Junk DC Breaker

[LanduytG]

I normally don't go for cheap components. But for some reason I was soft in the head when I bought 2 cheap breakers off Amazon, a100 amp and a 50 amp. I have1020 watts of panels on the roof of my fifth wheel. While driving down the road in full sun the 100 amp Breaker that's between the SCC add main 12v bus would trip, I thought maybe ruff road might trip it so just never gave it another thought till this past week we were camped in full sun and once I was producing 55-60 amps after about 15-20 mins the breaker would trip. I just shut it off and went 4 days without charging. Which was fine because I have enough power and only went down to 60%. Well today I switched out the junk Breaker for a Bussman 100 amp I had. Pumping out 60_65 amps for about 3 hrs during peak time and Breaker was good the whole time. The only good thing about this is it might have never tripped if something shorted. Never seem to want to spend the many the first time but sure will the second time and will cost more.

Greg

 

[boondox]

Yup, buy quality and cry once. Especially for safety gear. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[NwCali]

Ok, I did Industrial maintenance for awhile.... Sometimes we have special motors (expensive) fail to work right out of the box and we'd be forced to put in a simpler and far cheaper motor in its place and not have any problems till the replacement came in....

My wife (at the time) actually built those expensive (complex) motors, so I had some clue as the how she felt about them....

While I do think buying quality is better than not, I sure as heck know just cause its "quality" doesn't mean its always good.... Its why I prefer having forums so we can read about others experiences.

 

[Bossrox]

I normally don't go for cheap components. But for some reason I was soft in the head when I bought 2 cheap breakers off Amazon, a100 amp and a 50 amp. I have1020 watts of panels on the roof of my fifth wheel. While driving down the road in full sun the 100 amp Breaker that's between the SCC add main 12v bus would trip, I thought maybe ruff road might trip it so just never gave it another thought till this past week we were camped in full sun and once I was producing 55-60 amps after about 15-20 mins the breaker would trip. I just shut it off and went 4 days without charging. Which was fine because I have enough power and only went down to 60%. Well today I switched out the junk Breaker for a Bussman 100 amp I had. Pumping out 60_65 amps for about 3 hrs during peak time and Breaker was good the whole time. The only good thing about this is it might have never tripped if something shorted. Never seem to want to spend the many the first time but sure will the second time and will cost more.

Greg

I've seen these all over ebay & they are a joke. 1st off a dead giveaway should be the terminal sizes, they'd melt under a heavy load & the shear tinyness of them compared to serious breakers is another indicator but I've bought some serious breakers as well & even those don't hold up to their ratings. I gave up spending $$$ trying to find a functional breaker 'cuz all the equipment hooked up to a system if good quality has protection anyways, it's just another component in the line that weakens the power train in my opinion.

 

[stewchi]

That looks like mine but a different color switch, do you mind sharing the brand?

 

[Bossrox]

Those breakers would likely be fine for a small system like that but on a system like mine with 200 amps of solar charging amps they'd fry.

 

[boondox]

Ok, I did Industrial maintenance for awhile.... Sometimes we have special motors (expensive) fail to work right out of the box and we'd be forced to put in a simpler and far cheaper motor in its place and not have any problems till the replacement came in....

My wife (at the time) actually built those expensive (complex) motors, so I had some clue as the how she felt about them....

While I do think buying quality is better than not, I sure as heck know just cause its "quality" doesn't mean its always good.... Its why I prefer having forums so we can read about others experiences.

I agree that quality stuff can fail or be bad right out of the box. But the odds are better. And at least if they do fail you know that you just got unlucky as opposed to getting what you asked and paid for.

 

[J.P.]

I just took my 250A version of the same style breaker out of service this weekend.

 

[HRTKD]

I have a Zookoto 150 amp breaker like in the OP's picture. Cost was $20 in 2017. The body of the first one broke early on. The replacement has been hanging under my RV trailer for three years, between my lead acid battery and the 1000 watt inverter. I doubt that it ever came close to teh rated limit but I have pushed the inverter hard enough that it shutdown due to overload. Last year I moved the breaker inside the trailer when I switched to LiFePO4. I considered replacing the breaker with better quality, but the inverter is slated for an upgrade so I didn't.

Sometimes, you get lucky.

 

[LanduytG]

Believe the new Bussman 100 amp Breaker will hold, I've seen this for and hour now. About 45mins longer than with the cheap Breaker. Not producing to bad for a 1005 watt system laying flat.