[NA]Circuit breakers

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 23, 2005
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west Texas
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Dave Taylor
I had an unusual breaker experience and wanted to see if anyone had insight.

This is a SquareD ganged 50 breaker on the hangar.

It has been in the on position for a dozen years, with only occasional on-off use.

This week I was doing some work there and turned it off/on/off a few times then pulled it out.

I noticed when it was out of the panel, in my hand, there was no way I could budge the switch from the off position. I was pushing up to the limit of where I thought I might break it. It was not in the tripped position, it was fully off. Pushing it further off did nothing.
I thought it must be broken and was about to look for a replacement.
The next day, it was working perfectly normally! I reinstalled it and it seems fine.

What feature of a CB would cause this behavior?
 
Probably some sort of chip that lodged itself in the breaker that worked its way out when you were handling it.
 
hmm sounds like it’s on the way out then
Never thought to give it a shake
 
A new QO250 breaker runs less $22, HOMs are are even cheaper. Just replace it.
 
Absolutely just replace it.

A few years ago we had our kitchen remodeled. As part of that work we had a subpanel installed because the existing main panel was full. No big deal; the work was completed, the contractors paid, everyone was happy. Right up until the fire started.

I was on a conference call with work one night, as usual, when the entire house went dark. I thought that was odd, since the weather was fine. My neighbors' houses had lights on. Hmm. Time to check the breakers. I opened the basement door and was greeted by smoke and the unmistakable smell of an electrical fire. It's the only time I have ever said that particular word on a conference call. Fortunately the fire was contained to the breaker box, which functioned as it was designed to, cutting off the supply of oxygen so the fire didn't spread.

It turns out that the ganged 50A breaker for the heat pump, which hadn't been changed or messed with (according to the electrician) during the remodel, was the culprit. The insurance adjuster said the electrician wasn't at fault, it was just a bad breaker. I suspect that had there not been any work done in that panel it would still have been fine today. But, we got an entirely new, larger panel, got rid of the subpanel, and now have all new arc fault breakers. Note that I do not recommend this particular path to replacing your circuit breakers.
 
Tip: Hook it up to an arc welder and see if it trips. Video necessary.
 
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