1ph pole top reclosers(exploding)

[bryannole]

Hey brothers,just curious if anyone out there is having new oil switches blowing up when they are energized.I'm looking for a possible trend here.I know of 2 on my system recently & 1 of them put me in the burn center for a short stay & home for a while.Please reply to this thread or e-mail me [email protected] .Thanks &Stay Safe!!!

[Bull Dog]

I have had it happen to me. I know of others that have too. We used to have a regular maintenance schedule with these bombs. They quit that 25 years ago. We used to take them down bring to shop and overhaul them. This included the reclosures on cap banks also. Like a lot of other things the maintenance is not done anymore. You just replace things when they fail. I can't speak for other utilities but thats where we are at. I would think with the lack of people its the same all over. Anything will fail sooner if not maintained but no one seems to care anymore. Like I mentioned its replace at failure.

[ClimbingFool]

Our company had a preventive maintenance program to open up, change the oil, and replace any damaged pieces inside these little time bombs. Our substation guys would go out with a line crew take them down rebuild them and putem back up at least once a year! This pm. practice is gone now with all recloser and cap banks as was once done. We have had a practice for the last ten years in our district in PA to close all transformers,reclosers and/or cap banks from the ground with an extendo stick for obvious safety reasons.......no prev.maint. any more....buying cheaper 2nd rate transformers and reclosers!.......Hell weve put up new reclosers and the first time they operate in a storm they dont close back in!JUNK
Beware of the TICKING TIME BOMBS and protect our own with all the cutbacks and not become a statistic!

[thrasher]

Over the last 15 years our Coop has slowly replaced all of our OCR's with vacumn OCR's. This has changed the maintenance cycle considerably versus the non-vacumn. We do still read all OCR's once a year and base changeouts on actual number of operations. Even with this though we have had 2 in the last ten years go "ballistic" on us. Our policy is you NEVER close an OCR from hooks, only an extendo or with a finger stick from a bucket offset to the side. I heard from some Dominion people that they had a real problem for a while with ABB 34.5kv three phase reclosers about three years ago. I have not heard of any recently, don't know if it was a manufacturers defect or what. I do know they had one in Wialliamsburg, one in Isle of Wight, and one in Southampton all blow a bushing to pieces. The same serviceman closed two out of the three and was getting REAL nervous around them.

[bryannole]

Over the last 15 years our Coop has slowly replaced all of our OCR's with vacumn OCR's. This has changed the maintenance cycle considerably versus the non-vacumn. We do still read all OCR's once a year and base changeouts on actual number of operations. Even with this though we have had 2 in the last ten years go "ballistic" on us. Our policy is you NEVER close an OCR from hooks, only an extendo or with a finger stick from a bucket offset to the side. I heard from some Dominion people that they had a real problem for a while with ABB 34.5kv three phase reclosers about three years ago. I have not heard of any recently, don't know if it was a manufacturers defect or what. I do know they had one in Wialliamsburg, one in Isle of Wight, and one in Southampton all blow a bushing to pieces. The same serviceman closed two out of the three and was getting REAL nervous around them.

Thanks for the info.2 incidents lately & the one I was involved in were brand new & identical.I have since learned that water & rust were found in both.Im starting to suspect manufacturer defect.

[Edge]

interesting... who's the manufacturer... and where were they made>???

ohh and are they ship dry then oil capped at your shop?

or are they shiped "ready to go" and just put on the line?

if so are they inspected by your transformer/breaker shop prior?

just wondering....

this is the kinda thing that could save a brother...

for what it's worth...

Edge

[bryannole]

The ocr came filled & ready to go.You guys be careful.