Over the past several months I keep finding one of my breaker's blown for no apparent reason. The breaker is different than all the rest. Its a 15 amp, but it has a built in GFI reset ****on on it. This circuit controls the garage door opener, all outlets in the garage and both bathrooms. What make it odd is when it blows. In the bathrooms nothing is left plugged in ever. In the garage, the only things plugged in drawing current are a 12 volt power supply for a mini fridge, a TV, and the stereo that always shows a display even when its off. I can be in the garage working with a 500 watt bench light, TV, fan, soldering iron, and using an electric drill all at the same time and it never trips. I usually find that it trips at various times when there is only the minimal load I first mentioned. Do breakers get weak with age? The house was built in 1979. I went to Lowes and could not find another breaker anything like it. Neither of my bathrooms have GCFI outlets. I figure I should swap these out. If I do that, would I just replace the 15 amp with a standard 15 amp breaker? Any ideas?
Breakers do get old and weak. You'll need to put the GFI in the first outlet in the string and put a new 15 amp breaker in the panel. Best to take the breaker out and take it with you when trying to find a replacement as the stabs are different for different panels. hope this helps.
Frank, What the electrician did, was cover 3 areas with 1 GFCI. Every recepticle on that circuit is "GFCI" . In most areas of the country you need them in "wet" locations, including the garage. Yes breakers do wear out over time. Trying to help customers find the reset ****on was sometimes a long drawn out affair when I worked the Repair/ Outage desk for the power company. It's not uncommon for 2 bathrooms to use one resetable recepticle since they also usually share a common wall. If wired correctly, every recepticle down stream is "GFCI" controlled or protected. What your electrician did was just plain CHEAP. Ideally the garage and bathrooms would be on different circuits. Take the breaker with you to Lowes and I'm pretty sure they will have a replacement suitable for your panel. It would be a good idea to get the name of the panel maker as well. Don't forget to kill the main before messing with the breaker!
I know that your GFI is in the breaker, but if you change to a GFI in the first outlet, you may want to check this out. My supplier told me that if you use more than 3 outlets in a string with a GFI, it will trip at random times. Don't know if this is true, but maybe someone else here can confirm that.
If the circuit is wired with #12 wire use a 20 amp breaker. If it is wired with #14 use a 15 amp breaker. Breaker/GFCI combos do not have a particularly good service life reputation. They are a specialty item and you may have to go to an electrical supply store that services the trade to get one. All GFCI are sensitive and subject to "poping" for no apparent reason. Breaker/GFCIs are no exception and may even be more sensitive that outlet GFCIs. 20 amp GFCIs cost about $12.50 each or 3 for $28 at Lowes. As noted, a single GFCI can be used to protect the entire circuit. But if it "pops" you lose power to all outlets/devices on the circuit. I prefer a seperate GFCI for each "wet" outlet. That way a short in a bathroom will not kill power to your mini fridge. Motor start up loads will occasionally "pop" a GFCI. You do not want to plug your garage door opener into a GFCI or GFCI protected circuit. Likewise, you do not want to plug your fridge or freezer into a GFCI protected circuit. An undetected "pop" can shut down your refrigerator or freezer and if you are away you could have a real mess when you return. Whenever possible, refrigerators and freezers should be serviced by dedicated circuits.
Capacitive and inductive loads have different current phases than other loads, and can mess up GFI protected devices. The GFI breaker makes sure that the current going into the wires is the same as the current coming out of the wires. You might think these are always equal, but if there is a short to ground, say through a hairdryer tossed in the bathtub, the current goes in and comes back someplace else... the point is, GFI outlets are there for a reason, and if it was my house, I would replace the breaker with a standard one, and put in GFI outlets everywhere required by code. David
I would also take the time and find out what each breaker controls. I did this and found one breaker that controlled three rooms lights and outlets, and another that controlled two light switches. You or an electrician can then "spread out" the wiring more. I had an old window shaker a/c that would trip the breaker every couple days until I did this, never had a problem since.
Put the fridge on another circuit and I bet your problem will go away. Refigerators, mostly outdoors and garages, play hell on GFCI breakers, seen it many a time. There's a lot of condensate under them and the least bit of current leakage and the GFCI will do its thing.
I hear THAT! I'm in the process of changing out a 60 amp fuse box with five fuses for a 200 amp breaker box that has 20 breakers at last count, and I'm not done yet!
I have a similar problem in my garage. The garage and utility room are on a standard breaker but there is one GFI outlet that will cut everything out at random. That outlet is nowhere near water. What a pain in the ***!
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