Any electricians in the house?

[Yeagermeister]

One of my breakers tripped and won't turn back on. I have unplugged everything that would be on that circuit but nada. I haven't plugged anything new in just all of a sudden everything went dead.

 

[Hostile]

Turn it all the way off for about 15 seconds then turn it on. It should reset.

 

[lane]

yes i am..

it could be either of the following:

weak breaker.

a short in your house wiring.

loose connection either at breaker or receptacle.


have you had problems with said circuit in the past?

if you unplugged everything on the circuit and it still trips then the problem is most likely at the breaker itself or a short in your wiring as it is not under load.

it could be a number of things.

how old is your house?

 

[burmafrd]

lane pretty much said it all. Where I live the wiring is substandard to be charitable and weak breakers and such are the norm. IF there has been no trouble in the past with that particular breaker then it is likely its getting old and weak.

 

[lane]

yeager...one other thing

is the circuit protected by a gfci by chance?



they go bad all the time.

 

[EveryoneElse]

yeager...one other thing

is the circuit protected by a gfci by chance?



they go bad all the time.

That is what I was going to say, if he has a gfci on that line, it won't go back on until the gfci is re-set.

 

[Hostile]

Lane has everything covered that I would have asked you after trying to reset it. Some people simply try to turn it back on. It won't. You have to turn it completely off.

 

[lane]

the main thing i want to stress is this...

breakers don't trip just for the hell of it.

there is a reason for it tripping.

if i was there i could help you yeager...unfortunately i'm in texas.


electricity is nothing to play around with.

 

[burmafrd]

Well if the breaker is old and weak it just might decide its worked long enough.....

 

[Viper]

Get a long extension cord and plug it into your neighbors house, problem solved.

 

[Yeagermeister]

By reset do you mean reset the whole house?

I have no idea what gfci is.

The house was built in 88 or 89.

We haven't had problems with this circuit before.

 

[Hoofbite]

By reset do you mean reset the whole house?

I have no idea what gfci is.

gfci is a an outlet with a reset switch in it.

Like that

Required in some parts of the house. Usually bathrooms and kitchens. Probably other places too. Im not an electrician so not sure.

He was asking because if your gfci tripped, it won't matter if you flip the breaker. Gotta reset the outlet by pushing in one of those center buttons.

I've helped on some remodels and have seen a few breakers that just weren't all that great. I remember one where a breaker had somehow loosened itself up and gave us all sorts of trouble for a little bit.

 

[Hostile]

By reset do you mean reset the whole house?

I have no idea what gfci is.

The house was built in 88 or 89.

We haven't had problems with this circuit before.

No, just that breaker. When they trip the switch part is right in the middle. If you try to simply turn it back on, it won't do it. Turn it off. It should click. Let it stay off for a few seconds then turn it on. THat should reset that breaker.

Did you have a plug in heater in any of the outlets? If so, that probably is what tripped it. Those things are notorious for that. They draw so many amps that if you even turn on one other thing on that circuit they will trip.

 

[CF74]

Something like this happened to us recently. We had to take apart one of the switches on the breaker box and remove all the dust. The house I'm renting is so old it has a water well.

 

[Yeagermeister]

No, just that breaker. When they trip the switch part is right in the middle. If you try to simply turn it back on, it won't do it. Turn it off. It should click. Let it stay off for a few seconds then turn it on. THat should reset that breaker.

Did you have a plug in heater in any of the outlets? If so, that probably is what tripped it. Those things are notorious for that. They draw so many amps that if you even turn on one other thing on that circuit they will trip.

Yes I had a heater plugged in to it but it was on all day. It went out about 9:30 last night.

So off is the middle I assume?

 

[Hostile]

Yes I had a heater plugged in to it but it was on all day. It went out about 9:30 last night.

So off is the middle I assume?

No, off is all the way opposite ON. The middle is tripped.

Click it off and let it reset. Then turn it back on. It should be fine.

Plug in heaters trip those all the time.

 

[Yeagermeister]

No, off is all the way opposite ON. The middle is tripped.

Click it off and let it reset. Then turn it back on. It should be fine.

Plug in heaters trip those all the time.

I tried that all day. I got in touch with a guy that has helped us before and he's going to come by tomorrow to look at it. He thinks an outlet shorted out, the first in the series, and may have blown the breaker.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Well my problem is fixed and let's just say I'm very lucky to still have a house.

The breaker had nothing to do with the power outage. The guy that fixed it said he thinks it was caused by the way the wires were attached to the outlet. He thinks they may have been pulled loose by the plugging and unplugging of items in to the outlet.

But what happened it rather interesting. He said the outlets go VERY hot and burned some of the wiring WITHOUT tripping the breaker.

I was darn lucky the house didn't burn down.

The breaker that tripped leads to a shed outside that I only use for storing my lawn mower. So he just disconnected it.

 

[big dog cowboy]

No, off is all the way opposite ON.

Glad you got your problem resolved Yeag.