Electrician Talk banner

I think I need a new breaker

2K views 15 replies 14 participants last post by  dmxtothemax 
#1 · (Edited)
Had a lady phone in saying her breaker was no good. No power in the porch or outside. It had gone "bad" before but the last electrician changed the breaker and that made it better.
I told her it is rarely the breaker and we would come out to look.

This is what happens when you put #14's on a 20 amp federal. It really doesn't help that it was a MWBC and both legs were on one phase (Very common in a federal panel)
Circuit was powering two freezers and two block heaters

 
See less See more
1
#4 ·
The breaker was untripped. Wiring done sometime in the early 90's, with homeowner marrettes. Tape or set screws = handyhack.
I forgot to take a picture of the best part. Two 2104 LLe's boxes bolted together by their nailing brackets to form a "2 gang" complete with built in voltage divider. Genius
 
#9 ·
The breaker wouldn't much matter here. Even good working 15A breakera on a MWBC installed on the same phase will allow a load on neutral with twice the breaker rating. 35-40A on the neutral without tripping wouldn't be unheard of even in a Sq D panel. Two freezers and two block heaters sounds like a lot more than 30A.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top