[Lowcountrydave]

My bedroom breaker (((trips ever so often.))) But today it has tripped 4 times. I believe the outlets and possible the light/ceiling fan are on that breaker. The only things on in the room are:

Carbon Mon tester
Baby monitor
Box fan
Dehumidifier (BRAND NEW- bought yesterday) defective?

I unplugged the fan. Reset breaker, pop. Wife is using a dehumidifier. It was plugged into the same outlet as baby monitor. Tripped, so I unplugged monitor. Still tripped breaker.

Breaker is a 20 amp Square D, House was built in 2008/2009. Any ideas?

Thanks Dave

 

[frenchelectrican]

Any chance is your bedroom circuit is protected with Arc Fault breaker ?

I am pretty sure you will have one in there due you mention the year of the house builted.

Unplug everything and I mean all the affect items and reset the AFCI breaker and see if that hold.

Merci,
Marc

 

[tibberous]

I just tripped mine by running the microwave, and the breaker is screwed up so you can't tell when it's tripped -- took me 20+ minutes to find it, reset all my goddamn clocks and reconnect my internet. I'm replacing it with a 30 amp tomorrow - I doubt it's going to catch fire in the 3 minutes it takes to make a hot pocket.

****ing hate that microwave - it must draw like 19 amps itself.

 

[frenchelectrican]

I just tripped mine by running the microwave, and the breaker is screwed up so you can't tell when it's tripped -- took me 20+ minutes to find it, reset all my goddamn clocks and reconnect my internet. I'm replacing it with a 30 amp tomorrow - I doubt it's going to catch fire in the 3 minutes it takes to make a hot pocket.

****ing hate that microwave - it must draw like 19 amps itself.

Whoa , Whoa., stop right there for a minuite please do not install the 30 amp breaker at all this is not a best move at all for safety reason.

Did you try to move the microwave oven to differnt kitchen countertop circuit it may help some.

What else beside the circuit in the kitchen is allready affected did the living room or bedroom went out or what ?

And the other question is this is your house or apartment ?

Merci,
Marc

 

[tibberous]

Whoa , Whoa., stop right there for a minuite please do not install the 30 amp breaker at all this is not a best move at all for safety reason.

Did you try to move the microwave oven to differnt kitchen countertop circuit it may help some.

What else beside the circuit in the kitchen is allready affected did the living room or bedroom went out or what ?

And the other question is this is your house or apartment ?

Merci,
Marc

As dumb as this sounds, I just ended up putting a post-it on the microwave buttons that says "Turn off coffee pot"

 

[Lowcountrydave]

Any chance is your bedroom circuit is protected with Arc Fault breaker ?

I am pretty sure you will have one in there due you mention the year of the house builted.

Unplug everything and I mean all the affect items and reset the AFCI breaker and see if that hold.

Merci,
Marc

Hi Frenchelectrician, I looked at the breakers. Thanks to you I learned something new! They are AFIC breakers. The 3 bedrooms each have a reset button on the breaker. Only the bedrooms have them. Next question...

Whats the possibility there is a loose connection in that particular room?

Dave

 

[COLDIRON]

@ tibberous, Pick a spot for the Microwave and install a circuit for it.

Quit messing around with different size breakers and coffee pots.

DO IT NOW DAM IT.:furious::furious::furious:

 

[Jim Port]

LCD, you may have a loose connection that shows up under the load from the dehumidifer or the appliance itself may be the issue. Move it to another circuit and see if the problem follows. If so the problem is the appliance, if not look in the circuit.

 

[joecaption]

I'd be checking to see if they back stabed the outlets instead of wrapping around the screws.

 

[k_buz]

Trouble shoot AFCI's can be a royal PITA especially if it's intermittent. I would start by unplugging the dehumidifier. I would then unplug things one at a time to try to narrow the problem down. I've heard that plasma TV's are hell on AFCI's.

