NEED HELP Any Electricians around???

FishieBusiness

Well-Known Member
BRS Member
I'm doing laundry and my son comes to me and says that the tank stopped again. With the AC on it has tripped the breaker several times. Unfortunately everything is on the same circuit.(TV, Tank, AC) So when my AC was on Energy saver mode it kept tripping when it would kick on. Too much in-rush current for the breaker. Fixed that by not using that mode anymore.

Bringing us to today. Everything stopped again. When to the panel and the breaker was not tripped. I reset the breaker anyway. NOTHING...Reset the breaker again.....NOTHING.....reset again and to my disappointment NOTHING. So after running extension cords all over my house I have everything back up and running.

I have exhausted my skills and need Professional help.(in more ways than one)

I live in Middleboro if you know anyone please let me know.
 
Sounds like your breaker is toast. Sorry I’m not able to come out to your house but I would be glad to walk you through some troubleshooting steps before you call an Electrician to come out. #978 380 8493
 
i’m in electrician my first thought would be to check to make sure the breaker did not die. Another thing could be this is a downstream outlet fed off of a GFI receptacle. Check all GFI‘s house to make sure none of them are trimmed.Worst thing I could be is a catastrophic failure is fed through a device in the connections internally have failed. It’s always a tough one to diagnose with multiple areas and stuff is fed off of one circuit. Hopefully it’s just a tripped GFI somewhere
 
Do you know your (total) load on the circuit ? The wire size and the breaker capacity ? Many in-rush current would degrade the breaker. Anyway, the circuit (breaker & wire size) should account for/handle the in-rush current.
 
As the prognosticator I am bought a new breakr and have not installed it yet. Panel is squareD so have new 15amp breaker.

Is there a way to check the breaker to see if it has truly failed?
i’m in electrician my first thought would be to check to make sure the breaker did not die. Another thing could be this is a downstream outlet fed off of a GFI receptacle. Check all GFI‘s house to make sure none of them are trimmed.Worst thing I could be is a catastrophic failure is fed through a device in the connections internally have failed. It’s always a tough one to diagnose with multiple areas and stuff is fed off of one circuit. Hopefully it’s just a tripped GFI somewhere
Do you know your (total) load on the circuit ? The wire size and the breaker capacity ? Many in-rush current would degrade the breaker. Anyway, the circuit (breaker & wire size) should account for/handle the in-rush current.


House was built in the early 1800s no gfi on this circuit. only gfis are the 3 I installed after moving in. Did both baths and the kitchen

Is there a way to check the breaker to see if it has truly failed?
 

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Yes, remove the breaker from the panel. Use a digital multimeter meter to measure the resistance between the panel contact terminal with the terminal by flipping the on/off.
 
Whenever I am working with my breaker box, I like to have one of my children stand nearby with a 2X4 - just in case something goes wrong - they can knock me away from the zappy zapper without risk to themselves. That 220 tends to have a bit of kick.

In answer to your question... check to make sure the ground and black wires aren't touching, sometimes you REALLY have to press the get the button to reset.
To test set your voltmeter set on AC volts on the highest option, touch the black lead from the tester to the silver screw on the GFI breaker and touch the red lead from the tester to the brass screw on the GFI breaker. it should read 110 volts. If you see that but it doesn't trip.... the breaker is bad

I am not an electrician, but I play one on TV, no - not really but - I have had this problem in the past, and I do lots of electrical work and LOVE YouTube
 
Whenever I am working with my breaker box, I like to have one of my children stand nearby with a 2X4 - just in case something goes wrong - they can knock me away from the zappy zapper without risk to themselves. That 220 tends to have a bit of kick.

In answer to your question... check to make sure the ground and black wires aren't touching, sometimes you REALLY have to press the get the button to reset.
To test set your voltmeter set on AC volts on the highest option, touch the black lead from the tester to the silver screw on the GFI breaker and touch the red lead from the tester to the brass screw on the GFI breaker. it should read 110 volts. If you see that but it doesn't trip.... the breaker is bad

I am not an electrician, but I play one on TV, no - not really but - I have had this problem in the past, and I do lots of electrical work and LOVE YouTube
I like the image if your kid beating you with a two-by-four while you're doing electrical work. Hopefully they' don't jump early when you say "oh crap " as you drop a screw.
 
Update Got a multi meter and started checking things. Started checking junction boxes. I found that 1 Black wire had come loss for the wire nut holding it. This is why we always wrap with electrical tape.

Back up and running. I'm sure I was not the only 1 that didn't like 3 extension cords running threw out the house. LOL
 
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