Could this breaker be bad or do we have a Bigger Problem?

Factual Questions
1

Yeah, I know, my house is falling apart. I still haven’t solved my pilot light problem and now we’re having a weird electrical problem.

So, first of all, we are in the midst of Aquacolypse 2015. Historic rain event, half of this city is underwater, streets are flooding that I never imagined could flood. However, we’re snug and dry, no leaks, good drainage, no standing water, and the house is elevated (normal height crawl space in the front slopes to stand up crawl space in the back.)

This morning nothing worked in the living room. We haven’t plugged in anything extra in here in ages - it’s lamps, the outside porch lights, and the TV stuff - variety of boxes, modem, router, etc.

We tried the breaker. It wasn’t physically flipped, but when flipped off and then on everything turned on and then immediately turned back off. We unplugged the TV stuff, same thing. Unplugged everything, same thing.

Could it just be a bad breaker? Is that a thing? Or should I be worried about water in the walls (we see no leaks but I haven’t gone up into the attic - I’m thinking I probably wouldn’t even be able to see a sudden link along the wall there anyway, it’s dark and to get away from the ladder you have to walk on the rafters). Or some sort of bigger problem?

The house was built in 1928 but the wiring was modernized in the 90’s, it isn’t knob and tube.

For now, and since there is no way we are going to te hardware store today without an ark, we unplugged everything, shifted the power strip for the TV to the dining room, and are sheltering in place. Please tell me my house isn’t about to burn down?

2

Breakers can get weak, wherein they trip for less than their normal load.

If you leave the breaker off the house won’t burn down. If you keep fiddling with the breaker, the house might.

If you did want to troubleshoot then …

The thing to do is first turn off 100% of what’s powered by that breaker. If you have things like TVs or other electronic devices that always draws some power, unplug all of them. Then cycle the breaker off and back on. If it trips, you DO have a problem in the house wiring; leave it off & call an electrician when the local flooding emergency winds down a bit.

If the breaker does NOT trip, try turning on one thing at a time. If that thing works and the breaker holds, then turn it back off and try something else. The goal is find the defective item without any other load on the breaker.

If you go across all the stuff in all the room(s) and everything works individually, but the breaker still trips when they’re mostly all on as per normal, then it’s very likely the problem is an aging breaker. In which case, turn it off and call an electrician after the Flood recedes. But meantime you can rest easier that there’s not a real risk hidden in the walls.

3

So if we have everything unplugged and off and we turn the breaker on and it trips, we have an electrician problem, correct? Because we did that and it did.

4

I’d expect you have a more serious issue. When breakers are bad typically they will trip with less than there rated loads. Yours is tripping as though there is a short. Maybe with all your rain some water got in a box.

5

When I had a similar problem, I eventually discovered that the circuit also had a couple of outdoor outlets on it. Water was leaking past the well-worn gaskets on the all-weather housings of those outlets, so the breaker would trip whenever it rained.

The problem was solved by replacing the covers, on a sunny day.

If you have done everything within your ability to take things off the circuit, this is definitely electrician territory. You don’t want to burn your house down.

6

As far as I know all the outdoor stuff is a different breaker, but I guess there are always surprises! I’ve never had to call an electrician, always had my dad on call. I don’t even have the number for a good one.

7

I had a bad breaker once. The spring just gave way or something. I reacted the same way, though - had no idea it could happen and thought my house was gonna burn down! Ended up being an easy fix for The Man. Hope that’s all yours is!

Also, get yourself an Angie’s List subscription now that dad is gone. He would want you to be able to make smart picks!

8

There is a very small area of wet plaster in the living room where it would make sense to be leaking by the chimney flashing. Could be related. Obviously can’t call a roofer today, and it isn’t getting bigger or anything. (Frankly we’re lucky, have you guys seen this crazy ass shit?)

Currently we’re trying to figure how long we can do without water. We let our emergency supplies go, because idiots, so we’ve got a tub full for toilet flushing but only a half gallon of milk for the toddler and a decent sized pot on the stove for us.

9

A tripped breaker is telling you something so take it seriously. I would check the easy stuff first. Shut off the power on the circuit and check the binding screws on each outlet and switch. Make sure they are tight and the wire is secure. Look for evidence of arcing, burning or cracking. If you see anything unusual, just replace the outlet or switch. The breaker could be weak and in need of replacing

10

I once went nuts with a flaky breaker because I found it so hard to imagine that was the problem. Even when all signs pointed to it, I didn’t accept it. In the end, the simplest of simple repairs took much too long because of my stubbornness.

I’ll defer to an electrician if they tell me this is not acceptable practice, but given how inexpensive & simple a breaker replacement is, and since it is tripping under no load, I’d swap it out and see if that does it.

11

If they are willing to open the panel it takes 2 seconds with a multi meter to identify if an actual short exists.

12

Good point. Actually, thinking about it, would you even have to open the panel? With the breaker off, shouldn’t a meter see the short across the hot & return at an outlet?

13

There are often junction boxes in the attic. They are not water tight. Also your ceiling fixtures can gather water from roof leaks.

14

Theoretically yes. I’d always test at the panel.