Advantages and disadvantages of fuse

Fuses are the components used as the protecting elements of current flowing circuits, mainly based on overcurrent protection.

The fuses are metal wires, which melt when too much current flows through them, the fuse elements are been always connected in series with the components.

Different types of fuses are available for different applications, in this article we list the general advantages and disadvantages of fuses.

Advantages of fuse

• It is the cheapest protection element for an electrical circuit.
• They had no maintenance
• There is no complexity involved in the operation of fuses.
• They had the ability to interrupt a short circuit without any noise, flames, or gas.
• They had current limiting capability under short circuit conditions.
• They had the ability to use overload protection.
• We can easily change the fuse element.
• The operation is completely automatic.
• The operation time of fuses is less.
• We can easily replace the fuses without any damage.
• We can use fuse for detection and interruption of fault at our circuit.
• We can find different types of fuses at a small cost.

Explanations for advantages of fuse

Cheapest protection element

The fuses are the cheapest protection element for electrical and electronic circuits, this is because of the material used as the fuses.

No maintenance

The fuses need no maintenance at the working, this is because it is a static element that just blows off when high current flows through it.

Ability to interrupt at short circuit condition

The operation of fuses at the circuit just blocks the high current flow, which is called the short circuit condition.

But the interruption of fuses at a circuit does not involve any condition like noises, flames, or gas.

Easily detect fault at the circuit

The fuses help us to detect faults in our circuit, most electronic and electrical circuit fuses are used to find faults.

Disadvantages of fuse

• It is not suitable for overload that fuses blow off replacing of fuse taken time, during this period power will be lost.
• Protection of fuse is not reliable.
• The fuses are slower compared to circuit breakers.
• They had no protection against under-voltage.
• The fuse element is never exposed to air because it may be oxidized and the resistance of the material will be affected due to this.
• There is the possibility to replace the fuse element with the wrong size.
• Fuse are been react to higher current, but damages are also caused by high voltage variations.

Explanation for the disadvantage of fuse

Fuses are slower compared to circuit breakers

The circuit breakers are the fastest compared to fuses, and the circuit breaker systems provide different protection functions on circuits.

Resistance of material affected by air

When the fuse element exposes to air, oxidization happened in the material and the resistance of the material will vary.