Lineman Talk - Oil Circuit Recloser Testing OCR

[@TripleTRanchAndSawmill]

thanks for the answer and the video!

[@briantruck2284]

Good information

[@kycjh14]

What is the Miller device you are using? Could not find it when searching for Miller faulter

[@linema22n]

Poor man’s way to create and control a low voltage fault. This is an old AC-DC welder in our mechanic shop, set on AC. Have seen 400A on a slow recloser curve. Usually 2-250 on an A curve.

[@kycjh14]

Thank you for the info. Have you ever blown the breaker feeding welder when doing this?

[@linema22n]

@@kycjh14 Never tripped the breaker serving the welder. A person new to stick welding will probably keep the rod stuck to metal longer than a device will on a slow curve.

[@adamvann6953]

Why didn't the recloser with thinner oil, after heating it to 140 degrees lockout 1st?

[@linema22n]

Thank you for your question. For 40 years I have thought thick and thin oil should operate the OCR differently. The way we think, the thinner oil should have flowed faster through the weep hole and the device should have operated faster. A curve timing tester should have been used but was not available. Two things I think about, 1, timing difference is probably in milliseconds and we can't see/hear that. Second, the oil temperatures may not have been drastically different enough to change the viscosity of the mineral oil. The fault current delivered was less than three hundred amps and the curve reacts to fault magnitude. If I could have pushed a one- or two-thousand-amp fault, the results may have been different.

[@TripleTRanchAndSawmill]

@@linema22n Richard do you know if there is a service to check contacts and basically service an old recloser?

[@TripleTRanchAndSawmill]

We have a kyle recloser type wv-27 sitting in our yard that there is no history on.

[@linema22n]

@@TripleTRanchAndSawmill yes, a transformer shop can do that work. Solomon and maybe Emerald can service OCRs. Years ago that service was done in house.