My boss told me to always use a torque screwdriver on panel lugs, but I thought it was overkill

He insisted on it for every main panel job, saying it prevents hot spots and connection failures down the line. I finally listened on a big rewire in a 1970s split-level last month, torquing every lug to the spec on the panel label. When we came back to add a circuit two weeks later, the whole panel was cool as a cucumber, no signs of heat stress at all. It added maybe ten minutes to the job but clearly made a difference. Has anyone else found a specific tool or step that seemed like extra work but actually paid off big time?

4 comments

4 Comments

lewis.mila2mo ago

Remember when I thought my old boss was nuts for making us torque every single breaker screw? Tbh, I used to sneak and just do it by feel to save time. Then I had to redo a whole apartment panel because half the circuits got loose and started buzzing. That was a long, stupid day.

smith.parker16d ago

lewis.mila" said you used to sneak and do it by feel to save time? That's wild man. I mean, I get it, ten minutes a panel adds up, but buzzing? That's the kind of noise that'd make me pull over and check the whole rig. I had a similar thing on a service entrance once, I was sure it was a bad breaker, turns out it was just loose and not torqued. Feels like a hidden trap for guys like us, thinking we can feel it out. Good on you for learning that lesson the hard way, saves someone else the headache.

hayden_craig952mo ago

Ever try a torque wrench on service entrance connections? It's the same deal, stops those weird intermittent faults nobody can find later.

elliotm572mo ago

Man, you are so right about that. I had a call last year for flickering lights in a house, drove me nuts for weeks. Finally put a torque wrench on the service lugs and found one was way under. Tightened it up to spec and the whole problem just went away. Honestly felt like a total idiot for not checking it first thing. Now I torque those connections every single time, no questions asked.