Anyone know about breakers/electrical stuff?

[Natterjak]

Well, the good thing is that the electrician left us a spare breaker - the bad thing is that I don't know how to replace it.

I'm going to have to wait I guess until I can be home during the day to check the receptacle and everything, which unfortunately won't be until the weekend.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Breaker replacement is pretty straightforward.

If you kill the power to the panel and open it up, you pretty much can see how it swaps in.

Don't mess with anything unless you test with a voltmeter and know that the power is off in the panel though. And if you're the least bit unsure, better to have an experienced person do the work.

 

[Qwiv]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9344395#post9344395 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Natterjak
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.

Well that is your problem.... just don't touch it. Why are you touching it after it is on anyways? I can't tell from your description if it is the breaker or not. When you flip it on, if should sound and feel just like your other breakers. Maybe compare the 2. Then don't touch it. It should trip and make a pop/snap kinda sound by. That would be normal opperation to me. If it is not behaving this way, take the steps to change the breaker. I would suggest an electrician for that, but if your brave, I can give you a few pointers.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/fr....com/archives/elect/panel/breaker/install.htm
Let us know if that is what your breakers look like. Those are the most common, but they don't have to look like these.

 

[Natterjak]

Hehe, sorry, I should have mentioned that even if I don't touch it, I'm not getting power. It's definitely not behaving like my other breakers, because those don't simply pop out of the ON position, you have to actually apply some force to flip them. The one time I was able to get it firmly in the ON position was when I had power for a few minutes before it went out again.

I'll try to compare the sound to one of my other breakers tonight.

Here's a picture that's close to what it looks like (I'll take a picture of the spare tonight too):

 

[mobert]

that's a good article that Qwiv posted. Read it several times if you are going to attempt this. Also, you can take your spare breaker to the hardware store and ask the helpful hardware man to show you how to install it. Hopefully there will be new empty panels there for you to practice on. Some of the push in breakers take a bit of muscle to pull out and push in. It has to be well seated for good contact. Be very careful when you take the cover off that the metal cover doesn't touch any live wires that may be feeding the panel. Wouldn't hurt to wear safety glasses either.

If you are unsure if it is the breaker, you can switch the wire from the suspect breaker with a known good breakers. Just make sure they are the same amperage (number is on the breaker, ie 20 or 15.

 

[dswong01]

looks like standard cutler hammer/bryant dual breaker should be easy to change.