# Random tripping breaker



## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Divide and conquer. Stuff like this is often a bunch of time to find and 5 minutes to fix.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

The challenge is you can't catch it when it happens without camping out there for a week and you don't know where in the circuit it's happening. 

A real good trick for this from @just the cowboy - 
https://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/tripping-breaker-220297/#post4231913 

You put an inline fuse on the circuit. Put it at the panel and you can guess from the condition of the fuse whether the problem is short or overload. 

You could even put it downstream in the circuit, if the breaker trips the problem is on the part of the circuit on the line side of the fuse, if the fuse blows it's on the load side and again you can look at the condition of the blown fuse. 

Yes unlike in an industrial setting, in a house you'll have to get a little creative to figure out a safe code compliant neat and tidy way to set this and leave it, but it's doable, and preferable to all parties to you camping out there for a week.


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## gpop (May 14, 2018)

Do you have any gfci pig tails or can you make some. Then you can bypass the original gfci and add gcfi on whats plugged in for a test.


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## gnuuser (Jan 13, 2013)

Azimuth said:


> End of the day service call. Customer says breaker trips randomly and would sometimes hold for days, other times would trip within minutes of resetting.
> 
> 
> Home built in early 2000's. Circuit consists of the garage (GFCI, door opener, and garage lighting) and 4 outdoor recepts. Through a game of 20 Q's, the homeowner admitted that he had a problem with the circuit before due to a tripping GFCI problem and he hired a handyman who fixed the issue. Looking in the box I discovered the "fix" was to tie line/loads together and pigtail the garage GFCI.
> ...


check the junction boxes before the fluorescent light for a loose or shorted neutral!
found this once in an old kitchen fluorescent light didnt work and incandescent light in the same circuit (upstream) kept burning out 
it would trip the breaker on a warm day more often.
another item is the breakers themselves the more often they trip will cause them to die sooner.


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## Azimuth (Aug 2, 2015)

splatz said:


> You put an inline fuse on the circuit. Put it at the panel and you can guess from the condition of the fuse whether the problem is short or overload.
> 
> You could even put it downstream in the circuit, if the breaker trips the problem is on the part of the circuit on the line side of the fuse, if the fuse blows it's on the load side and again you can look at the condition of the blown fuse.



This is actually pretty clever.. thanks!! will have to stow that away somewhere in this noggin.


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## LloydH (Sep 9, 2017)

A ballast going bad can heat up, causing more of an amp draw. Try turning on the light and seeing if the ballast gets hot after 15-20 minutes. Also, as gnuuser said, I have seen a lot of loose neutral lines cause a big problem.


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## Azimuth (Aug 2, 2015)

gnuuser said:


> check the junction boxes before the fluorescent light for a loose or shorted neutral!
> found this once in an old kitchen fluorescent light didnt work and incandescent light in the same circuit (upstream) kept burning out
> it would trip the breaker on a warm day more often.
> another item is the breakers themselves the more often they trip will cause them to die sooner.



I didn't have much time to trace out the circuit last time, but I believe the breaker feeds the light switch box first then jumps to the GFCI and then it branches out from there. 


I will be back out tomorrow morning to tackle this.


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## Forge Boyz (Nov 7, 2014)

Mice can be a problem too. I had a call because the dishwasher circuit was tripping and it turned out to be chewed wires inside a wall. I had to replace 5 or 6 wires because of the damage.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

It could be that the problem the handyman "fixed" that was tripping the GFCI is now tripping the breaker, I am going to guess intermittent hot to EGC fault.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

With the full load on the circuit breaker did you do a Fall of potential test across the CB?

The first test that should be completed with a tripping CB.

2nd This is a molded case circuit, not exactly an exact device replace it.

if the problem persists pull out the megger and dived and conquer as has been stated above.


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## tceek (Apr 1, 2014)

You mentioned there are outdoor receptacles on the circuit, are they down line from the GFCI? I would start checking the outdoor receptacles, especially if they have flip covers or added in-use covers, water and/or insects getting in them and causing the GFCI / Breaker to trip,


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## CTshockhazard (Aug 28, 2009)

Good advice here and I like that fuse trick as well.


I'd also look to see if it's feeding any underground UF.​


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## Azimuth (Aug 2, 2015)

I got it resolved and posted a lengthy response with pictures but idk what happened to my reply. Will post another reply when i get more time.


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