Home electrial question....

[bassman]

I overloaded a circuit line in the house last night.  GFI tripped and won't reset which usually means no power coming or going through it.  Replaced GFI with a new one just in case with no change.  Was able to trace a "dead" line with my superduper 29 cent circuit tester back to the main fuse box.  No circuit breakers are "tripped".  Is it possible to have a faulty circuit breaker that didn't trip as designed / suppose to or do I need to be looking for something else?  I'm assuming (uh-oh!) that replacing a circuit breaker is a simple plug and play operation?  Do I need to shut off all power to the circuit board before swapping out the breaker?  Replaced MANY glass type fuses in the old days but never a breaker and never heard of one going bad - not to say that they can't go bad.  Anything else I should / could be looking at???

TIA !! 

[Dubsvalk]

Check the power at the breaker with your tester.  If there is no current past the breaker, it is bad.
Bernie

[Garfield]

I'm not an expert, but have replaced a few circuit breakers that have gone bad in my motels. I have seen them where they did not trip but were bad. I myself would turn off power when replaceing The circuit breakers. Just to be safe. Good luck

[laserpat]

Check the power at the breaker with your tester.  If there is no current past the breaker, it is bad.
Bernie

plus1. The home run may go to another outlet in the circuit then to the gfi. Some outlets are "back stabbed" which is not the best connection if the breaker is good check connections on other outlets in the circuit.

[Big Rig]

It only takes a couple minutes to reset the clocks...

Shut the mains down before playing in the box....

I have seen some guys get zapped and I will tell you...not fun to watch and way worse if you are getting zapped.

[Fuzzy (Louisiana)]

Be careful.  I am not an electrician, but I have done some work on my own place.  Test the breaker on the side of the breaker away from the bus.  Put one line to the breaker and the other one to the common ground.  Usually the grounds are the bare copper ones.  If the meter reads, it is hot.  If the meter does not read it may be bad.  <<< if the breaker is not tripped.  To replace the breaker, turn off the main (usually at the top of the panel).  Now on the GFI.  I have replaced several that were bad from the package.  Just could not get them to work.  So, you might have a bad one.  If you think it is good, and it still trips, then domething downstream (or further down the line ) is shorted out.  If you are not sure of any of this, get an electrician.

Fuzzy
Mark

[Bobbo]

It is rare for a GFI outlet or circuit breaker to go bad.  A GFI doesn’t protect against overloads from something plugged into it, but rather prevents electrocution from current flowing from hot to ground, instead of neutral.  If the Reset button won’t stay in, I would check other outlets in that circuit for ground faults.  Quite often, any power outlet near a water source will be on a GFI protected circuit.  First, unplug any devices in that circuit and try again to reset.  If you still can’t reset it, it will be time to call a qualified electrician to check the wiring and GFI outlets.

[Jabba]

What all is on this circuit?

a refrigerator or freezer perhaps?

Jabba

[Hef]

My guess is that you have a direct short somewhere in the line that the breakers is powering.

[bassman]

Jabba...nothing large on the circuit on a regular basis....blew it last night while a space heater and iron were plugged in and turned on at the same time - never tried this combo before and obviously won't be trying it again !

[bassman]

Up and running again !!  MY ERROR !!!  I didn't fully understand the operation of a circuit breaker......when "tripped"  I thought the lever would move from the on position to the middle somewhere to indicate it had been tripped......mine barely moved from the "on" position and I thought it was working correctly.....I didn't know that the breaker had to be turned completely off to reset it and then turned back on......anyway, after futzin around a bit I figured it out and saved myself a service call.

Thanks for all the great advise - appreciated guys !

[Daniel Meyer]

If it's at the breakers try shutting them off (firmly to "off", as in, push it there) and reset. Many, when tripped, don't flip noticably sometimes.

If that doesn't do it, check the voltage at each breaker (wire side), if all read good, it's further down the line, as mentioned above, probably at a plug/outlet at or upstream of where you had heavy stuff plugged in.

Breakers are easy to replace and cheap, unless it's a stab-lok brand...can't buy them anymore and you have to replace the entire box...not for the amateur.


edit: Ah, I see you got it while I was posting. Kewl!

[Jabba]

I asked about refrigeration not because of the excessive load, but rather because they have a propensity to trip GFCI's.  There is actually an exception written into the residential code that allows for one receptacle in the garage that is NOT GFCI protected in order to allow for a garage fridge or freezer.

Glad you figured it out.

Jabba

[alph]

I’ve read all the posts and there are some good advices.  Breakers do not last forever.  They have a bimetal "spring" like clip that bends when it heats up, pulling the contact open when it reaches a threshold temp.  The metal heats up when too much amperage is pulled through it.  Now, think of it, what happens when you heat up metal, and then cool it over and over and over again?  It gets weaker and fatigued.  So, if you regularly fatigue a metal, what does that do?  Makes it weaker and will allow it to not work properly.  

In the old days, we had fuses.  When it blows, it's over with!!  Replacement time.  Now I’m not saying breakers are bad, I’m just saying they do go bad if tripped repeatedly.  If you have a circuit that trips a lot, you’re going to want to find out “why?”  what drew so much current that it tripped.  If you know that it was because you over loaded it, well, you don’t do that in the future.  

Now, the fix.  First and most importantly, if you have a 15 amp breaker, DO NOT CHANGE IT TO A 20 AMP!!  If you want to put in a 20 amp breaker, you will have to rewire your house, or at least that one circuit.  The electrician that put in the 15 amp knew that the wire was rated for 15 amp MAX!  usually a 15 amp circuit will have 14 gauge wire.  You can not run 20 amps over a 14 gauge wire.  The breaker is to protect your wire from melting off the insulation, somewhere in the middle of your wall, heating up the wood that it’s nailed too, causing it to start a fire!!  With that being said lets make sure the breaker is working.  If you feel safe enough to do it, meter the voltage at the wire side of the breaker in question.  If you have nothing, switch the breaker off, then on to reset it.  Do you have 120v?  Make sure your meter is set for AC, if you have a circuit tester light, that’ll work also, but won’t tell you how much voltage you have.  You have voltage? Good.  Now, go to the “line” side of the GFI, meter it again.  Do you have 120 volts?  If so, good.  go to the “load” side of the GFI, anything?  If not, bad GFI, if so, you’re good.  If the GFI will not reset, turn off the breaker in the main panel, unwire the “load” side of GFI and cap the wires.  Turn on breaker, does GFI reset?  If it doesn’t there’s a short somewhere on your load side, make sure there is no voltage on the load side wires by metering for voltage.  Meter the resistance between the black and white wire that were wired to the load terminals (remember they should not be wired to anything at this point.)   If you have a good meter like a Fluke 93 or so, you won’t have to worry about frying it.  Those cheap radio shack things will cook if you don’t switch ‘em to the right setting.

Chances are, you’ve got a bad circuit breaker in the control panel, or your GFI is crap.  Neither is that hard to replace.  Just be careful, and treat every wire as though it is “hot” (live with voltage) unless you know it to be dead.  

If you need more help, give me a email message, and I’ll call.

Al.