How to Tell if a Breaker is Bad

There will undoubtedly come a time in your electrical career where you will need to troubleshoot a bad breaker. How do you go about diagnosing whether or not a breaker is bad?

SPONSOR:
https://www.bigelectricsupply.com
Make sure you use Coupon Code ELECTRICIANU for a 15% discount on all products

🤘⚡️MEMBERSHIP⚡️🤘
JOIN ELECTRICIAN U - become a member and get:
FREE Continuing Education every year
FREE Practice Exams
FREE Monthly Video Courses
FREE Monthly Educational News Letter
Premium Members-Only Content
Private Discord Channel
Monthly Members-Only Discord Chats
Sign up here --- https://www.electricianu.com/

✍️👨‍🎓LIVE CLASSES👨‍🎓✍️
https://www.electricianu.com/live-online-electrical-classes/

👾🤖PRACTICE EXAMS🤖👾
https://electricianu.com/electrician-practice-exams-national-electrical-code/

😎👕MERCH👕😎
https://electricianu.com/eu-merch/

📲👥SOCIALS👥📲
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/electrician_u
Discord - https://discord.gg/electricianu
Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/theelectricianu
Facebook Group - https://bit.ly/2tz7eQh
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/?electricianu
Reddit- https://www.reddit.com/r/ElectricianU/
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/electrician_u
LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/company/electricianu

🎧🎹MUSIC AND VIDEO:🎹🎧
https://www.facebook.com/descantmv

🎬✍️ART AND ILLUSTRATION:✍️🎬
https://www.daverussoart.com

Over the course of a circuit-breaker's life it can become damaged. It is a simple mechanical object that always has a certain level of heat it's experiencing, when current is flowing through it. So excessive heat can cause the components inside to weaken over time. Moisture and extreme fluctuations in temperature can also cause breakers to fail over time.

For non-general-use breakers such as smart-breakers, AFCI, GFCI, Dual Function, and shunt-trip breakers, they may have additional internal computer boards and components that can fail too. Many times these utilize more intricate/weaker secondary components that fail more often than the primary components of the breaker.

There are several ways to diagnose a bad breaker, including a simple visual inspection of the handle, the terminal, and the back side of the breaker where it attaches to the panel's busbar. Often times you'll see signs of melted plastic where excess heating occurs, and it's usually where there's a termination or a point where two things are making contact. Other things to watch out for are a breaker not tripping when it is intentionally short circuited. Lastly, if there are no physical signs of damage to the breaker, you can test the internal circuitry of the breaker by testing the terminals with a multimeter. The breaker should have voltage from the output terminal to ground and/or neutral. If it is a 2-pole or 3-pole breaker there should be voltage between each of the terminals of the breaker - typically around 208-240volts from terminal to terminal.

#breakers #circuitbreaker #shortcircuit