ACRA Electric Inc

Company Response:

This is a home built in 1998 with an aluminum buss Challenger panel. The owner had a whole house instant hot water heater installed about 2 years ago. We could not find evidence of a permit or inspection for this work, so we are not sure if the work was done by a licensed contractor or not. After we installed a new circuit breaker for the boat lift the instant hot water heater stopped working. We examined the panel and discovered that the 2 pole 60 amp breaker feeding the instant hot water heater was burned, as well as the aluminum buss that it was installed on. My electrician got a new circuit breaker out of the truck and installed it on a clean section of the buss below the overheated section and reconnected the instant hot. He also installed blanks on the panel cover to fill the unused spaces. We left the job and received our city inspection for our completed work.



After returning to the office he relayed the information to us and we reviewed photographs that were taken the day we did the estimate. Upon zooming in to the 2 pole 60 amp circuit breaker at the bottom of the panel we noticed that the exposed part of the buss was discolored, showing evidence of heating which we did not notice at the time of the estimate.



We have done many panel changes over the years and especially with the older challenger and ITE panels we see evidence of overheating and burned buss bars where the circuit breakers clamp on, especially the breakers feeding high ampacity loads like ac units and air handlers with heat strips. In this case the whole house instant hot water heater draws a lot of current and over time if the conditions are not perfect, as is the case with an older aluminum buss panel, the breaker will begin to heat at the spring loaded connections to the buss. Over time the spring tension holding the circuit breaker to the buss weakens and eventually the circuit breaker will fail. In the process of doing our work on this panel we disturbed the already compromised circuit breaker and the customer has now expected us to replace this entire panel at no charge. The act of removing the panel cover alone is not enough to make a circuit breaker fail, and if it does it is proof that something is going wrong in the panel, which the photographic evidence proved.



We are extremely aware and sensitive to having a great relationship and pleasing experience with all of our customers and I personally apologized to this customer for the time he had to wait for his job to be done. We also installed the new circuit breaker and panel blanks at no additional charge, and even offered a discount for his trouble, however I do not feel that we should be taken advantage of by having to replace a panel that was installed in 1998 and that we were the lucky ones to identify and correct a potential problem.



Also, our electrician is a licensed journeyman who is qualified to work in energized panels. Occasionally with the older panels, when the main is turned off it sometimes will fail to reset, so if we don't have to turn off the panel to work on it we won't. The journeyman was taken by surprise when the owner quickly reached in to the panel before he could warn him to stop. Even with the main turned off there are energized parts in a panel, so never reach in to any electrical equipment unless you are qualified to do so.



We hope that in this case the customer will reconsider his position and pay us so we can avoid legal action.



If you have any questions about this or any other electrical issues please feel free to call me.



Robert Greco

President, ACRA Electric, Inc.

239-542-1624

Work Description: Hook up electric from garage to dock and wired boat lift.



Acru electric was recommended to me by the dock builder.



The quote took almost a week

highest price of all 3 quotes

Five weeks to finish a one day job

no phone calls to let me know when they would start

they arrived to start only after I called (two-three weeks after I accepted the quote)

started the job one day then I had to call two weeks later to see when they where coming back to finish



During the time the contractors were here I discovered they knocked loose a double 60 amp breaker witch caused an arc that melted my panel. After the work was performed my hot water heater wouldn't work, which was odd because it has worked fine for 2 years. I asked the electrician to take a look and he said the contact was loose and it arced as he was showing me the damage I touched the melted plastic to show him something and he said, "I’m not sure if you realize what you just did". Well apparently he did not turn off main breaker and the panel was live and all the wires exposed. I could have been electrocuted if my figure touch 1mm to the left. 200amps



I asked the Electrician to fix the damage they had caused and he refused saying that I caused the damage. The electrician said that the manager would call but all I got was an invoice for $2087 the next day in the mail.



I emailed the president with my concerns, he responded back and we meet the next day and he offered that I pay him $1800 and we close. $287 for a $1500 panel? I said I wanted my property to be the same as when they arrived and its not about saving money its about safety and he said "I will see you in court"



I’m very disappointed to say the least.