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thaugen_gw

How to find a defective breaker that won't trip?

thaugen
10 years ago

Yesterday I plugged a small 800 watt heater into an outlet and the overhead lights flickered for an instant and then everything was fine. Today I plugged in the heater and the lights flickered and then went off and the outlet wouldn't work either. No tripped breaker. The outlet is on the other side of a stud next to the bank of four light switches. Four-way switches, no idea what feeds what.

All I have to test with is a continuity tester and an outlet tester to verify outlets are wired correctly. The outlet and the switches still have some current present, but the outlet won�t even light a 15 watt bulb. I am guessing a bad breaker hasn�t fully tripped and is still passing a small amount of current.

Two Square D 200 amp breaker panels, about 25 breakers per panel, they�re double-breakers (2 breakers in one slot). Only a dozen of the breakers are marked as to what they feed. I removed the panel covers and checked only to find current at all breakers. My uneducated guess is that a breaker has gone bad and instead of tripping is letting some current still pass.

Thanks in advance for any experienced advice.

Tom

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