Appreciation post: the new helper asked why I always test the panel before mounting it
I've been mounting panels first and testing after for about 4 years now, just the way I picked it up from an old lead tech. Had a 20 year old helper with me on a Tuesday residential job in Tulsa and he asked me why I don't just bench test first, and I honestly didn't have a good answer. He pointed out that if a board is bad out of the box, I'm eating 20 minutes of mount and unmount instead of 3 minutes on the bench. Next job I tried it his way and sure enough, one of the 2 panels had a dead zone output right out of the box. Saved me a callback and a trip back across town. I've been doing it backwards this entire time because nobody ever asked me the question before. How do you guys handle bench testing on new panels, do you always do it or only when something feels off?