My journeyman told me to always check the panel schedule before pulling a circuit, and it saved my butt on a Reno job last week.

3 comments

3 Comments

paige2052mo ago

Honestly I just pull the dead front and look for the open breaker. Panel schedules get outdated the second they're printed on a reno. You're wasting time checking a piece of paper that's probably wrong. I trust my eyes and a tick tracer way more.

palmer.avery2mo ago

What about when you're dealing with a packed panel and everything looks normal? Your method assumes the problem is a tripped breaker, but what if it's a loose neutral or a failed connection that a tick tracer won't catch? You're skipping the basic step of verifying what circuit you're even working on.

mark_nguyen951mo ago

Heard a forensic electrician talk about this once at a supply house, and he swore by using a wiggy meter instead of a tick tracer for these exact packed panel situations. Said tick tracers can show voltage on a dead wire just from induction, so you end up chasing ghosts. Loose neutrals are real tricky too, especially in a panel where everything looks seated but the connection is just barely hanging on. I always start by mapping the circuit with a toner or flipping breakers one by one with a helper on the other end, just to be sure. Your mileage may vary, but I've been burned enough that I don't trust the visual check alone anymore.