Anyone know about breakers/electrical stuff?

Natterjak

Natterjak

New member
I was wondering if anyone here has experience with electrical stuff? A few months ago, we had two dedicated 20 amp circuits installed in the house for our 180g - these had to be put in as split breakers, as our breaker box was full. Anyways, last month, one of the breakers tripped, and I was able to reset it. This weekend, the same breaker tripped again, and it wouldn't reset. I unplugged all the equipment except for the American DJ strip I had plugged in there, but it still wouldn't reset. It goes to the "on" position, but feels very loose - just touching it a little causes it to flip back to the middle position.

My husband's having trouble digging up the contact info on the electrician we used, so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? Reading up on it, it sounds like we may have a loose connection somewhere, but I don't know anything about working with breakers.
 
Yeah, I tried that, that's how I reset it before....but this time it just won't stay in the ON position.

I'm sure it's probably a matter of pulling out the breaker to check the connections on it, but I have no idea how hard/dangerous that is to do.
 
My guess would be that a wire nut has come loose somewhere and the line is tripping out. If you know what you are doing, check all the connectors. This can happen over time with a not so PRO job. If you can't find a loose connector, it is some other short. You need to find the guy who did the work. If you can't, shoot me a PM, I know a guy that does good work, very cheap who can help you out.
 
Yeah, we just found this guy through the yellow pages, and one of the numbers my husband had was disconnected, which is sort of an ominous sign. He's going to see if he can dig up the invoice tonight and see if there's another number somewhere.

To check the connectors - I can check that by removing the panel cover on the breaker panel, right?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9340976#post9340976 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Qwiv
My guess would be that a wire nut has come loose somewhere and the line is tripping out. If you know what you are doing, check all the connectors. This can happen over time with a not so PRO job. If you can't find a loose connector, it is some other short. You need to find the guy who did the work. If you can't, shoot me a PM, I know a guy that does good work, very cheap who can help you out.
Click to expand...

Wire nut? There shouldn't be any on a professional breaker install. The breaker should have screw and "push" terminals. These should be secure. The receptale has the same terminals. Between that, there should be a single continous piece of Romexline.

Try unplugging the DJ switch also. These do fail occassionally. If tht's not it, check the receptacle and the breaker connections. (You may have to shutoff the entire breaker box to do that). If it isn't any of that, you may have a short caused by fastner (staple) used to secure the Romex line.
 
Could also be a bad dual circuit breaker or try plugging all the outlets on the breaker that tripping onto another circuit to isolate to see if its the equipment or the cicuit breaker circuit.
 
Okay, I'll unplug the DJ switch tonight and see what happens - if that doesn't do it, then I guess the next step would be to see if any of the connections are loose.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9341336#post9341336 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tacocat
Wire nut? There shouldn't be any on a professional breaker install. The breaker should have screw and "push" terminals. These should be secure. The receptale has the same terminals. Between that, there should be a single continous piece of Romexline.

Try unplugging the DJ switch also. These do fail occassionally. If tht's not it, check the receptacle and the breaker connections. (You may have to shutoff the entire breaker box to do that). If it isn't any of that, you may have a short caused by fastner (staple) used to secure the Romex line.
Click to expand...

Then how does a pro pigtail? I see them do this all the time.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9341885#post9341885 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
Then how does a pro pigtail? I see them do this all the time.
Click to expand...

Ugh yuck.

Pigtail from what?
 
You never run from outlet ot outlet in a daisy chain. You pigtail out off the main for each outlet. If you daisy chain, the first outlet on the circuit carries the entire load.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9341336#post9341336 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tacocat
Wire nut? There shouldn't be any on a professional breaker install. The breaker should have screw and "push" terminals. These should be secure. The receptale has the same terminals. Between that, there should be a single continous piece of Romexline.

Try unplugging the DJ switch also. These do fail occassionally. If tht's not it, check the receptacle and the breaker connections. (You may have to shutoff the entire breaker box to do that). If it isn't any of that, you may have a short caused by fastner (staple) used to secure the Romex line.
Click to expand...

Last time I checked, when I ran (2) new circuits in my house (which was last weekend) I had to use some wire nuts at the recepticals or anywhere else I made a splice, connection. You are assuming the circuit is pulled as one piece of wire into one recepticel and that they are using romex. Natter did not state any of this. Telling someone to check the connection on the breaker, who doesn't know much about wiring, is very pour advise.

