possible.