Safe Luxury

Are fuses in electrical boxes safe?

We bought a home that is approximately 55 years old and the electrical box has fuses in it. Should we spend the money and have the box switched to breakers? Are the fuses safe?

Public Comments

1. fuses are safe enough...just a pain in the neck and the fuse boxes are undersized for todays home loads. It would be worth having it changed out, and it would be something you could recoup in your houses value
2. AS LONG AS YOU DON'T REACH DEEP IN WHERE YOU SEE THE BRASS STRIP THEY ARE ON TOP OF, THEY WILL WIGGLE OUT IF YOU ARE WANTING TO REPLACE ONE ,,,DONT REMOVE THE PLATE AROUND THE SWITCHES UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO REMOVE ARE REDIRECT A WIRE INSIDE OF THE BOX... THE BEST WAY AND SAFEST WAY IS TURN YOUR POWER OFF OUTSIDE AT THE METER BEFORE YOU DO ANY WORK ON THE BOX INSIDE..........ZAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSULT AN ELECTRICIAN FOR CHANGING OUT AN OLD BOX
3. Yes they are "relatively" safe but you would be better off to have an electrician inspect your entire electrical system. I suspect that your wiring is as old as your fuse box and is probably a bigger consideration that the box itself. I doubt that you have a solid ground lead on each circuit and with today's load demands you should seriously consider upgrading your entire electrical system.
4. I'm not certain about the safety, but be aware that the wiring is probably also old and not up to code. In most places if you replace one part of your electircal system the city usually wants you to replace everything...that's expensive.
5. Fuses are safe provided the bus bars (the metal the fuses screw into and the metal bars behind the plastic that you can't see) has not pitted, or been damaged in some way in the past. The problem with fuses is that they are not as easy to come by and once they blow they need to be replaced. Breakers can be reset once they trip. If you decide to replace the fuse panel, make sure you hire a licensed electrical contractor and that they pull a permit and the job is inspected. This can save you untold amounts of aggravation if you have problems later on because of a poor installation. Your house is your single most important investment, don't cut corners. Since the house is 55 years old, you should consider rewiring the entire house. Old copper wires can become brittle, can overheat, sometimes the insulation can actually feed the fire. Old wires had a cloth insulation on them. Get more than one estimate. Usually 3 estimates will be enough. Hiring a licensed contractor also means you shouldn't have to pay any money up front. If they ask for a deposit ask why and be very careful. Check with your local code authority, they should have a check list of things to look for and ask to protect yourself from unscrupulous contractors.
6. The fuses are okay, the problem is the electrical capacity of your fuse box is probably not adequate for your current electrical usage. 55 years ago, air conditioning and central air were rare. Microwave ovens weren't around. I don't think electric clothes dryers were around, and the washers were the old wringer type tubs. At lot of single bulb light fixtures have been replaced with multibulb ones, and ceiling fans have become common. A lot of things, like hot water heaters, are electric now which were gas or oil back then. You have TV and computers, and all the other stuff they didn't use (look at all the small appliances too). Back then, 100 amps was probably the common expected home electrical load. Now, its probably at least double that. The wiring, too, may be outdated. Old cloth covered wiring has problems because the insulation gets brittle with age and comes off. This can lead to a shock, or fire. I have the same problem, but my box is an old breaker box with only a 125 amps of capacity. I'm going to upgrade it to the newer breaker box, and with the higher capacity. I have a mix of wiring in my home, some old, some new. When I replace the box, the wiring will also get replaced to make everything safer. I've looked at the nightmare of wiring that's in my home, spiderwebs of cloth covered wire with insulation missing in areas. Its only a matter of time before something happens, and I'd hate to lose my home and its contents to a fire. There are some things insurance can't replace.
7. Yes fuses are safe, but if they blow out its more of a pain to change them then it is to trip a breaker. If the wiring is in good shape and your fuse box is not overloaded you dont have to change it over unless you are tying to up date or have money to burn. Keep spare fuses handy next to the fuse box with a flash light and with commnon scence you will be in fine shape. Remember when you blow a fuse or trip a breaker you may be in the dark, but how often in a year is it really going to happen. If it does happen a lot you have a different problem, so have that checked out Fuses are incased so when they short out they are safe, they are self contained. There are some cases where some fuses that will burn, but as long as your fuse box door is closed and not cluttered with combusables you are safe.