My old boss in Tampa told me to never use zip ties on a main panel's main power feed, and he was right after I saw one melt through on a job last month.

What's your go-to for securing those heavy gauge wires instead of plastic ties?

3 comments

3 Comments

So what was the actual failure mode on that melted zip tie? Was it just from the heat of the conductors under load, or was there a bad connection making it way worse?

faith_carter1mo ago

Nah, it's gotta be the load heat. That zip tie was right on the main power run. A bad connection would have burned the terminal block first, not the plastic halfway down the line. Those wires were probably pulling max current for hours, they get seriously hot. Cheap zip ties just can't handle that kind of constant heat. Seen it happen a bunch of times, always right over a hot wire bundle.

riley_miller2525d ago

Jumped into too many of these repairs back in my shop days, so I can tell you exactly how this goes. Faith Carter is right that load heat gets those conductors cooking, but I'd bet my last good screwdriver the real problem was a loose connection somewhere upstream. A bad terminal block or a slightly loose lug on the breaker creates resistance, that resistance makes heat, and the heat travels down the wire like a slow fuse. The zip tie just happened to be the weakest point in that thermal chain. Check the terminations and you'll probably find one that's cooked or discolored, that's where the failure started.