Circuit Breaker Question

KnotRight

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I had a few electrical plugs go out around the house and looked at all the breakers. They were all in the "ON" position. Then I switched one at a time off and then back on and the plugs never came back on.

How can you tell which breaker is bad?
 
Do you have any GFCI outlets in the area? Check to make sure it isnā€™t tripped. I have one outlet in our bedroom that is fed from the GFCI in our bathroom. Took awhile to figure that one out.
 
There should be a diagram on the panel door telling you which number protects what.

If missing or wrong, check for voltage on the protected side or ohms across the breaker with a meter, you'll have to remove the front cover this will expose live components and you could end up shocked. Also breakers aren't universal, panels are designed for certain makes.

ETA definitely check for tripped GFCIs first.
 
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Plugs are the outlets. I have 2 breakers that have text buttons on them and when I push them the breaker goes off. I looked at the outlets and there are no ground fault resets which I am surprised since two 0f the outlets are outside. The outlets have the weatherproof covers. I might have to remove the covers but one of the outlets is in the garage. That is making me think the problem is in the circuit panel.
 
either a break in the line or the wire at the outlets or the outlets themselves have opened up. I had a couple of outlets go bad a little copper pad burned up in them. I am guessing it was some kind of circuit protection.
 
Plugs are the outlets. I have 2 breakers that have text buttons on them and when I push them the breaker goes off. I looked at the outlets and there are no ground fault resets which I am surprised since two 0f the outlets are outside. The outlets have the weatherproof covers. I might have to remove the covers but one of the outlets is in the garage. That is making me think the problem is in the circuit panel.


These sound like gfci breakers and reason you probably do not have a gfi outlet in line. Usually you flip the toggle off and back on to reset them after the test button has been pushed or it has tripped. There might be a reset button like a gfi outlet but most I have seen are done with the toggle. If it will not reset either a ground fault issue or breaker might be bad.
 
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I'm not saying this is your problem but breakers do fail. If you're going to swap out a breaker, be 1000% sure you've killed the power where it enters (usually outside so the FD can reach it) and BEFORE the breaker box. You'll need an exact replacement. If you're lucky, it's a Home Depot item. If you're not, it's a trip to your local electric supply house.

I went thru this a couple weeks ago and got lucky.
 
Did you check all the outlets in the garage or close by for gfic? It only takes one to shut down all the outlets downstream.


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Chefjason, the 2 outlets are my front porch and one inside my garage. The rest of the outlets in the garage work. The outlets do not have resets on them that I can find. If they did would they be wired in series? The GFIC that are in the bathrooms is controlled by the reset on the circuit breaker in the panel.

If the GFIC reset on the plugs do it control more than one outlet?
 
grnratac
There should be a diagram on the panel door telling you which number protects what.

I labeled 80% of the breakers but there was about 4 of them that might power outside lights and outlets. When I installed the generator we had to figure out what circuits need powder to.
 
Chefjason, the 2 outlets are my front porch and one inside my garage. The rest of the outlets in the garage work. The outlets do not have resets on them that I can find. If they did would they be wired in series? The GFIC that are in the bathrooms is controlled by the reset on the circuit breaker in the panel.

If the GFIC reset on the plugs do it control more than one outlet?


Here is a pretty good link explaining them and the breaker that sounds like you have instead of a gfci outlet.

https://www.thespruce.com/install-gfci-receptable-vs-breaker-1152797
 
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If the GFIC reset on the plugs do it control more than one outlet?

If they are downstream from a gfic then they can shut off when it trips. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to how they wire a house. Start checking outlets in the vacinity even if in another room.

I had a random one in the garage that would shut off the freezer on the other side. Finally replaced it. And you would think the bathroom breaker would control everything. But my outlets are on a single breaker. My bathroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen lights are on another.




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Assuming you have two identical GFCI breakers, AND FEEL 1000% CONFIDENT YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, you could swap them to see if one of them is bad (i.e., the dead outlets would begin working and those that were working wouldn't).
 
Code requires that all outlets in a potentially wet location (outdoors, garage, etc) have GFCI protection. Due to the expense, typically they are wired in series so that one GFCI outlet / breaker protects everything downstream.

If you have receptacles with ā€œbuttonsā€ on them, most likely they are GFCI and you will need to reset them if they trip or everything wired through them will be dead.
 
If you're going to swap out a breaker, be 1000% sure you've killed the power where it enters (usually outside so the FD can reach it) and BEFORE the breaker box.
Ive been seeing this more and more, service entrance switches outside, and I don't agree with it. It's FAR more likely some never-do-well sort will use this to kill the power than the FD.
 
Ive been seeing this more and more, service entrance switches outside, and I don't agree with it. It's FAR more likely some never-do-well sort will use this to kill the power than the FD.

Well, in most cases the reality is that if there isn't a disconnect, anyone can simply pull the meter to cut off your power.
 
You were right! I have been in my garage for the past few days reloading and all the lights were working. My water softener is also in the garage that stopped working. Still thinking that I had a bad breaker. Decided to watch a little TV in the garage and it did not come on and the cable box was not lite up. Went back to the breaker panel and reset the garage breaker. The TV did not come on so I looked at the outlook the TV was plugged into. It is a ground fault outlet. Pushed the reset button and hear the water softener come on and the cable box lite up.
 
One of my customers had same problem, movers stacked boxes and he did not see the GFCI outlet in the garage of his new home.
 
You were right! I have been in my garage for the past few days reloading and all the lights were working. My water softener is also in the garage that stopped working. Still thinking that I had a bad breaker. Decided to watch a little TV in the garage and it did not come on and the cable box was not lite up. Went back to the breaker panel and reset the garage breaker. The TV did not come on so I looked at the outlook the TV was plugged into. It is a ground fault outlet. Pushed the reset button and hear the water softener come on and the cable box lite up.
Glad you got it sorted !
 
If you have outlets with no power and no breakers have popped:

Check for GFCI outlets which may be in the circuit. If you have a GFCI wired up with receptacles down stream of it, they may not have any power if the GFCI has tripped. If resetting the GFCI doesn't help, take the cover off, ease the GFCI out and check for incoming power at the wire terminals. If you have power coming into the GFCI but it doesn't work, replace the GFCI. (Oh...and make sure you wire the new one up correctly per the paperwork that comes with the new GFCI. Don't assume the existing one is wired correctly.)

Make sure you have no light switches powering those receptacles. If you do, flip them and see if you get power back.

You may have a loose lead at an upstream receptacle (closer to the breaker). If so, then none of the receptacles down stream will have any power. Check them all in the circuit...loose connections are a fire hazard.

Your receptacles may be bad. It happens.

You may have a bad breaker.
 
Ground fault receptacles and arc proof breakers make life miserable. Codes have gone way overboard for insurance companies to limit their payouts.
 
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