- The only place where I've seen this done in a production device was on a Newport panel meter. It was a 10 ohm 1/10 watt carbon composition resistor. Never saw one blow, but from the aftereffects, it was pretty violent. Apparently, it worked. I've never done it myself, since I've never blown more than one or two fuses in all the things I've built, and at a buck or two each, it was no big deal. In this vein, I'd like to add that from painful experience I distrust polyswitches and all their relatives. They're slow, have a limited life, can fail destructively or in an irritating half-on manner, and have a narrow range of application. It's an interesting idea, but they are by no means to be considered a general replacement for fuses. This was one of those all too rare instances where I was able to learn from others' mistakes, rather than my own.