 

[bernie963]

lcd,

humidifier or dehumidifier??? big difference in current draw. Being winter and in a babies room I suspect it is a humidifier.

follow advice about checking back tab and all connections. shut breaker off first. repeat shut breaker off first.

bernie

 

[Lowcountrydave]

Update...

lcd,

humidifier or dehumidifier??? big difference in current draw. Being winter and in a babies room I suspect it is a humidifier.

follow advice about checking back tab and all connections. shut breaker off first. repeat shut breaker off first.

bernie

Ok here is my troubleshooting. Turned off breaker. Verified no current to all 8 outlets in Master bedroom. Pulled each outlet out carefully not to disturb the connections. Found all 8 bare ground connections with wire ties loose. As in the ground runs through the wire nut hole then is twisted to the next ground. Wire nut would easily spin around. NOT tightened down on the wrapped grounds. The wrapped grounds weren't twisted tight enough to make a good connection.

Found two of the green ground screws loose! All outlet wires were connected using the screws. Not back stabbed. Correct on the humidifier. Actually being used for my wife as she has a pretty good cold right now.

***In the defense of the electrician who wired the house originally***

Thinking back now my contractor offered at a price, to install all switches and outlets. He was trying to keep the money in his own pocket which I can understand. But there are a few things in the house he should not have attempted to complete. Like the stairs that have no skirt board installed at all!!! Or the fact that the banister and mounting plates don't come anywhere near lining up with the bottom post. All fix that down the road. Also had a generic extension cord that I was able to trip the breaker while inserting and reinserting a phone charger cord. Terminals didn't really have much tension against them until you were fully in.

Currently running are:

Baby monitor
Carbon Mon tester
Humidifier
Box fan

Thanks for the help and replys guy. I love to troubleshoot anything and usually fare well with my repairs.

 

[frenchelectrican]

Ok here is my troubleshooting. Turned off breaker. Verified no current to all 8 outlets in Master bedroom. Pulled each outlet out carefully not to disturb the connections. Found all 8 bare ground connections with wire ties loose. As in the ground runs through the wire nut hole then is twisted to the next ground. Wire nut would easily spin around. NOT tightened down on the wrapped grounds. The wrapped grounds weren't twisted tight enough to make a good connection.

Found two of the green ground screws loose! All outlet wires were connected using the screws. Not back stabbed. Correct on the humidifier. Actually being used for my wife as she has a pretty good cold right now.

***In the defense of the electrician who wired the house originally***

Thinking back now my contractor offered at a price, to install all switches and outlets. He was trying to keep the money in his own pocket which I can understand. But there are a few things in the house he should not have attempted to complete. Like the stairs that have no skirt board installed at all!!! Or the fact that the banister and mounting plates don't come anywhere near lining up with the bottom post. All fix that down the road. Also had a generic extension cord that I was able to trip the breaker while inserting and reinserting a phone charger cord. Terminals didn't really have much tension against them until you were fully in.

Currently running are:

Baby monitor
Carbon Mon tester
Humidifier
Box fan

Thanks for the help and replys guy. I love to troubleshoot anything and usually fare well with my repairs.

Did you any chance you have plug in power strip ? if so try to unplug that as well to see if that do stop the AFCI tripping.

Really I feel more likely Humidifer is causing the issue so you will have to do the test one at time to see which one causing the AFCI to trip.

Merci,
Marc

 

[Lowcountrydave]

Hey Frenchelectrician,

I did have a cheaply made extension cord that I was able to trip the breaker once. But wasn't able to repeat the trip. I won't be using it anymore. But in the past the vacuum tripped it also. Will see.... ceiling fan is also running now.

Thanks Dave

 

[bernie963]

glad you found loose grounds and tighten them. However, loose or no grounds will not trip a breaker (from where I sit). to trip a breaker, there must be an overload. or in case of an arc fault an arc.

something isn't right. do you still have the problem???

bernie

 

[Lowcountrydave]

We made it through the night without tripping the breaker. I really think it was the cheap extension cord. You know when the terminal of an electrical cord doesn't have sufficient drag when you plug it in? Making good contact. I'm almost positive it was the arc from the loose phone charger to ext. Cord that caused my problem. Will see though.

Dave

 

[frenchelectrican]

Hey Frenchelectrician,

I did have a cheaply made extension cord that I was able to trip the breaker once. But wasn't able to repeat the trip. I won't be using it anymore. But in the past the vacuum tripped it also. Will see.... ceiling fan is also running now.

Thanks Dave

The vaccum cleaners are good for tripping the AFCI's espcally with early generation AFCI's. The later models are better.

Cheap extendison cord are good for causing issue as well.

Merci,
Marc