Natter, I would recomend first unlpugging the DJ center, then testing the breaker again. If the breaker is 'popping' you have a short. If the breaker just won't engage, the breaker is probably bad. If it is a short, keep the breaker in the off possition and looking for loose connections on the new circuit. Pull the recepticles out and see if any of the wire connections are loose (make sure no power is on). Also check any junction boxes they might have used if you know what/where they are. Don't go around any hot wires unless you know what you are doing. If you find a loose connction (normally a wire nut), fix it. If not it is something you should call an electrician/handyman as the problem needs to be fixed by someone that knows what they are doing and what to look for. Don't touch anything in the panel besides the reset switch on the breaker.
 
I wasn't around when he did the installation, so I don't really know specifically what he did. Each circuit we have feeds a single quad outlet - one of them has a non-GFCI outlet pair, and the other pair is GFCI (this is the one with the problem), and the other circuit is completely GFCI. At the time of the problem, I was only using the non-GFCI outlet.

The way he ran the wires was through a conduit from the breaker box, outside the house, to the fish room. There's a little box on the outside of the house where the wires all enter the house.

What's the difference between popping and engaging? I can switch it to the ON position, where it will stay - at one point I was able to briefly get power, before it popped back to the middle position, but at other times, even when I had it in the ON position I didn't get power - at those points, lightly touching the switch would cause it to move back to the middle position.

I'm thinking if it's not the DJ panel, I am going to have to get an electrician to look at it, since I don't know anything about this stuff. I'm pretty handy, but electricity scares me. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9342418#post9342418 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Qwiv
Last time I checked, when I ran (2) new circuits in my house (which was last weekend) I had to use some wire nuts at the recepticals or anywhere else I made a splice, connection. You are assuming the circuit is pulled as one piece of wire into one recepticel and that they are using romex. Natter did not state any of this. Telling someone to check the connection on the breaker, who doesn't know much about wiring, is very pour advise.
Click to expand...

You're right, that's poor advise. I should have stated visual inspection. Any deeper than that, it's professional time.
 
Yeah, could be bad breaker. Is is a normal breaker or Ground Fault? If it is not a GF breaker might want to consider getting one or converting your tank outlets to GF outlets...

Folks pull outlets and breakers 'hot' all the time, but I'd shutdown the home-owner side of your panel if you are doing it. If you do it yourself just be very careful and watch where your hands are especially if you are holding anything metal.

Scott
 
That is exactally how I did mine. You should be able to do a fair amount or research on this and might be able to find the problem, since everything is on the outside of the house. I am assuming you used PVC conduit on the exterior as it is cheaper and looks nicer. That means you most likely don't have a wire short anywhere in the line. That is a good thing. They should not have used Romex as you are not suppose to put that in a conduit unless you remove the outter layer of sheathing. They could have used Romex for the connection inside the wall, but not in the conduit. Let us know if you see anything different.

First, check that breaker with no DJ center plugger in. When you turn it to the on possition, it should make a noise. Depending on the manufacturer, it is kinda a thud like sound. It should make the same type of sound/feel when you swtich it to off or on. Some are a lot smooter then others, so this will very. When it trips, it should sound more like a click/pop sound. When you reset the breaker, there should be a lag before it trips the first few times, but after a while, it should not even engage. This can be normal as most breakers work on heat, and the breaker is hot an needs to cool. That is why there is typically a short delay the first attempt and none on future attempts. If this is how the breaker is acting, I would rule out the breaker being the problem for the moment.

If the breaker still trips without the DJ strip, then turn everything off and go through all the connections one by one and check them. All connections should be accessible by code so you should be able to unscrew cover plates and look inside. You might need to remove things like recepticles to get to the wiring, just make sure you can put everything back correctly. Lables can help. Check connectors, look for bare wires that are not ground, look for any signs of a spark or melting, anything else weird. For safety, only put one hand near wires so if you do get shocked, it only goes through your hand, not your heart. Look up some DIY electrical web sites to familiarize yourself with all the parts and their functions. Looking at a few picture of what something is suppose to look like will make seeing a error easier. Let us know if you find anything.
 
The conduit is metal, as far as I know - I don't know about the Romex thing though.

I unplugged the DJ center, so that nothing was plugged into that outlet. Tried to reset the breaker (I haven't touched it since yesterday), but no luck. It went to the ON position, but when I touched it, it popped right back to the middle.

Found the work order (company was Power Plus Electic in Oakley) and tried to call the number, but got what sounded like some lady's personal voice mail. It was very weird.

Just to make sure I'm resetting the breaker correctly - I push the switch all the way to OFF, then back to ON, is that right?
 
it could be something as simple as a bad breaker. they do go bad, as do all things electro mechanical. since you say that it goes on but then pops OFF when you touch it i would be very suspect of the breaker itself. i have had breakers go bad before. i assume you are using a magnetic breaker (most common) which do have a tendency to go bad and do exactly what you are describing, but w/ out being able to actually see it myself i can not say for sure what it is.
 
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