Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapphireho
Hey @ soundman98, need advice. I woke up this morning to my coffee maker with no power. The 20amp gcfi breaker tripped. It has the two outlets next to the sink on the circuit. There has been no change, and the coffee pot has been plugged in there for years, and worked fine in another outlet. Breaker wouldn't stay on, nothing plugged in. I pressed the test button on the breaker about 50 times, and now it is staying on. Goes off with test button now. Do I have a breaker that is wearing out? I have an outlet tester, but doesn't have the gcfi test button. I think I'll head to HD and get one. Should I just get a new breaker while there? |
breakers really don't go bad as often as people are suspicious of them
that's going to be a $60 wasted, imo.
the test button only works if the breaker is staying on. a breaker immediately tripping usually indicates an issue with the circuit. you should have been feeling a detent when moving the lever from tripped, to off, and then there was another detent and immediate audible/tactile click when moving the handle to the on position that snaps it to the tripped position. a faulty breaker generally feels like sand in the mechanism, or won't have the audible click, or lack the detents in the handle travel.
easiest way to check the breaker when it's tripping like that is to disconnect the wires. without the wires connected, it should reset and stay on.
i'm suspicious of the romex wiring going from the breaker to the outlets--very possible that there's a cut in the neutral wire insulation, and if you've had a lot of humid/wet conditions lately (as is typical for spring), the paper separator can saturate enough to cause the neutral to 'short' to ground, which would trip a gfci (it's actually how the gfci testers work). could also be a loose splice causing a higher than-normal resistance on some of the wires as well--might be worth checking the connections behind the outlets.