Flukes

When I bought the breaker I immediately noticed the word "Fluke" written in red and black bold letters on it's side. I turned to Dad saying, "How can we trust a breaker with a name like that?"

A Fluke?

Laughing to ourselves we bought the breaker from the local Chinese hardware store in downtown Tha Thom. Dad and I were in the process of wiring our bathroom to accommodate our secondhand washer and spinner and preparing for a small on-demand water heater. During Mom and Dad Visness' recent visit Dad tackled many projects around our home and garden. We were all excited for the new convenience of a semi automatic washer to help curb the endless production of dirty diapers. The water heater would also be a welcomed step-up from the frigid mountain river water piped around the village in the newly finished gravity fed water system.

We quickly set up the washer and were cleaning diapers like a well greased machine. The hot water would have to wait until we found a good quality heater in Vientiane. When we travel into Vientiane to bid farewell to Mom and Dad, a water heater was purchased. I set it up and had visions of nice steamy showers..but no sooner did I turn on the unit than the 30amp breaker tripped! The heater could not run at more than half power without tripping the breaker. I did the math and even sent it to Dad to have him check. There was no way our water heater could be drawing more than 20amps.

Dad recommended pulling the breaker and trying a different one. I grabbed another breaker from the guest room and connected it to the circuit. Low and behold the breaker held even at full power. The strange thing that I still can't wrap my mind around is that the new breaker should trip at 15amps! I laughed again when I saw the name on the old breaker...breakers in Tha Thom truly are flukes!